After five years in Hawthorn Woods, Russell Halvorson has gotten used to high water bills, which recently increased again.
How high? He estimates his current bills average about $230 a month and spike to more than $330 during irrigation season.
“My water bill is higher than all my utilities combined,” he said. “Honestly, I try to avoid looking at the bill.”
In Hawthorn Woods, Halvorson is among about 1,200 Aqua Illinois customers, the second-largest privately-owned water utility in the state. And for the foreseeable future, all are in the pickle of not having a viable alternative.
Certainly, no one likes the higher bills although most customers in the village haven’t been as consistently vocal as Halvorson.
“It’s incredibly frustrating to feel trapped in a utility arrangement where there is no competition, no recourse and no urgency to resolve the problem,” he wrote in an email to village officials, who have heard from him before.
Aqua Illinois, a private water provider, services about 1,200 homes in Hawthorn Woods.
Mick Zawislak/mzawislak@dailyherald.com
Some of those officials also are Aqua customers. They are keenly aware of the situation and say finding a long-term, viable solution is a priority.
“I’m one of those people. It’s not them versus us,” said Pam Newton, chief operating officer. “We’re all in this together.”
About a third of Hawthorn Woods households get their water from Aqua, with about 300 of those customers receiving it from Aqua through a contract with Lake County. The rest in town are on wells and generally happy with that arrangement, Newton said.
Because it is not a villagewide situation, a long-term solution to water issues is a complicated and lengthy undertaking, Newton said.
“We’ll do what we can within our powers but we have to work within the rules,” she said. Because the village is not home rule, for example, a referendum would be needed, she added.
“We can’t blanket tax everybody to bring in a water system,” Newton said.
Halvorson says he pays taxes for schools, roads and other things he may not use directly and that a water system would be a strategic investment in the village’s property values and future that all can share.
Other considerations include a Lake County Health Department rule that residents can’t install their own wells when access to water is available, according to Newton.
The focus is determining what it would take to bring Lake Michigan water to town. Last November, the village received a reservation of 600,000 gallons of Lake Michigan water per day — a first for Hawthorn Woods — from the Lake County Joint Action Water Agency, which supplies many communities.
However, a reservation is not an allocation, which is governed by international treaty, Newton said. Hawthorn Woods has eight years to secure an allocation.
Another wrinkle is that the village doesn’t own any water infrastructure.
“We’re working with anyone with pipes in the ground,” Newton said.
Even if a Lake Michigan allocation is secured there are questions, such as how best to use the supply.
“How we distribute it and where remains to be seen,” Newton said.
Lake County public works has begun early planning for a new project to bring Lake Michigan water to some Aqua-served areas but no funding source has been identified and there is no timeline for construction.
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The most recent Aqua rate increase followed nearly a year of legal battles, strong opposition and criticism of high rates and poor quality from some customers throughout Aqua’s service area in 14 central and northern Illinois counties.
Those sentiments were made clear last fall during public forums hosted by the Illinois Commerce Commission, which regulates Aqua and other utilities and decides on rate hike requests.
Ultimately, the ICC granted Aqua an $11.6 million rate hike — well below the utility’s original $19.2 million request. Halvorson and the village separately filed objections with the ICC to the original request.
Aqua said it needed the increase to pay for capital investments made since the last rate increase and rising operational costs. Among the investments is a $5 million water plant adjacent to the water tower on Schwerman Road, which will double water capacity in Hawthorn Woods
Under the initial ask, the average residential wastewater and water bill was estimated to increase by about $30 per month. While there are many variables the increase under the approved request likely is about $13 per month.
The watchdog Citizens Utility Board said Aqua bills have been a consistent complaint among customers. The ICC ruling was a step in the right direction and held the company more accountable, says Jim Chilsen CUB communications director.
“Aqua customers are still dealing with high bills — we’ve got more work to do,” he said.