What you pay for the water that comes into your home every month may have less to do with how far it has to travel, and more to do with all of the people it has to go through to get to you.
And a new report from a nonprofit government watchdog is focusing new attention on what goes into what we pay for the water that comes into our homes.
Annie McGowan from the Civic Federation said her group's breakdown shows a big difference in water rates: "from $11 per 5,000 gallons in a place like Elmwood Village ... up to $136, close to $140 in a place like Bannockburn."
McGowan explained that can be the effect of having multiple agencies and government workers standing between you and the water coming out of your faucet.
"That adds to both the complexity of the system as well as the inefficiency of the system," she said. "We kind of have a culture in Illinois of not a lot of cohesion and coordination."
And McGowan said the only way to bring down those water bills is for leaders to put that culture aside and find ways to work together.