Hundreds of customers of Illinois’ largest private water utility packed an Illinois Commerce Commission public forum in Bolingbrook one recent summer night. They were fed up with how high their bills are now — and that Illinois American Water wanted to raise them by nearly $30 a month. That’s the largest utility increase I’ve ever heard of in my 24 years at the Citizens Utility Board.
At one point during the raucous forum, customers yelled out the size of their average water bills:
“$256!”
“$350!”
“$300, if I don’t water my grass.”
Some helpful legislators were in attendance, but I wish more members of the General Assembly could have witnessed how much angst private water customers are feeling these days. Because our state legislators helped put customers in this predicament — and they can help fix it.
Here’s a little history of how these companies have been able to cause so much hardship today:
- Back in 2000, private water utilities won the right from Illinois legislators to charge a special “qualifying infrastructure plant,” or QIP, surcharge. It allows the companies to spend customer money faster and enrich themselves through what is in effect speedier rate hikes outside the traditional rate-making process.
- In 2013, the utilities pushed for a state law that would allow them to buy up depreciated water and wastewater systems and charge their customers 100% of the acquisition costs. We’ve been keeping an eye on their shopping spree at our special website, CUBWaterTracker.com, and so far Illinois American and Aqua Illinois have charged their customers $402 million for the takeover of 59 municipal water/wastewater systems — and it will get only worse.
- And now both companies are pushing rate hikes before the ICC: Aqua wants $19.2 million more, and Illinois American $152.4 million. The impact would vary depending on where a customer lives, but both increases could jack up average water and wastewater bills by up to nearly $30 a month. Aqua and Illinois American try to soft-pedal it by describing the hit as “$1 a day” — but their 1.5 million customers can do the math and know a dollar a day is terrible.
The companies argue that customers pay higher bills to secure quality service. But Aqua’s highly publicized service problems fly in the face of that claim — including unacceptable levels of lead in drinking water in University Park in 2019, a weeklong water outage in Lake County last summer and a boil order for Hawthorn Woods this summer. “I have no confidence in the quality of the water,” one Aqua customer wrote to the ICC. “I’m still drinking bottled water and my bill is over $130 a month.”
While customers suffer, the utilities prosper. The parent companies of Aqua and Illinois American have raked in a combined total of $2.7 billion over the last two years. And the current rate hike requests suggest both companies have no intention of slowing down. CUB’s testimony in the rate cases exposed that they are pushing to raise their profit rate for shareholders to an obscene level — from an already excessive 9.6% for Aqua and 9.78% at Illinois American to 10.8% and 10.75%, respectively.
I hope that more legislators hear the pleas of people like Pat Smith, who’s so worried about her water bills that she limits dishwashing, laundry, lawn watering, even bathing. “We only bathe or shower twice a week now,” she said at the forum.
Fortunately, there is hope, thanks to allies from both parties who recently stood with CUB for a news conference in Bolingbrook to call for change: state Rep. Dagmara Avelar of Romeoville; state Sen. Sue Rezin of Morris; state Rep. Nabeela Syed of Palatine; and state Sen. Rachel Ventura of Joliet.
In addition to urging the ICC to slash the rate hikes, this bipartisan, bicameral group has a few commonsense ideas about what the General Assembly could do:
- Eliminate the QIP surcharge.
- Require water utility shareholders to cover most of the cost when they buy a local water and wastewater system.
- Give private water customers a voice: Require local approval, through a referendum, before Illinois American or Aqua can purchase a municipal system.
These are reasonable reforms to lower water bills and rein in Big Water. Illinois American and Aqua, of course, will fight us — they see water as a profitmaking tool, not a vital resource. For years now, they’ve been riding the wave of all-too-friendly state policy and laughing all the way to the bank. Today, it’s time Illinois turns the tide.
Sarah Moskowitz is executive director of the Citizens Utility Board, a nonprofit, nonpartisan group that advocates for Illinois utility customers. CUB is challenging the Illinois American and Aqua increases before the Illinois Commerce Commission.
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