Joliet takes Chicago route for Lake Michigan water

Joliet will go through Chicago to get water from Lake Michigan.

The Joliet City Council voted, 7-1, on Thursday to buy future water from the city of Chicago, rejecting an alternative to build the city’s own pipeline to Indiana.

The vote starts a process in which Joliet will design and build a system to connect with the Chicago Department of Water Management and bring Lake Michigan water 31 miles from the Eugene Sawyer Purification Plant on the lake to Joliet faucets by 2030.

The city expects to spend between $592 million and $810 million on the project depending on the capacity of the system. Joliet is talking with 11 other communities about the possibility of creating a regional water system.

Council member Pat Mudron (right) listens to a presentation highlighting the process used to vet potential water supply partners on Thursday, Jan. 28, 2021, at Joliet City Hall in Joliet, Ill. (Geoff Stellfox - gstellfox@shawmedia.com/Geoff Stellfox - gstellfox@shawmedia.com)

Monthly water bills in Joliet now in the range of $31 are expected to rise to by 2030 to $88 and to $138 by 2040, in large part to help pay for the delivery of Lake Michigan water.

The Indiana options was estimated to cost more than $1 billion to build with higher water rates than the Chicago option. But both were expected to roughly triple water rates by 2030.

The city of Chicago recently renegotiated a proposed rate structure to lower the rates Joliet would pay to buy water from the Chicago water department. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot came to Joliet in December to lead a presentation to the City Council.

Council member Bettye Gavin explains her vote in favor of partnering with the city of Chicago as a water supply on Thursday, Jan. 28, 2021, at Joliet City Hall in Joliet, Ill. The council voted in favor of partnering with Chicago for Joliet's water supply source. (Geoff Stellfox - gstellfox@shawmedia.com/Geoff Stellfox - gstellfox@shawmedia.com)

“This is to make sure that the residents are going to have quality, sustainable water,” council member Bettye Gavin said before voting for the Chicago option.

The lone vote against the Chicago water plan was Larry Hug, who made a motion in favor of the Indiana option. But no one else seconded Hug’s motion, leaving the council to next vote on the Chicago plan.

Council member Larry Hug was the lone vote against the Chicago option, favoring a separate plan for the city to build its own pipeline to Indiana. (Geoff Stellfox - gstellfox@shawmedia.com/Geoff Stellfox - gstellfox@shawmedia.com)

Hug contended that the Indiana option would be less expensive over time because Joliet would have control of its own water system and rates.

Mayor Bob O’Dekirk noted that the city has been working on an alternative water source since he brought the issue forward in 2017 after being alerted by a former mayor of Aurora about regional water issues affecting Joliet.

Joliet Mayor Bob O'Dekirk — Mayor Bob O'Dekirk awaits the City Council vote on the water supply plan on Thursday, Jan. 28, 2021, at Joliet City Hall in Joliet, Ill. The council voted in favor of partnering with the city of Chicago for Joliet's water supply source. (Geoff Stellfox - gstellfox@shawmedia.com/Geoff Stellfox - gstellfox@shawmedia.com)

“I’m proud to be part of the solution and part of the people who are going to provide the solution and not just kick the can down the road, as has been done in the past,” O’Dekirk said.

Over past decades, the city has considered water options off and on in light of forecasts that the aquifer used to supply well water Joliet eventually would be depleted.

The Illinois State Water Survey, an agency of engineers that does modeling for water sources, has made forecasts as recently as 2020 that Joliet’s deep wells will no longer supply enough water to meet peak demand by 2030.

“To put it bluntly, if we did nothing our wells on the far West Side would fail,” Utilities Director Allison Swisher said.