Yorkville, Oswego, Montgomery seek state permit to tap into Lake Michigan

Critical to the plans of Yorkville, Oswego and Montgomery municipal officials to bring Lake Michigan water to their communities will be a permit from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.

Oswego and Montgomery representatives have already gone before the IDNR for hearings to make their case, while Yorkville city leaders are scheduled to meet with officials of the state agency on Oct. 21.

Yorkville engineering consultant Brad Sanderson of Sugar Grove-based Engineering Enterprises, Inc., said the application process is lengthy and that Oswego and Montgomery officials faced tough questioning from IDNR.

Meanwhile, the three communities are working to establish an intergovernmental agreement among themselves for construction of a water pipeline, Sanderson said.

The DuPage Water Commission, the agency through which the three communities will tap into the lake, is expected to conduct a formal study early next year to determine the route of the pipeline, Sanderson said.

Construction of the pipeline from Naperville to Oswego, Montgomery and finally Yorkville will be a massive engineering project.

After months of investigation and deliberation, all three municipalities decided late last year to connect with the DuPage system, rather than tapping into the Fox River or to use other sources to access Lake Michigan water.

The new water source is needed because the aquifer supplying the wells now used by the three communities is being depleted at a rapid pace.

The Illinois State Water Survey reports that without taking action, the three communities would be at “severe risk” of meeting water demand by 2050.

Sanderson said the municipalities are on track for making the Lake Michigan connection by 2027 or 2028.

Last spring Gov. JB Pritzker signed a bill allowing the three communities to connect with the DuPage system.

Sponsored by State Rep. Keith Wheeler, R-Oswego, the legislation provides the three municipalities with two representatives on the DuPage Water Commission board, which currently consists of 13 members.

One representative will be appointed by the DuPage County Board chairman, the other by a majority vote of the mayors of the three municipalities.

The intergovernmental agreement between the three municipalities will include provisions to split the cost of extending the pipeline from the DuPage water network.

Hooking up to the DuPage system will be expensive. There is not only the pipeline itself, but construction of water storage tanks.

Yorkville alone was last year estimating its capital cost at $94 million, but Sanderson said the price tag will certainly be higher.

The communities will need to comply with a city of Chicago requirement to have enough storage capacity for a two-day supply of water, in case of supply disruptions.

The pipeline will enter Yorkville at two locations. Ground storage tanks will be constructed near the existing water tower in the Grande Reserve subdivision, the other close to the tower in the Raintree Village neighborhood near Yorkville Middle School.

The city of Yorkville has already implemented what is expected to be only the first of several phased-in water rate increases to pay for the project.

By 2030, the typical Yorkville household may be expected to pay $100 per month for water.