Four Illinois legislators and a Citizens Utility Board representative urged state regulators Wednesday to reject rate hikes proposed by the state’s two largest private water utilities, Illinois American Water and Aqua Illinois.
The utilities serve dozens of towns in the Chicago area, including University Park, Orland Park, Homer Glen, Mokena, Frankfort and parts of Lemont.
“The amount of the increases vary on where you live, but it will be, on average, about $30 a month for Aqua Illinois and American Water consumers, which is an awful lot of money,” said Bryan McDaniel, director of government affairs for the CUB. “This is just the latest in a long history of injustices.”
For years, McDaniel said Illinois residents using water services from Aqua Illinois or Illinois American have faced the burden of policies that permit utilities to raise rates about every two years and spend without significant constraint.
In 2000, private water utilities got state approval to add a “qualifying infrastructure plant” surcharge to bills, which McDaniel says has dramatically increased water costs for consumers.
Later in 2013, a state law was passed that allows Illinois American and Aqua Illinois to buy up depreciated water and wastewater systems, and charge consumers for the acquisition costs, according to CUB.
Since 2013, Aqua and Illinois American have purchased 59 water systems, according to the utility board’s monitoring platform.
McDaniel said he and the legislators advocate for legislation that curbs the rapid rate increases and require a referendum to ensure fair cost sharing.
Now, McDaniel said consumers face a total of $271 million in proposed rate hikes.
In January, Aqua, which serves about 273,000 Illinois consumers, filed for a $19.2 million rate hike request. In February, Illinois American Water, which service about 1.3 million consumers, followed suit and requested $152.4 million.
A spokesperson for Illinois American said the rate hike request aims to fund substantial investments in aging water and wastewater systems through 2025.
“The request reinforces the company’s ongoing commitment to investing in its water and wastewater systems to replace aging infrastructure, provide reliable service, enhance water quality and comply with local and federal environmental regulations,” the company said in a statement.
Aqua Illinois President Dave Carter said in a statement that the utility has bought and upgraded older water systems across Illinois for the last six years and a half years, which he says has been a costly but necessary endeavor to improve water systems.
“Aqua is committed to delivering reliable water to our customers across the state,” he said. “Our customers have not seen an increase in rates during that time, but Aqua cannot sustain these continued investments in Illinois water infrastructure alone.”.
The legislators called on consumers to voice opposition to proposed rate hikes.
State Rep. Nabeela Syed, a Democrat from Palatine, argued against granting water utilities a rate increase, citing poor service experiences reported by her municipality and others.
Palatine, which is served by Aqua, experienced a water service disruption last year during the Fourth of July weekend. Syed said drawn out mitigation of the leak along with poor communication from the water utility left her village without water for five days.
After service disruptions were resolved, Syed said Palatine consumers received a $100 gift card for the inconvenience, which she says is not enough. Syed said she wants the Illinois Commerce Commission, which is in charge of approving or denying the rate increases, to evaluate how the water provider operates.
“Let’s have the ICC take a look at the performance of Aqua and Illinois American Water, and see how they’re doing as a business, and see that because of their lack of proper communication, their failure to mitigate these crises, they don’t deserve a rate hike, and our constituents are very, very upset by the fact that these events keep occurring,” Syed said.
Palatine was not the only municipality affected by Aqua service disruptions.
Aqua added a blended phosphate mix into University Park’s public water system causing a chemical reaction that officials said removed a protective layer in residential plumbing, leading to elevated lead levels in the village’s water supply. For at about four years, village residents relied on bottled water after a “do not consume” order was put in place in 2019.
The legislators called on consumers to voice opposition to proposed rate hikes.
Legislators said Wednesday they advocate against privatized water providers, which state Sen. Rachel Ventura, a Democrat from Joliet, said allows “profits to be put over people.”
Other legislators urging the action Wednesday were Rep. Dagmara Avelar, a Romeoville Democrat, and Sen. Sue Rezin, a Republican from Morris.
McDaniel said once a water system is purchased by a private company, it is extremely difficult for the public to buy it back.
McDaniel said Homer Glen and Bolingbrook officials spent 10 years in court trying to acquire an 18-mile pipeline that brings Lake Michigan water to several municipalities, including Homer Glen, Homer Township, and parts of Lockport, Lemont, Romeoville and Woodridge. The case finally settled, leaving ownership of the pipeline with the water utilities.
McDaniel said he encourages people to participate in the upcoming public forums where consumers have the opportunity to share any grievances with the commerce commission.
Illinois American’s rate hike forums are scheduled for 7 p.m. July 22 at the Levy Center – Dupage Township, 215 Canterbury Lane, Bolingbrook, and 7 p.m. July 23 at the Champaign Public Library, 200 W. Green St., Champaign.
Aqua’s rate hike discussions will take place at 7 p.m. July 29 at McHenry County College, Luecht Auditorium, 8900 US Highway 14, Crystal Lake, and at 7 p.m. Aug. 1 at Olivet Nazarene University, Wisner Auditorium, One University Ave., Bourbonnais.
The commission is scheduled to decide on Aqua’s requested rate hikes in November and on Illinois American’s in December.
