Hawthorn Woods may take over troubled wells

Don't close the book on the Glennshire Hawthorn Woods water problems just yet.

Another chapter -- one even the main characters say they weren't anticipating -- has yet to be written.

The most recent plot twist is a proposal by the village of Hawthorn Woods to step in and take ownership of the beleaguered 20-well system.

Last year, 224 homeowners learned they'd have to pay a collective $6 million or more to replace an aging water system bought by Lake County in the 1970s.

Multiple Illinois Environmental Protection Agency violations, mostly from a lack of chlorination in the wells, required a complete overhaul.

The county said the original purchase agreement laid financial responsibility at the feet of homeowners.

After months of wrangling, homeowners secured a $1 million contribution from the county and chose to go with a new county-owned system.

But since then, resident representatives say problems arose with the county plan.

"(County officials) were very limited in their (storage tank) site choices," said Chris Donovan, president of Citizens For Equitable Water Solutions.

He added the water system plan changed, subtracting shallow wells and adding deep wells and radium treatment.

"We are concerned about it being more expensive than what they said," Donovan said.

Phil Perna, assistant director of public works for Lake County, said he believed the county's price estimate was "conservative, if anything" but agreed the idea of where to store the water was controversial.

The county chose a spot at Old McHenry Road and Circle Drive that some complained would be a poor choice because of its location in a residential area.

"I think there were some people that were not in favor of it," Perna said.

And Hawthorn Woods Mayor Keith Hunt said the county's offer to buy wholesale water from for-profit Aqua Illinois and resell it to residents didn't jibe, either.

The county told residents they would pay nearly a $5 a gallon rate, he said.

"What they're doing in essence is pricing that solution out of being (an option)," Hunt said Monday, when he brought before the board a plan for Hawthorn Woods to become the water utility to Glennshire residents.

In that plan, the village would buy water wholesale from Aqua and resell it at $2.85 a gallon.

And a nearly $500,000 connection fee collected by the village would be applied toward construction costs, which must still be borne by homeowners.

"We're still waiting on the numbers," Donovan said, but "on paper, it is a very attractive thing."

CFEWS plans to wait for a formal proposal from the village and will then distribute to Glennshire residents information about the plan.

But Lake County officials already say the plan could be an acceptable one.

"It's a viable option," Perna said. "The village could just as easily run a water system as the county could."