Yorkville voting on 20% annual water rate hikes

With the $100 million Lake Michigan water sourcing project already under construction, the new water coming down the pipeline to Yorkville could come at double the cost over the next five years.

To help pay for the project, city council is considering approval of around 20% annual average water bill increases over the next five years. If they approve the hike on June 24, the new billing cycle will start July 1. Yorkville charges bi-monthly billing fees.

City Administrator Bart Olson said the city considered multiple payment structures, each with a different blend of average residential water users, high residential users, restaurants, and large commercial users sharing a portion of the total rate hike.

In a presentation before city council, Olson said spreading out the costs over five years is designed to reduce the burden on individual users.

“When you delay increases over a five-year period and smooth them out, you give more people the chance to move in and pay those fees, so you’re spreading out the cost to more residents, hopefully reducing the burden on individual people,” Olson said.

If approved, the base rate will jump from $49.50 to $58.27. Any water usage past 350 cubic feet in a billing cycle is billed an extra volumetric rate per 100 cubic feet. That rate would also jump from $5.80 to $7.28.

Average homes in Yorkville, about 41% of all water users, use between 351 cubic feet and 1,000 cubic feet in a billing cycle.

This means the average Yorkville home will first see a 21% increase from a $106 bi-monthly rate to $128. In five years, they would pay a $210 bi-monthly rate. Over a five-year period, the average home will pay an average annual bill of $926, for a total of $4,630 over that five years.

The more significant water consumers, are restaurants with an average of 10,000 cubic feet of water used in a billing cycle, and large commercial users using an average of 70,000 cubic feet in a billing cycle.

Over the five-year period, restaurants would have an average annual bill of $6,987, for a total of $34,936. Large commercial users would have an average annual bill of $47,394, with a total of $236,968.

All rate hikes combined, the city is projecting a 25% increase in collected water revenues from $5,6000,000 to $7,000,000 over the next year. The following year would also see a 25% increase in revenue, followed by three consecutive years of $20% increases, for a total of $15,200,000 in fiscal year 2030.

“If we get money from large commercial users or data centers, that can be put toward water rates and actually offset a lot of that,” Olson said.

Olson said while the proposal is for a five-year plan, the federal Water Infrastructure Finance and innovation Act loan (WIFIA) the city is using to help pay for the project, requires a 40-year plan as well.

The first Lake Michigan water should be reaching Yorkville residents by 2028. The water connection project is a joint venture by Yorkville, Oswego, and Montgomery, to construct pipelines and connect to the current water infrastructure currently in DuPage county.

The project was deemed necessary because immense population growth in the region is resulting in unsustainable usage of the underground aquifer from which the region currently sources its water.