To fight leaks costing nearly $250,000 a year, Norridge is spending almost $94 million to overhaul its 75-year-old water system, Trustee Andy Ronstadt told fellow elected officials on Feb. 28.
In a report to the Village Board, Ronstadt said the latest testing of the system revealed that 53.6 million gallons, or 12.7% of Norridge’s total water use, is lost each year to leaks, water main breaks and faulty meters.
“That is why we’re trying to continue the modernization and upgrade and everything,” he said. “These numbers are going to continue to go up. We’re trying, but the system is old.”
Ronstadt, chairman of the board’s Water, Cell Phones, Cell Sites and Aggregation Committee, presented the numbers during his committee report. The village is spending the $94 million over a 20-year period.
“I just wanted to bring it up in front of everyone here so you understand when and why we’re trying to keep this upgrade going because we’re throwing too much money down the drain, basically,” he said.
The 12.7% water loss last year is among the highest the village has experienced and a big reason why Norridge is currently spending some $2.2 million to overhaul and upgrade the pumping station and reservoir at Cumberland and Foster Avenues, Ronstadt said.
Trustee Debra Budnik asked if the loss was greater last year than in 2022.
“It’s up,” Ronstadt said. “Two years ago we were about 12.4%.”
Budnik asked if the repairs will improve the situation.
“When all is said and done, do we anticipate this to drop or go down?” she said.
“Yes, it will go down,” Ronstadt said. “It will never be zero because there’s always hydrant flushing.”
Trustee Jack Bielak asked if the village was still conducting its leak detection program.
Ronstadt said the most recent detection test was conducted within the last couple of weeks.
“They found four leaks this time, which is good,” he said. “They’re small ones, but still it all helps.”
Norridge lost about 14,000 gallons of water a day from those four leaks, Ronstadt said.
“We don’t know how long they were leaking, how many days,” he said. “They do the test and then we find the leaks.”
Village President Daniel Tannhauser said Norridge conducts the tests twice a year with a different contractor each time.
“We use different contractors just to make sure,” Tannhauser said. “You think one contractor is not finding a leak, so we do it with different contractors and twice a year.”
The Cumberland station project will be completed by the end of April, Ronstadt said.
“When that comes back on line, that’s a total rebuild,” he said. “All new pumps, meters, everything.”
The Cumberland pumping station represents just the tip of the iceberg in the massive water system overhaul. The system spans 44 miles of lines that cost about $2 million per mile to replace, Ronstadt said.
Norridge has completed about six miles of replacement so far, he said.
“We have a long ways to go,” Ronstadt said. “We were hoping that by the time the village is 100 years old, we’d have it done. We have a 20-year plan in place, which is shifting all the time. But that’s the goal.”
The 2024 project, scheduled to begin Aug. 1, includes the repainting, recoating, and replacing of the interior and underground lines of the village’s 67-year-old water tower at an estimated cost of $1.1 million, he said.
After the water tower, Norridge plans to overhaul the Olcott pumping station, which sits just outside Village Hall, in late 2025 at a cost of about $2.5 million, Ronstadt said.
Norridge officials said in December 2021 that the water infrastructure rate would increase from about $19 to about $40 per home every two months to help pay for the improvements to the water delivery system.
