Susan Bauer, who brought her neighbor’s dirty water filter with her, provides a public comment at an Illinois Commerce Commission public forum at McHenry County College in Crystal Lake. (Photo by Andrew Adams/Capitol News Illinois)

It has been more than three weeks since a July 29 forum held at the McHenry County College brought out consumer opposition to a proposed Aqua Illinois rate hike.

The company is seeking a water-rate increase, submitted in January to the Illinois Commerce Commission, to offset costs for infrastructure upgrades to its system.

The Kankakee-based private water utility, which also offers effluent sewer lines in some areas, services more than 280,000 customers in northern Illinois, including Lake, McHenry, Kane, DuPage and 10 other counties. The price hike would add nearly $30 per month to water rates.

“At this point, there is no McHenry County Board involvement for the unincorporated areas,” said District 2 County Board member Joe Gottemoller. “There are no procedures that we have to respond to … as this is for the commission to decide. It’s not our turf.”

At issue is the July 2023 water main break that left Hawthorn Woods and Kildeer residents without water service for a week, with limited bottled drinking water being delivered. Subsequently, a recent boil order was put into place.

(Editor’s note: A previous version of this story inaccurately said that lead was found in the water system after the boil order was put in place. According to a spokesperson for Aqua Illinois, lead was not found in the system after that outage. “In fact, Aqua has sampled the water 30 times between 2017 and 2023. Of those samples, only six had detections of lead, with the highest sample being 2.8 mg/L. The state action level is 15 ppb, so this level is significantly lower than the IEPA standards. In all likelihood, the levels are from customer’s faucet fixtures and did not come from Aqua’s service lines.”)

AquaIllinois claims to have not raised its rates for the past six years, while spending more than $280 million for infrastructure and line upgrades. It is also facing additional operating costs, according to company officials.

Customers, along with consumer advocate groups, are demanding accountability and the ICC has said it will refuse to implement any rate increases until their concerns are met.

“Our Village Board unanimously passed a resolution objecting to the rate-increase request, and our letter of objection was sent to the ICC Board,” said Hawthorn Woods Mayor Dominick DiMaggio. “Following the July 4 water main break in 2023, the village experienced a second water main break in July, of this year.

“Service was not interrupted but water needed to be trucked in, from the Ivanhoe plant. To address the water concerns … Aqua Illinois is constructing a second well and pumping station for water distribution volume and to increase supply in the event of additional water main breaks or heavy water usage, during the summer months.”

Aqua Illinois provided a statement to Chronicle Media, saying, in part: “(We) have implemented numerous improvements to address the issues identified last year. These improvements have already proven to be successful during last month’s Hawthorn Woods water main break … our crews were able to identify and fix the problem quickly.

“Maintaining a high-quality water system requires investments to improve infrastructure that has reached the end of its useable life.”

The company said that since its last rate request in 2018, it has invested more than $200 million statewide for needed infrastructure improvements. Seeking to recover costs through a potential rate increase is a common practice for regulated companies.

“Aqua is committed to providing safe and reliable drinking water and environmentally reliable wastewater services to our customer in Illinois,” said company President David Carter. “We will continue to make the necessary investments in water and wastewater infrastructure to ensure that we successfully meet this commitment in the most cost-effective manner.”

At the July 29 forum, Carter said that the customer base statewide pays into a common funding pot for money to be drawn out for infrastructure improvements on some water systems, but not others.

DiMaggio said Hawthorne Woods is pursuing additional water sources as a permanent solution to its groundwater supply. Board members also felt the current company’s water rate is excessive and an increase would negatively impact families on tight budgets, he added.

As for a timetable on the Illinois Commerce Commission deliberating the rate increase, the request will be reviewed for the next several months. A final decision is expected in November, when it will grant all, some portions, or none of the request.

Customer billing will remain unaffected until that time, company officials noted.