Elmhurst Mayor Speaks About Water Rate Hike

ELMHURST, IL – Elmhurst Mayor Scott Levin on Thursday explained why the city needed a major hike in water and sewer rates.

Last week, members of a City Council committee agreed that the city needs to raise rates 27 percent, with discounts for senior citizens.

Part of the increase, Levin said, has to do with passing on rising costs of water from the DuPage Water Commission, which gets its supply from Chicago.

"It's not that we feel we want to get more money from our residents," Levin said during his State of the City address.

He also said the city needed to hike rates to pay for improvements to the water and sewer systems.

"Our average water main is 62 years old. Almost 30 percent of them were installed in the 1920s, about 25 percent in the 1960s," Levin said. "About a third of them are past their life expectancy. Two-thirds of them will be past their life expectancy by 2040, so we're going to be spending $5 million a year to maintain a 100-year replacement on this."

He also cited a federal requirement to remove phosphorous from the water, a local project that is estimated to cost $79 million.

"Some people compare our water rates to other municipalities," the mayor said. "We're ahead of the game on where we're going. (Other towns') water rates and sewer rates will increase just like ours."

A recent city analysis showed Elmhurst had the fourth-highest water bills among 17 comparison towns.

A rate increase could take effect as soon as March.