Water commission: Romeoville could make 6

The makeup of a new regional commission for Lake Michigan water could be set next week when Romeoville votes whether to join.

Romeoville would become the sixth and final member of the commission that the city of Joliet began to form more than a year ago with the goal of sharing the costs of Lake Michigan water while making it available to more communities.

Municipalities committed to join the commission are Joliet, Channahon, Crest Hill, Shorewood and Minooka.

Village staff is recommending that Romeoville join the regional water commission, said Village Manager Dawn Caldwell.

“After extensive research, it’s the lowest-cost option to the village that provides a reliable source of water,” Caldwell said.

Romeoville would be be the second-largest water user in the commission, a key consideration in a group formed to create economies of scale to spread the cost of the Lake Michigan water project.

Joliet has estimated the total cost of the project as high as $810 million, based on 2020 dollars. The city a year ago agreed to a system that would bring Lake Michigan water treated by the city of Chicago to the Joliet area.

At that time, Joliet was talking with 11 communities about the formation of a water commission to share the costs and benefits of Lake Michigan water.

Those communities include Lemont, where officials say they are not ready to make a commitment by the end of February, a timeline set by Joliet.

The timeline is based on Joliet’s goal of converting to Lake Michigan water by 2030.

Like other communities in the commission, Joliet relies on wells and aquifers for a water supply that is seen as becoming less reliable in coming decades. The Illinois State Water Survey estimates that the deep aquifer now used by Joliet will not be able to meet the city’s peak water demands by 2030.

Romeoville Mayor John Noak said the village’s combination of deep-water and shallow wells is predicted to serve the city until at least 2040.

“We all came to the same conclusion from the State Water Survey that we have to do something,” Noak said.

Unlike some of the other communities in the commission, Romeoville has options because of its proximity to other systems that supply Lake Michigan water. Romeoville also would be able to connect to the DuPage Water Commission or Illinois American Water, which supplies Plainfield and Bolingbrook.

“For us, it’s not so much the Lake Michigan option, it’s which Lake Michigan option,” Noak said.

Three communities that had been talking with Joliet a year ago about joining the regional commission – Yorkville, Oswego and Montgomery – have since turned to the DuPage Water Commission, likely because of location and the costs of pipeline construction, which Noak called “one of your biggest variables.”

Romeoville estimates the cost of switching to Lake Michigan water as part of the regional water commission at about $95 million.

Channahon became the fifth member of the regional water commission on Monday when its Village Board approved membership.

The costs of Lake Michigan water are estimated to run Channahon between $70 million and $80 million over 20 years, Village Administrator Thomas Durkin said.

Channahon looked at other options, including the nearby Illinois and Kankakee rivers. Despite the proximity of river water, costs would have included construction of a treatment plant and were estimated at between $80 million and $85 million.

“We think the regional water commission is the option that is the most sustainable, the most cost-efficient,” Durkin said.

Joliet also looked at connecting to the Illinois River or Kankakee River before opting for Lake Michigan water.