Antioch: Voters will have final say on lake water

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Updated: November 12, 2011 12:40AM

No matter what the outcome of the studies and recommendations on bringing Lake Michigan water to the village, Antioch officials agree the final decision should be up to the voters.

“I don’t support the project, but if we agree to pursue it, then it has to be decided by referendum,” said Trustee Scott Pierce.

The proposed cost per household is going up now that the original group of 10 municipalities in the North-West Lake County Lake Michigan Water Planning Group is down to seven: Antioch, Fox Lake, Lake Villa, Lindenhurst, Volo, Wauconda and the county on behalf of Grandwood Park and Fox Lake Hills.

The planning group has been working on three major components; Updating project cost estimates, evaluating the Lake County Public Water District site; and developing a decision grid listing all the options to bring water west as a long-term municipal water source, said Village Administrator James Keim.

Details on the options of forming an independent joint action water agency (JAWA), joining an existing area water agency or receiving water from an existing Lake Michigan water community will be listed on the decision grid, he said.

The project cost has gone down from the original cost estimate of $252 million to about $207 million, but costs to the remaining municipalities will likely increase, said Keim.

Applied Technologies and Baxter and Woodman, consulting engineers to the group, are expected to finish up the studies and report results to the North-West planning group in October.

“There are a number of issues still being discussed,” said Trustee Jay Jozwiak, a delegate to the group, including the possibility of other water agencies selling water to the planning group members. “At that point we will see the study results specific to each community, which will bring this process close to closure.”

The conclusion could be that each community has its own unique solution to providing Lake Michigan water to its residents, said Keim. “This group’s goal is to look at what options are best for the whole.”

Keim recommends that the village fund its own study to make sure a decision is made in Antioch’s best interest. “We need to have a comparison, because we may be able to do this cheaper without the group.”

Village officials aren’t ready to take that step, which would require the financially strapped village to spend more money.