Wonder Lake village officials say they never told anyone at the McHenry Township Fire Protection District they could not use Stonewater subdivision hydrants to fight fires there.

Instead, Village President Dan Dycus said, he believes comments made by a water department employee during a Feb. 21 fire response were misunderstood. That confusion led to a letter from the fire district to the village questioning its water system and demanding answers, he said.

“That is the best understanding I have been able to come up with,” Dycus said.

The letter, dated March 5, came from the fire district’s attorney. It states “that District personnel have been advised by Village Officials to not use those hydrants during fire response operations.”

The letter went on to request confirmation on Stonewater’s water system status, including whether the hydrants provide adequate fire flow and whether there are any restrictions on those hydrants, and for the answers to be provided in writing within the week, or sooner.

“I told [the fire chief] on the phone ... that was an aggressive way to ask questions” about the Stonewater system, Village Administrator William Beith said.

To allay fears, the village had a fire flow test conducted on Friday. Hydrants throughout the system were tested to determine the pressure available in the system, with Horist on site. One nonworking hydrant in the system was also discovered and will be replaced.

According to the study, the 10 hydrants checked were rated AA or A. They are available on the village website.

The question of whether the massive subdivision’s water system is adequate for fire response has become a flashpoint on social media. A deluge of Freedom of Information Requests to the village – including anonymous requests – have asked for voluminous information regarding the village’s two, separate water systems.

The village has one system for the Stonewater subdivision that is being extended to Hancock Drive and one on the west side of the lake. The western area includes water systems built in two newer subdivisions on either side of the formerly private T.P. Mathews system, which the village purchased two decades ago.

“People started doing their own research,” Dycus said of the online fracas, adding residents used two different measurements from Illinois Environmental Protection Agency reports – and even from the other water system on the west side of Wonder Lake – to form opinions on the Stonewater system.

The question of Stonewater’s fire readiness started with a Feb. 21 fire on Winterberry Trail. While firefighters were still on the scene, village officials were called to determine if the house should be condemned, Dycus said.

That’s when a water department employee discovered an alarm at the water treatment building, warning that the system’s pumps dropped below 40 psi, Dycus said. The system is targeted to supply hydrants at 52 psi.

That alarm showed “something happened. There was a demand on the system. That demand was the fire trucks using water,” he said.

Fire District Chief Rudy Horist said he was not aware of any complaint from crews regarding a drop in water pressure during that fire, nor did the final fire report note any issues with water availability.

Dycus doesn’t know who said it at the time, but someone mentioned the fire district’s water use may have outpaced what is allowed by village ordinance.

“It was a cautionary statement that they may have used more water than the ordinance allows,” he said.

It is common for municipalities to have limitations in their ordinances on water use – even for fire districts. For Wonder Lake, that ordinance calls for a limit of 1,000 gallons a minute for up to two hours for a residential fire, 2,000 gallons a minute for a townhouse fire and 2,500 gallons a minute for a commercial structure fire.

“The mains that run through that neighborhood are not designed for more than 1,000 gallons a minute,” Dycus said.

Horist said the attorney’s letter was sent following “a discussion with the village recently that gave rise to some questions ... regarding fire flow and the hydrant system in Stonewater.”

Horist said he didn’t know if the hydrant information came from the village manager, village president or the water superintendent. He referred further questions about the hydrants and the letter to Wonder Lake officials.

What the test initially told them already is that the system in Stonewater – where 700 homes are finished out of the 3,400 to 3,700 planned – needs additional tweaks, Beith said.

“We are doing continuous improvements. It is not an uncommon situation” for a water system in a new subdivision that is constantly adding more homes, Beith said.