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Wilmette to study lake water delivery with Glenview, Des Plaines
Wilmette, which already sells Lake Michigan water to neighboring Glenview, is joining forces with that village and with northwest suburban Des Plaines, to study the engineering practicalities of extending the supply chain to Des Plaines.
Village trustees on Tuesday approved an agreement among the three communities, setting up a coordinated engineering study to determine the feasibility and some of the costs of routing water from Wilmette delivered through Glenview’s system to Des Plaines.
Wilmette will pay just under $49,000 for its portion of the study, which should be completed two to three months after all three municipalities sign the agreement. Wilmette and Glenview already have done so, and Des Plaines is expected to approve the memorandum of agreement March 5.
Wilmette already sells water to Glenview; now Des Plaines, which currently buys its supply from Chicago, is considering switching its purchases to Glenview, Village Manager Tim Frenzer stated in a report provided to the board. For the past month, staff administrators from all three municipalities have discussed the possibility.
Any decisions, however, must wait until the study – actually three interconnected studies to be undertaken by three different consultants – identifies what water-system improvements might be necessary to make delivery reasonable.
The first study will evaluate Wilmette’s water plant and find what possible improvements might be needed to increase its capacity, as well as provide information on how that could affect wholesale water rates. The second study will identify transmission costs between Wilmette and Glenview, and what pumping and transmission main improvements could be needed.
The final study would analyze improvements that Des Plaines would have to make to receive water at its border with Glenview instead of at its Chicago border.
The total cost for the three studies is about $147,000 and will be split three ways.
The Wilmette Village Board’s Feb. 28 decision was made as part of approving its omnibus consent agenda, without discussion.
