By a 4-2 vote last week (Aug. 18), the West Dundee Village Board approved charging homeowners who have their lead or galvanized water service lines replaced with copper ones $27 every other month on their water bills over the next 30 years for the work.
Village Manager Joe Cavallaro said the project is being done in three phases, with West Dundee “up-fronting the entire cost of the line replacement into homes.”
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The first phase is expected to start soon and will cost about $3.1 million, including the work by IHC Construction Companies and engineering from Baxter & Woodman, he said. The first phase will take place in a part of town where 190 homes have lead lines and 23 have galvanized lines, according to information provided by the village.
The estimated cost for Phase Two, set for 2026, is $1.6 million, while Phase Three in 2027 is estimated to run $2.4 million, according to village documents.
All told, 430 of the 2,900 homes in West Dundee have either lead or galvanized water service lines coming into their homes. All the affected homes are located in the Old Town section of the village, primarily in South Old Town, Cavallaro said.
The amount homeowners are being asked to cover is about $5,000 of the $13,000 per home the work will cost.
“This is directly related to the village being informed that Phases Two and Three would not be eligible for (Illinois EPA) loan funding, as originally anticipated,” Cavallaro said. “To clarify, the village is still eligible for funding, but by IEPA allocating funds to the highest-ranked/scored projects, more than likely all available funds will be exhausted before IEPA reaches West Dundee projects.”
The village was awarded funding from the IEPA Public Water Supply Loan Program for the first phase, which provides the reimbursement capital necessary to pay a lump sum contract and allows the village to spread that cost over 30 years. There is no forgiveness from the IEPA on this loan, Cavallaro said, and the future debt service payment is $105,000 for 30 years.
If the loan program had been available for all three phases, West Dundee’s debt service schedule would have been approximately $220,000 annually for 30 years, he said. Without loan funding for Phases Two and Three, the village must cover an additional $4 million in costs up front.
“The village is therefore asking for a portion of the project costs to be repaid directly by the affected homeowners in the amount of $27 bi-monthly for the next 30 years, which coincides with the debt service schedule,” Cavallaro said.
While the village raised water rates in June, Cavallaro said that was to cover increased operational costs, not capital projects such as the lead service line replacement one.
Affected homeowners can opt out of having their lines replaced, but the work might be required later, with the homeowners then having to foot the entire bill themselves.
“While that would be a village board decision, staff wished to make elected officials aware of this possibility due to the significant regulatory and cost burden that will be placed upon all utility accounts so long as a single lead or galvanized water service remains,” Cavallaro said.
Participating homeowners can pay off their portion early if they wish to do so. And, should a home be sold, the bill remains with the property and will be recorded against the property, Cavallaro said.
As for completing the replacement line projects sooner rather than later, Cavallaro noted that the Illinois Lead Service Line Replacement and Notification Act gives communities with fewer than 1,200 lead service lines 15 years to complete such projects, with work required to begin by 2027 and be completed by 2042.
However, Cavallaro said that under the current version of the federal Lead and Copper Rule Improvements – currently petitioned for review by the American Water Works Association – all communities will have 10 years to complete the work.
“This would then have a completion date of 2037. Illinois is anticipated to adopt the LCRI, which would then supersede the 15-year timeline the village would have been operating under,” he said.
Mike Danahey is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.