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Lake Zurich village leaders toured the Northwest Suburban Municipal Joint Action Water Agency Monday as they continue the search for a new water supplier for the village.

The tour, led by NSMJAWA Executive Director Paul May, follows a years-long study by Lake Zurich officials to determine the most efficient solution for providing fresh water throughout the village. Currently, the village uses six, deep well systems to provide water to its local businesses and 20,000 residents, according to village records.

This is the second water plant tour by village leaders. Last August, they saw the operations at the Central Lake County Joint Action Water Agency in Lake Bluff.

“I’m impressed with all of these facilities,” Lake Zurich Mayor Thomas Poynton said during the Monday night tour in Chicago. We’re lucky we have some great water systems to choose from. We still have a lot of work to do, we’re taking the steps we need to take to educate ourselves.

The tour Monday served as the special Village Board meeting.

“As soon as we get all of the information that we feel comfortable with that we need,” Poynton said, “we’ll make some kind of decision.”

NSMJAWA, built in 1985 near O’Hare International Airport, is primarily a water pump station which supplies Lake Michigan water to seven member municipalities: Streamwood, Schaumburg, Rolling Meadows, Hoffman Estates, Hanover Park, Mount Prospect and Elk Grove Village.

May said the facility has the capacity to add Lake Zurich to accommodate the village’s water needs.

“This station was built for 100 million gallons a day. We’re pumping on an average day 35 million,” May told Pioneer Press. “We have more than adequate capacity to add any additional community.”

The facility has two large storage containers with 20 million gallons of water. May said each of the member towns also have 2 ½ days of water storage.

Just last September, a new building was erected to house two new 2,000 kilowatt generators, run on diesel, to more efficiently pump water – particularly during storms. The cost of the project was $5.4 million, said Ron Baker, water operations manager. He said the only water treatment managed by this facility is the addition of sodium hypochlorite to bring up the chlorine residuals in the water.

“The water quality is very good,” May told village leaders. “None of our customers have water softeners.”

Currently, NSMJAWA water usage fees are $5.65 per 1,000 gallons of water, May said.

“It’s not a rate, it’s a reimbursement,” May clarified to Pioneer Press. “We don’t set a rate. Ee pay Chicago, we pay our other costs and the rate floats based on expenses.”

NSMJAWA pays the city of Chicago $4.13 per 1,000 gallons of water, May said, then adds a current debt service of $1.20 per 1,000 gallons of water plus costs.

Although the cost for Lake Zurich to connect to CLCJAWA’s system has not yet been negotiated,  CLCJAWA Executive Director Bill Soucie told village officials last August water usage fees were averaging $1.63 per 1,000 gallons of water. The village of Lake Zurich, which officials report currently uses 1.5 million gallons of water a day, or 550 million gallons of water each year, could potentially pay about $896,500 annually for the water supply from CLCJAWA plus the connection fees.

Those connection fees were estimated to be about $3,000 for each household, based on other member municipalities of the same size as Lake Zurich, Soucie previously said. That would be a $25 million payback to CLCJAWA over 30 years with no interest.

On Monday, some Lake Zurich trustees noted the significant increase in NSMJAWA water usage fees when compared with CLCJAWA – more than a $3 difference in simply the purchase of water.

Trustees agreed they would still have to cover capital improvements and investment, and would have to tack on a little extra cost to cover the village’s own infrastructure. They also agreed the village would still have to maintain village wells and pumps but would see additional costs for linkage structures to bring the Lake Michigan water to Lake Zurich.

If village officials choose to have Lake Zurich transition to Lake Michigan water supplied by NSMJAWA, the village will also be faced with infrastructure costs to connect pipeline to the system – which has a 90-inch transmission lane around the north side of O’Hare and runs west to connect with pipeline that runs north along Barrington Road to the Barrington water tower.

May said Lake Zurich could connect there and could potentially share connection costs with Barrington.

In 2019, the Lake County Public Works Department issued a letter to Lake Zurich asking the village to remove radium produced by its ion exchange process from the wastewater stream sent to Lake County, according to Village Manager Ray Keller.

In 2020, the village hired Engineering Enterprises Inc. consulting firm to study the long-term viability of the deep well system currently in place versus switching to the Lake Michigan water supply. Consultants participated in both water plant tours.

Elizabeth Owens-Schiele is a freelancer.