Montgomery OKs resolution naming DuPage Water Commission as village’s choice for new water supplier

The village of Montgomery is officially looking to Lake Michigan as its future water source and to the DuPage Water Commission to provide it to the village.

In unanimous ballot Monday evening, Dec, 13, the board adopted a resolution identifying the DWC as the village’s preferred water supply option.

The board’s vote capped years of study by village staff and consultants on a new water source for the village to replace the water the village now pumps daily from the deep sandstone aquifer that lies under the village and most of the lower Fox Valley area.

The Illinois State Water Survey has determined that the water level in the aquifer is dropping and may not be able to meet local demand by 2050. That information prompted village officials along with their counterparts in neighboring Oswego and Yorkville, who also pump their water from the deep well aquifer, to begin joint and separate studies of potential new water sources for their respective communities.

The Oswego Village Board and Yorkville City Council are both scheduled to meet Tuesday evening, Dec. 14, and adopt similar resolutions indicating their desire to obtain Lake Michigan water through the DWC under terms of a joint agreement with Montgomery.

In a memo to the board, Jeff Zoephel, village administrator, said the resolution declares the village’s desire to work with Yorkville and Oswego officials to split costs related to connecting to the DWC through an intergovernmental agreement, and that they will work with local state representatives to modify state statutes to allow the three communities to join the DWC.

The resolutions states the municipalities will also work with the DWC to draft intergovernmental agreements to join the commission and connect to their water system.

Each of the municipalities will also obtain necessary state permits to utilize Lake Michigan water, work together to develop a financing plan and “anything else necessary to connect to the DWC system and use their (lake) water,” according to the memo.

Joining the DWC, however, will come at a significant cost to the village, Oswego and Yokville, and the water customers in the three municipalities.

The current average monthly water bill for Montgomery residents is $48.80. But that figure is expected to double to an estimated $97.21 by 2030 when the village will be receiving lake water from the DWC, according to a study prepared for the village by Engineering Enterprises, Inc., the village’s engineering consultants.

The water rate hike will be needed in part to cover the village’s cost for infrastructure improvements needed to connect to the DWC.

Montgomery Village President Matt Brolley described the board’s vote to approve the resolution as historic and told board members he continues to believe it will be the most significant vote they will take during their time on the board.

Brolley also described the board’s vote as “taking a huge step towards assuring we will have sustainable, reliable water for generations to come in Montgomery.”

Brolley thanked staff members and elected officials in Oswego and Yorkville for their work and cooperation in studying the new water source options with the Montgomery’s staff and consultants.

Brolley said the three municipalities “worked together to solve a problem together.”

Board member Theresa Sperling noted the need for the village to find a new water source has been on the board’s radar and a topic for studies dating back seven years. She said it seemed almost surreal that the board had finally reached a point where it could vote to select a new water source.

“I feel like this is the completion of seven-year long discussion,” board member Steve Jungermann said. “For the veteran board members here, this is the thing we have probably discussed the most. We’ve spent hours going through water study after water study.”

Board member Tom Betsinger said he appreciated all the work the current and prior boards and village staff had done in studying the new water source options over the years and acknowledged that obtaining water through the DWC will come at a considerable cost to the village and for Oswego and Yorkville.

Betsginer said the cost estimates prompted him to consider the value of water.

“285 years ago Benjamin Franklin said, ‘You’ll know the value of water once the well runs dry,’” Betsinger said. “We are not going to let the well run dry. The community will have sustainable water.”