Suburban leaders detail $6 billion plan for water independence amid pushback from Chicago

DuPage and Cook county leaders announced details of a seismic project Monday that could shift control of supplying Lake Michigan water into suburban hands and cost Chicago one of its largest customers.

The DuPage Water Commission and the Northwest Suburban Municipal Joint Action Water Agency are partnering to build a lake water intake, purification station and tunnels stretching across two counties.

“It’s a big day for us, ” commission board Chair Jim Zay said of the 15-year Lake Michigan Regional Water Supply Initiative, which is estimated to cost up to $6 billion and would serve more than 30 communities.

He touted a “modern, state-of-the-art, source-to-tap water system” providing “reliable, sustainable, resilient water for local communities.”

City officials, however, were dubious of the plan.

“The Chicago Department of Water Management has supplied and continues to provide the DuPage Water Commission with high-quality drinking water since 1983,” a spokesman for Mayor Brandon Johnson said.

“Any shift away from the existing arrangement to facilitate construction of a new facility would require the enactment of state legislation, a lengthy permitting process, and the allocation of public capital subsidies,” the spokesperson noted. “The city continues to engage in conversations with the DWC and other stakeholders centered on maintaining a reliable supply of high-quality drinking water.”

The commission also received a $1 million Community Project Funding award Monday that U.S. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi helped secure.

“People need water that is safe in various respects,” the Schaumburg Democrat said. “Safe from microplastics, safe from (forever chemicals like) PFAS, safe from lead. We need to make sure that we keep up with the public demand for safe, clean drinking water.”

As emerging contaminants are identified and regulated, the new purification system will offer updated technology to treat lake water, General Manager Paul May said.

Preliminary plans would place a water intake in Lake Michigan east of Glencoe, May explained. It will flow through an underground raw water tunnel to a purification facility in Northbrook, located on a property that once housed a golf course the DWC purchased in 2024.

The finished drinking water will travel south through another underground tunnel around the west side of O’Hare International Airport, where it will be distributed to seven northwest Cook suburbs, including Schaumburg and Hoffman Estates, May said. Its final destination is the commission’s headquarters in Elmhurst.

Completion is expected in 2041, which dovetails with the expiry of the commission’s contract with the city, officials said.

“They’ve served our region well, but the situation exists to look to the future, and this type of infrastructure cannot be built quickly,” May noted. “We’re really presenting a solution for the next generations.”

Creating a separate water system would allow both entities to back each other up, in case of an emergency, he added.

The city currently draws water from Lake Michigan, and treats it at the Jardine Water Purification Plant before sending it to the commission.

Zay said he’s worried about reliability, citing two “major issues” in March and earlier this summer when water delivery glitched related to power issues.

“They don’t put anything back into the system; that’s the problem,” Zay commented. “This year we’ll pay them $130 million, and they put nothing in for infrastructure.”

Ownership of the system will also put rates under local control, leaders said, recalling hikes of 25% in 2012 and 15% in 2013 and 2014, respectively, under former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

“That really toppled our budgeting process,” Hanover Park Mayor Rod Craig said.

Asked what customers might pay when the new program goes live in 15 years, “we expect to be competitive with current rates with inflation over time,” May said.

In the future, the infrastructure has the potential to provide water to 20 additional communities, officials anticipate.

mpyke@dailyherald.com