A water main in the Fox River left exposed after the removal of the Carpentersville dam required emergency leak repairs last weekend, officials said.
Village crews fixed the break and reinforced the bedrock foundation temporarily stabilizing the one sewer and two water lines that emerged when river water levels dropped with demolition of the dam structure, Carpentersville Village Manager Brad Stewart said.
While the leak was not severe, the incident required the village report it to the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, Stewart told the village board this week.
The break wasn’t an “acute event” and posed no risk to the village’s water supply, Stewart said.
Village officials are working on a permanent solution involving the reburial of the utility lines in the riverbed
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at an estimated cost of about $3.7 million.“Ideally, we’ll be able to keep it at that range as we go through the process,” Stewart said. “We have continued to dedicate resources (to help pay for the work). We did receive some legislative funding going into this year to pay for the design and engineering costs.”
Carpentersville has received two state grants totaling $750,000, he said.
The dam, which dated back to the 1800s, was removed in 2024 by the Forest Preserve District of Kane County and the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. The project was undertaken to restore the Fox River’s natural, free-flowing state, which experts say will help improve the waterway’s ecosystem.
However, removal of the barrier coupled with already low water levels from a drought resulted in the three utility lines being exposed. The pipes were inspected at the time and a bedrock foundation put in place to ensure they stayed stable.
Crews at the scene over the weekend found that the bedrock had washed away, possibly because there recently have been high river levels and strong currents.
“We identified a lot of the pipes themselves were starting to be exposed, particularly on the banks,” Stewart said. “We felt there was a need to lay additional rock as well as cover the pipes, which was very similar to what we did year ago. We were able to shore it up.”
Until the pipes are fully buried at a lower depth, watching them will be “an ongoing maintenance concern,” he said.
Carpentersville is seeking engineering designs for the reburial project, which will likely involve working with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and other agencies, Stewart said.
“We did budget to get the phase one and phase two engineering completed this year, which is obviously critical for a project this size and dealing with a public waterway like the Fox River,” he said.
Once the design work is complete, they will be able to determine a final cost, solicit bids and set a timetable, he said.
Gloria Casas is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.