Glen Ellyn will raise water, sewer rates

Glen Ellyn's water and sewer rates will increase beginning June 1.

Monday night, Glen Ellyn village board members agreed to increase water rates by 3.7 percent and sanitary sewer costs by 3.5 percent.

Finance Director Jon Batek said the village purchases its Lake Michigan water through the DuPage Water Commission. Because the city of Chicago recently approved a double-digit rate increase for water purchased by the commission over the next three years, the village's current water and sewer rates can't keep up with the expected increased cost.

Batek said Chicago's rate increase really ties the village's hands.

"Really, it's needed to keep up with increases in cost of providing services to our residents," he said, "(and) also to continue improvements to our aging water and sewer systems, which are more than 100 years old now."

The rate increase means the average Glen Ellyn household using 7,000 gallons of water each month would pay an additional $2.31 each month.

On July 1 of last year, the village's sewer rates went up by 10 percent due to an increase in electrical costs.

And now that Chicago's increasing their rates by about 50 percent total throughout the next three years, Batek said he wouldn't be surprised if Glen Ellyn's rates increased again next year, and possibly even annually.

"It's looking more and more like that," he said.