In the wake of Chicago’s 25 percent increase in water rates this year, Evanston officials are marketing the city’s Lake Michigan water to a few affected municipalities.
“Chicago just recently announced that they’re going to have four more rate increases and with those rate increases, it appears that now Evanston is a much more favorable source of purchase water,” said Dave Stoneback, the city’s utility director. “It’s definitely an option for them.”
Stoneback said the city is currently assessing interest among Des Plaines, Lincolnwood, Morton Grove, Niles and Park Ridge, as well as the Northwest Suburban Municipal Joint Action Water Agency, a company that funnels water from Chicago to seven suburbs.
“There would be a design for transitioning and determining the cost of the transition,” Stoneback said, adding it is too soon to speculate how much revenue the project could generate for Evanston.
City officials first approached the municipalities two years ago, following three consecutive years of 15 percent water rate increases from Chicago, Stoneback said. For the next three years, water rates will rise by 15 percent, according to the City of Chicago’s website.
The nearby communities seem to be interested in the proposed plan, Stoneback said. But before moving forward, they must engage in a feasibility study.
Jim Hock, city manager of Park Ridge, said the Park Ridge City Council would have to approve that study. Evanston and Park Ridge have expressed interest in working together, he said, but Park Ridge officials are looking to Evanston to secure commitment from Des Plaines before moving forward.
“Financially, it wouldn’t save us any money if only Park Ridge was going to do this,” he said.
Stoneback said Evanston will have to perform a cost analysis to determine what it would charge to the cities.
Calls to the Des Plaines public works department were not returned last week.
Changing Park Ridge’s water supplier would come at a time when Chicago’s hike in water rates “is pretty dramatic over a short period of time,” Hock said.
“So, we’ll consider alternatives,” he said. “It’s our responsibility as appointed officials to explore ways we can decrease costs, improve efficiencies and pass that on to the residents. “
If the project progresses, Evanston may need to improve its water transition main, depending on the number of municipalities that choose to participate, Stoneback said.
Currently, Evanston provides water to Skokie and the Northwest Water Commission, which then supplies water to Arlington Heights, Buffalo Grove, Palatine and Wheeling.
