Evanston Sues Skokie To Enforce Water Rate Hike

EVANSTON, IL — Evanston filed suit in Cook County Circuit Court against Skokie Tuesday, asking a judge to declare that the water rate it wants to charge the neighboring village is justified. The move comes one day after Evanston aldermen voted to increase the wholesale water rate the city charges Skokie by more than 90 percent and four days before an interim water price agreement will expire. That interim agreement extended a 20-year contract under which Skokie was paying just under $1.08 per 1,000 gallons, while the Evanston City Council voted to increase the rate to $2.06.

Evanston has supplied Skokie with water since 1944, signing two long-term wholesale water supply contracts since 1963, but the towns have been unable to agree on a deal after the most recent one expired. As a result, Evanston filed suit seeking a declaratory judgement and other relief to allow it to raise the price, alleging Skokie was being unjustly enriched.

The suit claims that Skokie, which "expressed its desire that the parties go back decades in time to return to the Skokie water rate to a level not seen since the mid-1990's," has been refusing to pay a "reasonable rate," insisting on "an excessively low, inequitable, arbitrary and unreasonable rate, in violation of Illinois law and generally accepted water industry standards."

Skokie wants to pay something in the vicinity of $0.70 per 1,000 gallons, far below a reasonable rate, according to Evanston's lawsuit. The price currently charged for water to suburbs by Chicago is $3.88 per 1,000 gallons. While the lawsuit is pending, Evanston said it would charge $2.06 per 1,000 gallons starting Oct. 1. (Get Patch real-time email alerts for the latest news for Evanston — or your community. And iPhone users: Check out Patch's new app.)

Evanston's lawyers included the following table in their lawsuit, noting it was "incontrovertible" that the rate charged to Skokie is "in many cases" much less than what is paid by other water customers in "comparable communities."

Evanston is also scheduled to begin pumping water to Morton Grove and Niles at the end of 2018 for a price of $0.78 per 1,000 gallons. However, the new customers will spend more than $80 million to connect to Evanston and, unlike Skokie, will handle their own water pressure.

The lawsuit argues water rates has been properly calculated using industry standards – The American Water Works Association Manual of Water Supply Practices.

Skokie, which doesn't charge any sewerage fees to its customers, raised its price to consumers by about 8.5 percent in July.

Village of Skokie officials, from the corporation counsel, the village manager and the department of public works, all did not respond to requests for comment about Evanston's lawsuit by the end of the day Wednesday.

Read the City of Evanston's Complaint for Declaratory Judgment and Unjust Enrichment against the Village of Skokie:

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