May 12, 2024
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Councilman Guerrero, warehouse workers want business to pay more as Joliet water rates go up

City projects monthly water bills will triple by 2030

By Bob Okon

Joliet residents Denise Ibarra and Nick Domberg hold anti-Amazon signs at a news conference outside Joliet City Hall on Monday calling for warehouse operators to pay higher water rates to offset future rates Joliet residents will have to pay. (Bob Okon)

A Joliet councilman and warehouse workers’ organization are calling on the city to shift a larger share of future water bills to large industrial water users.

The call for businesses to pay more comes as Joliet expects monthly water bills to triple by 2030 when the city will shift from deep-water wells it has used for a century to Lake Michigan water.

City officials have said they intend to develop a plan to provide relief to residents who may need help with future water bills.

Councilman Cesar Guerrero listens to community comment during the Joliet Prison Committee meeting on Tuesday, May 25, 2021, at Joliet City Hall in Joliet, Ill. The Joliet Prison Committee met to consider a user agreement for Mark Grabavoy, a resident who has been clearing trees and trash in a wooded area outside the Old Joliet Prison with no written agreement.

Councilman Cesar Guerrero at a May meeting of the Joliet City Council Prison Committee. (Geoff Stellfox - gstellfox@shawmedia.com)

Councilman Cesar Guerrero, who was elected in April after a campaign that made future water bills a main issue, and Warehouse Workers for Justice said at a news conference Monday that it was time to consider higher water rates for large industrial users as part of the plan.

Amazon, which has two distribution facilities in Joliet, was the target of many of the comments and signs at the news conference.

“Amazon and others like them can afford to pay just a little bit more, so our working citizens won’t have to make that decision between paying their light bill, their gas bill or their water bill,” Guerrero said.

Anti-Amazon sign displayed at news conference on Monday at which Warehouse Workers for Justice called for higher water rates for Joliet warehouses to offset rates residents will have to pay as the city switches to Lake Michigan water. (Bob Okon)

Monthly water bills are expected to rise to $88 by 2030 and to $138 by 2040, in large part to help pay for the delivery of Lake Michigan water.

City officials, however, project that Joliet water bills will remain moderate compared to surrounding communities as water rates rise everywhere to cover the cost of infrastructure needs and the challenge of finding new sources of water.

Joliet plans to switch from the deep wells now providing water to the city to a Lake Michigan system by 2030.

Joliet plans to switch from the deep wells now providing water to the city to a Lake Michigan system by 2030.

The aquifer that Joliet now uses for its water supply is projected to no longer meet peak demands in the city by 2030.

But Warehouse Workers of Justice contends that the city’s large warehouses use a disproportionate amount of the water and should pay a disproportionate amount of future water bills.

They want large businesses to pay a higher rate for water than homeowners pay.

“We want to target the biggest businesses,” Roberto Clack, executive director with Warehouse Workers for Justice, said. “We specifically think a lot of the warehouses got tax breaks. People like Amazon, who are making record profits, if they paid a marginal increase, it would affect some of the water rates.”

Roberto Clack, executive director for Watehouse Workers for Justice, (right) before the start of a news conference on Monday when the organization called for higher water rates to be charged to large warehouses to offset the rates residents will pay as the city switches to Lake Michigan water. (Bob Okon)

Clack said the city should also consider higher water rates for the future Compass Global Logistics Hub that NorthPoint Development intends to build.

“Some of the biggest water users are warehouses and logistics companies,” Clack said. “There needs to be a plan to charge more to the new developments, if they come, to offset the water rates.”