While many suburbanites may grumble about vanishing open space, there is but one patch of green so dear to their hearts that they will openly break the law to save it: the front yard.
For the privilege of cultivating a lush lawn, residents of two McHenry County hamlets, Lake in the Hills and McHenry Shores, have in effect said “keep off the grass” to local authorities.
When water officials in both areas, prompted by worsening shortages, tried to put the noose on local sprinklers recently, residents responded by thumbing their noses and opening their taps.
“We had between 150 and 200 complaints last weekend that people were sprinkling on the wrong side of the street or during the middle of the day,” said Ralph Ridley, public works director for Lake in the Hills.
Most communities throughout Chicago’s suburbs have some form of summertime restrictions on outdoor watering, meant to preserve a safe, constant water supply.
In Lake County, more than a dozen towns that get their water from Lake Michigan are required by the state to impose May-to-September limits on water use.
“It’s discouraged between noon and 6 p.m., the hottest time of the day,” Lake Forest public works superintendent Larry Adams said.
But for the homeowner determined to maintain that putting green, Adams acknowledged the legal consequences are few.
“We could send the Police Department and have the people cited,” Adams said. “We’ve never had to take that extreme step, but we have the power to do that.”
Likewise, McHenry County’s sprinkling scofflaws are flouting water laws that seem to have few teeth. In the case of Lake in the Hills, the penalty amounts to a $25 fine if they are caught sprinkling any time other than between 6 to 8 a.m. or 7 to 9 p.m. on an odd-even basis. (Residents with odd-number addresses water only on odd days, and vice versa.)
“People take water for granted. You turn on your spigot and there it is, but not everybody has $25 to strike a match to and burn,” Ridley said.
Ridley said he gets complaints “like clockwork every Thursday” after the village flushes out fire hydrants on Wednesday to clear out rust.
“Three out of our six wells are high in iron,” Ridley said. “It’s well-known that you don’t wash clothes on Thursdays. All the sprinkling over the weekend stirred up the rust too.”
That, in turn, has frustrated some in Lake in the Hills who could care less about how brown their lawns get.
“People want green grass; I just want clean water for my 20-month-old son to drink,” resident Nancy Szostek. “When you take a shower the water looks like wine. . . . I had to go to my sister’s house in Crystal Lake to get good water.”
During the heat wave before a recent round of thunderstorms, McHenry Shores residents’ demand for water resulted in the near depletion of its 100,000-gallon reserve and a 67 percent drop in water pressure.
“With the increased sprinkling and the sprinkling violations, 80 percent of the reserve water was used up,” said Thomas Mathews, owner of McHenry Shores Water Co. Mathews has been getting “half a dozen calls a day” reporting violators of a total sprinkling ban for his 600 customers.
As owner of a private water company, Mathews has no power to impose fines. But he is allowed by law to shut off somebody’s water for sprinkling on the sly.
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That threat is enough for Norma McKinney, who said she and her McHenry Shores neighbors are obeying the ban. “Basically, it comes down to having a brown lawn or not having any water at all,” McKinney said.
In Lake Forest, home to lush incomes and lush lawns, there’s calm compliance with its water laws. When an errant homeowner is caught in the act, Adams sends a letter-a friendly reminder of the rules, which include even-odd watering.
“Nothing needs to be watered every day, not even the most beautiful lawn,” Adams said.
Try telling that to 88-year-old Irene McCurry, a retired art teacher who cannot understand why anyone in Lake Forest would worry about a dry tap.
“We’re near a great big lake,” said McCurry, a 40-year resident of town. “There’s no reason why we shouldn’t have enough water.”
McCurry wouldn’t say whether her lawn gets an extra squirt when nobody’s watching. But she believes Lake Forest residents “should be free to use water at any time of the day.”
A state law passed in 1989 requires those municipalities that use Lake Michigan water to restrict sprinkler use, said Dan Injerd of the Illinois Department of Transportation’s Division of Water Resources.
“Water bans and restrictions are here to stay,” Island Lake Mayor Charles Amrich said. “People think, `Oh, if I pay for the water, I can use as much as I want.’ But they have to start thinking of the environment.”
Break the law in Island Lake and your positive water flow could turn into negative cash flow. Fines start at $35 and go up to $500, depending on what the municipal judge rules in court.
“Of course,” Amrich said, “we’ve never had to resort to that.”