CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — The Chicago City Council Finance Committee gave final approval to a deal in which Chicago would supply Joliet and other nearby communities with Lake Michigan water.
It’s a $1 billion deal that would last for 100 years. Chicago would be expected to start supplying water to Joliet, Channahon, Crest Hill, Minooka, Romeoville and Shorewood.
Under the deal, Chicago would invest $65 million for infrastructure work, which would be recouped over time. The City is expecting to bring in more than $24 million per year from the deal.
Joliet and surrounding communities currently draw groundwater, which the Illinois State Water Survey determined is not sustainable.
Following that determination, the suburban communities formed the Grand Prairie Water Commission to share in the cost of building their own facilities.
“We’ll begin construction next year in the fall of 2024 at facilities within Chicago, [and] that will allow us to convey that water from the Chicago water system out to our farthest point in Channahon,” Joliet’s Director of Utilities Allison Swisher told WBBM in April.
Swisher told WBBM that the average homeowner will see about a $50 increase in their annual water bills.
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