Hinsdale Leader 'Bugged' By Water Loss

HINSDALE, IL — A quarter of Hinsdale's water is not being sold to customers, with some of it leaking into the ground, officials said at this week's Village Board meeting.

When informed of the number, Trustee Neale Byrnes said, "Twenty-five percent is not getting sold. That's a lot of water."

Village President Tom Cauley agreed.

"That's always been something that kind of bugged me," he said. "We're buying water, and it's going into the ground. I'm hopeful that as we replace some water mains, we would determine that this problem has been rectified."

Officials told the Village Board that some water in the 25 percent is the result of hydrant flushing, known water main breaks and filling up the municipal pool.

Cauley said he remembered being told a few years ago that as much as 10 percent of the village's water was seeping into the ground. The village purchases its water from the DuPage Water Commission and then sells it to residents.

Village Manager Kathleen Gargano said the village has been reducing its water loss.

"It's just not as significant as we would like," she said.

Finance Director Andrea Lamberg said the village is fine-tuning how it measures the causes of the water loss. For instance, she said, the village could quantify how much water is used in hydrant flushing.

"With the improvements to the water infrastructure that the village has been investing in, we may start to see the result in the decline of non-revenue water," Lamberg said.

Earlier this year, the Village Board increased rates for larger water users. The goal was to generate more than $500,000 a year for water system infrastructure and maintenance, officials said.