West Dundee to cover cost to replace lead water service lines
West Dundee trustees are reversing course on a plan to have residents pay part of the costs to replace lead water service lines.
In a 5-1 vote this week, the trustees agreed to cover the full cost of replacing the pipes.
Work is scheduled to begin this month on the village’s first phase of the three-year project to replace 450 lead water lines.
Originally, the village planned to have affected homeowners cover $5,000 of the $13,000 cost to replace the line. Under that plan, homeowners who had their lines replaced would have paid $27 every other month for 30 years. The fee would have been added to their water bill.
Trustees this week, however, decided to have the village cover the entire cost, noting it would have fronted the entire cost either way and that making it a no-cost project for homeowners likely will aid in getting residents to sign off on the work.
“We need the residents to sign off to allow installation of the lead service line,” Trustee Tom Price said. “We’re mandated to do this … it would be easier to get people’s signatures if they didn’t have to pay to have the service line replaced.”
He noted the village has other projects, like road work or water tower improvements, that benefit certain areas, but the cost is shared by all taxpayers.
“There are many examples of the entire community sharing the cost for a service or function that is benefiting specific homes,” Village President Chris Nelson said. “It makes sense to have the same kind of cost-sharing model apply here.”
State law requires towns with fewer than 1,000 lead service lines to replace them by 2042.
The village is using a $3 million no-interest loan from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency to help cover the costs of Phase 1 work. West Dundee will have to determine where to get the $4.5 million to pay for Phase 2 and 3 work.
The IEPA has a list of 43 projects that have plans approved for lead service line replacement, but for which funding has been exhausted. Those projects are estimated to cost $210.6 million. Besides West Dundee, other towns on the list include St. Charles, Geneva, Elgin, Palatine, Downers Grove and Elmhurst.
West Dundee ranked 40th in priority, based on a scoring system considers factors such as a town’s median income, unemployment rate, poverty rate, the number of houses built before 1990 and number of children under age 6.
West Dundee scored 80 out of 420 points. Last year, the lowest score receiving funding was 70 points. This year, the lowest score receiving funding is 240 points for Blue Island, Kincaid and Stickney.
Daily Herald reporter Susan Sarkauskas contributed to this report.