Recommendation: Coordinate and conserve shared water supply resources

Understanding both the available supply of water and the current and future demand is critical to making informed land use, transportation, and infrastructure investment decisions. Today several different state agencies collect and analyze information about the use and condition of our region’s drinking water supply, which can result in redundancy and gaps in planning and responsibilities. A properly funded and coordinated approach could enhance regional understanding of and planning for water supply and demand. 

Working together, land use planners and water utility managers can align local planning efforts with current and future water supply constraints. Assessing forecasted demand scenarios in the context of available water supply and infrastructure capacity can inform regional and local planners about the sufficiency of water supply and encourage actions that conserve water, protect supply, and/or pursue alternative drinking water sources. In particular, local water demand forecasts can help bridge land use, transportation, and municipal finance and asset management decisions as development patterns affect water use and also long-term infrastructure maintenance costs. Avoiding expensive capacity expansions can help maintain municipal fiscal stability but requires coordination across municipal departments to reduce water demand.

Illinois groundwater withdrawals are governed under the rule of reasonable use, with no permitting program for withdrawals. Building on the precedent of the Lake Michigan Allocation program, CMAP supports the development of a comprehensive groundwater management program to resolve conflicts and manage withdrawals for long-term sustainability. This will be particularly important in coming years as climate change is expected to diminish the amount and quality of water supplies while also increasing water demand.^{{{U.S. Global Change Research Program, 2014 National Climate Assessment, Water Supply, https://nca2014.globalchange.gov/highlights/report-findings/water-supply.}}} To implement such a program, critical elements of water supply management will need to be strengthened, including more robust annual and monthly water reporting from communities, to inform the regional groundwater flow model, river water studies, and regional water demand forecast. Communities that coordinate with ISWS to review new public or private well proposals will have a better understanding of potential effects and can plan accordingly to reduce conflicts and shortages.

Communities are already organizing to protect water resources, with examples that include the Northwest Water Planning Alliance (NWPA), the Barrington Area Council of Governments, and communities and industrial partners in the Joliet area. As groundwater is a shared regional resource, withdrawals require coordination across jurisdictions; management systems can evolve as new information and policies become available. As groundwater-dependent communities face growing challenges due to over-withdrawal and contamination, some might pursue access to Lake Michigan water. As required by their permits, Lake Michigan communities can help make more of the state’s limited allocation available to others in the region by increasing conservation and efficiency and reducing water loss. Water 2050^{{{Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning, “Water 2050: Northeastern Illinois Regional Water Supply/Demand Plan,”2010}}} and a subsequent CMAP report^{{{Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning, “An Assessment of Water Loss among Lake Michigan Permittees in Illinois,” 2014, http://www.cmap.illinois.gov/programs/water/supply-planning/loss.}}} identified key strategies for water demand management and water loss reduction.

Investing in long-term maintenance of drinking water systems is an ongoing challenge for many communities.^{{{Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning, “An Assessment of Water Loss among Lake Michigan Permittees in Illinois,” 2014, http://www.cmap.illinois.gov/programs/water/supply-planning/loss.}}} Because water infrastructure is largely an underground asset, its maintenance needs are not as apparent as other community challenges. Addressing deferred maintenance and modernization — such as lead mitigation — can require substantial funding, and as the region’s infrastructure ages and faces increasing impacts from climate change, maintenance needs are anticipated to grow. CMAP supports state efforts to make the Public Water Supply Loan Program more accessible for communities and encourages the prioritization of projects based on realistic water demand projections and maintenance of existing water capacity before new capacity investments.

Managing water demand is another way community water suppliers can avoid expensive new expansion projects and focus on maintenance of existing assets. As outlined in Water 2050, foundational demand management strategies include annual water loss audits, full-cost pricing( Water rates set to recover the full cost of providing water service ) to set appropriate water rates based on infrastructure need, water reuse and conservation programs, and universal metering to accurately account and charge for water usage. For more information on full-cost pricing, see the Local governments should implement user fees strategy. Municipalities across the region are also updating ordinances and educating customers about conservation and efficiency in landscaping and watering.

Water affordability is a growing concern in many communities as continuing escalation of service and infrastructure costs translate into rising utility bills. Areas with vulnerable populations, such as low-income residents, people of color, and the elderly, are disproportionately affected. Water pricing should be sensitive to the ability of the consumer to pay, yet small utilities with a low-income customer base may struggle to achieve the appropriate rate structure that pays for the system. Water utility consolidation is one strategy to address these challenges. The Chicago region has hundreds of community water supply systems, most of which are publicly owned and managed by a municipality. Small water suppliers are more likely to face significant capital constraints for maintenance and upgrades and often struggle to meet state standards. Communities are already exploring ways to gain efficiencies of scale through collaboration and consolidation, and they should continue to investigate potential options among neighboring utilities.