Mount Prospect approves 9.5-percent water rate hike

Mount Prospect may be more than 10 miles from the Chicago city limits, but as long as the village gets its water from Lake Michigan, the Windy City will always be as close as residents’ faucets — and their water bills.

Village trustees this week sent residents a grim reminder of how closely tied their fortunes are to Chicago, when they passed a 9.5-percent increase to the combined water and sewer rate for 2014.

The steep increase, village officials said, is driven by Chicago’s rate hike. Mount Prospect receives water from Chicago through the Joint Action Water Agency, and Chicago passes cost increases down the line to JAWA communities.

The combined rate will climb from $8.42 per 1,000 gallons to $9.22 per 1,000 gallons. Sewer remains constant at $1.71 per 1,000 gallons, but the water portion jumps from $6.71 to $7.51.

For a household using 8,000 gallons of water in a month, the monthly water and sewer usage fee would be $73.76, an increase of $6.40.

Finance Director David Erb explained to the board Tuesday that typically the increases have been between 4 and 5 percent a year, but “over the last several years, the city of Chicago is passing along some rather significant rate increases to all the users of their water. Over a four-year period, their rates are going to go up to us 70 percent.”

Trustee Paul Hoefert said Chicago in essence has communities like Mount Prospect over a barrel.

“The only good feeling, I guess, that we can take away is that, if I remember correctly, there is a favored nations clause, so whatever they to do to us, they have to do with all their other users, including their own citizens in the city,” he added.

Village Manager Michael Janonis noted that this year’s increase from Chicago is 15 percent.

“We’re raising local rates nine and a half. I think that speaks to the fact that we have been keeping pace and maintaining our system and we have the ability to not pass along that whole increase,” he said. “So we have been able to absorb some.”

Janonis said Mount Prospect’s commitment to JAWA ends in 2023, and the village has five deep wells at its disposal.

“The capacity based on our demand over the last couple of years, we would be able to cover that,” he said. “So we’re in good shape in that regard. But we’re going to have to make some decisions down the road.”