Wasco sanitary chief says report in error

The Wasco Sanitary District on Monday disputed the methodology used in a recent study that suggests it's on the verge of operating above capacity.

District President Raul Brizuela labeled the independent report "not worth the paper it's written on."

Brizuela suggested the study by Baxter & Woodman Consulting Engineers in Crystal Lake was nothing more than political leveraging by officials in the village of Campton Hills, which commissioned the $2,500 project without telling the district.

"They want to play political games," Brizuela said at a press conference to respond to the report, released May 6. "That's not what we're about."

At its most basic level, the report claims the Wasco Sanitary District has applied for and received more connection permits from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency than its system has the capacity to handle, although roughly 125 are related to developments that haven't been built yet. The report was based almost entirely on state records, according to its author.

Village officials, who rely on the overlapping sanitary district to provide water and sewer service to some 1,000 residents, say the study was necessary for them to more effectively consider any proposed developments that would generate new district customers. Once the results were in, the village asked the IEPA to investigate.

"This is really about planning for the future now rather than waiting until it's too late and trying to make decisions coming from behind," village Trustee Jim Kopec said. "The fact is, more permits have been approved than are available for capacity."

But district officials contend Baxter & Woodman erred in using projected water flow rates for its study rather than actual numbers showing how much water a typical district household generates. Had the firm taken the latter approach, Brizuela said, it would have learned the district likely would reach only 81 percent capacity even after all its permitted connections are made.

Brizuela also questioned how comprehensive the study could have been at a cost of $2,500. He suggested village officials are "still bitter" over a dispute last year regarding who should control the district after Campton Hills' controversial incorporation and are simply trying to "discredit" the taxing body.

"We find the conclusions drawn in the report, quite frankly, to be erroneous," Brizuela said.

After hearing Brizuela's comments, Steven Zehner, a Baxter & Woodman engineer and project manager for the study, stood by the results.

Zehner agreed he did not use actual water flow rates for the report but said that would have been an irrelevant method because it wouldn't take into account standards set by the IEPA.

"I used the Illinois standard … and I'm satisfied with the numbers," said Zehner, who has 21 years of experience related to municipal water supplies and has worked on reports of this nature before.

The IEPA has said it will investigate the capacity report. As of Monday, however, sanitary district officials said the agency had not yet visited them related to the probe.