DuPage County moving closer to dissolving Lombard-area water agency
A subdivision near Lombard is slated to get Lake Michigan water this week, which will pave the way for DuPage County to disband the sanitary district serving the area.
The Highland Hills Sanitary District manages sanitary sewer service and water operations for roughly 465 residential and business properties. A separate entity, the Flagg Creek Water Reclamation District, treats the sewage.
As part of an intergovernmental agreement approved last September, the county has acquired Highland Hills' water system, and Flagg Creek eventually will get Highland Hills' sanitary system.
The plan is to dissolve the Highland Hills Sanitary District next year.
First, DuPage must establish itself as the subdivision's water supplier. The transition will begin Tuesday when Lake Michigan water starts flowing through the Highland Hills system.
County officials have said that Highland Hills residents will get higher-quality water and improved levels of service at a lower cost.
Once the sanitary district is dissolved, Flagg Creek will provide sewer collection and treatment services to the residents. Flagg Creek's service area includes all or parts of Clarendon Hills, Oakbrook Terrace, Burr Ridge, Hinsdale, Darien, Willowbrook, Elmhurst, Westmont, Oak Brook, Villa Park and Lombard.
County officials say Highland Hills will be the fifth unit of local government dissolved in DuPage. They say it's more proof that the county's Accountability, Consolidation and Transparency Initiative is working.
The ACT Initiative, launched in 2012, at first called on two dozen local governmental entities to make structural and operational reforms. In 2013, state lawmakers gave DuPage the power to eliminate Highland Hills and a dozen other local government entities.