More than a year after a ruptured 36-inch water main turned Skokie streets into rivers, flooded homes and garages and left hundreds of residents without reliable drinking water, the village is raising water rates in an effort to make sure that doesn’t happen again.
Trustees approved at their Aug. 17 Board meeting a minimum $11.39 quarterly water bill increase per household, which will fully take effect in October for the 2027 fiscal year.
According to Julian Prendi, Skokie’s finance director, the increases are necessary to fund “water, sewer, lead lines, equipment and flood control expenditures.”
Officials said they are “aggressively pursuing replacement and repairs” of the village’s water and sewer infrastructure and anticipate spending $26 million over the next year for “capital and operational expenses,” per village documents.
The extra funds will also help finance timely flood control measures, in the hopes of preventing a repeat of the February 2025 water main break disaster that sent Skokie into a state of emergency and cost hundreds of businesses earnings on one of the most profitable holidays of the year – Valentine’s Day.
“I’d like to just note that even with this increase, Skokie’s water rates remain low, I mean not just competitive, but low among our peer communities,” said Skokie Mayor Ann Tennes, when the ordinance was first up for discussion at the village’s July 20 Board meeting.
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“As this Board has said, any increases have to be linked to specific projects and services and this increase is linked to the need for, among other things, for infrastructure improvements.”
All water services billed after Oct. 31 will be held at a rate of $87.82 per 1,000 cubic feet, an increase from the original $76.43 total, according to village documents.
Residents should expect their current water rates to rise in the interim, as officials said they will be taking a phased approach to the rate adjustment starting this month.
The measure also includes a $40 increase for residents planning to replace lead water service lines on their property as part of Skokie’s replacement cost-share program.
The village-sponsored initiative caps a private property owner’s costs for private-side lead line replacements at $3,090. That fee will now rise to $3,130.
Illinois has the most lead service lines per capita of any state, prompting a 2022 state-wide mandate from the Illinois Department of Public Health to replace these lines in full by a deadline determined by how many replacements are needed in a given municipality.
Per previous reporting, Skokie is looking to replace more than 11,000 lead water lines, giving them a deadline of 34 years — or until 2061 — from the April 2027 due date of their replacement plan submission.
The push to replace these dangerous pipes comes in the wake of growing public awareness over the risks associated with drinking lead-contaminated water.
According to the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), lead is classified as a toxic metal that can cause serious neurological problems, particularly for infants and young children, even at low levels of exposure.
Tennes previously confirmed that Skokie residents are eligible for the village’s cost-share lead line replacement program if their residence is located along a construction route.
Village Manager John Lockerby and staff extended that program in 2025 to include residents with homes not along these routes, allowing them to “self-select” and apply to have their lead lines replaced, Tennes said at the July 20 Board meeting.
Property owners who replaced their private-side lead and galvanized service lines out-of-pocket prior to the start of the village’s program may now be eligible for a $750 cash rebate or $1,250 credit on their utility bill.
Residents must have completed the replacement between January 2022 and now to qualify for the reimbursement, according to officials.
“Any family that, going forward, completes the work is eligible for that rebate as well,” Lockerby confirmed at the July meeting.
Due to high demand, officials said the timing of construction will be scheduled in an order to “maximize” replacements as “funding and resources permit.”