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player ready...Montgomery Village Board members this week approved an engineering contract for water main replacement work in 2024 as part of the village’s overall push to replace all pre-1970 water mains before Montgomery switches to Lake Michigan for its drinking water.
The project is part of a program the village is actively working on to reduce water loss in the system to levels deemed acceptable to receive Lake Michigan water.
Montgomery intends to switch its source water from shallow and deep wells to Lake Michigan water obtained through the DuPage Water Commission. As a condition to the village’s Lake Michigan water permit, it is required to reduce its system water loss to below 10% for a full year ahead of receiving the Lake Michigan water.
Montgomery Public Works Director Mark Wolf said at present there is up to a 30% loss of water in the system. That number needs to shrink substantially, to under 10%, he noted.
The contract approved this week with Engineering Enterprises Inc. of Sugar Grove for $279,000 is for design engineering for the 2024 water main replacement program.
In total, the entire water main replacement project in Montgomery will cost the village $80 million, officials said, with the goal of completing the whole program by 2030.
The village plans to fund the overall water main replacement project with village sales tax proceeds and grants. While officials said that eventually a bond sale may be needed for funding, it is not in the plans at this time.
Some 28.1 miles of water main pipes in the Montgomery system were installed before 1970, and those mains are beginning to leak, Wolf said. He noted the village is already busy replacing water mains.
“We already did River Street to Ashland,” he said.
Village engineer Pete Wallers said Montgomery has been working on the water loss issue in the system for the past few years.
Judy Pochel is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
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