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During a budget hearing last week, Ward 1 Ald. Frank
Edwards sat dumbfounded as City Water, Light & Power general manager
Todd Renfrow announced to the aldermen that the water department was in
dire need of infrastructure improvements — a project that would cost
$84.4 million and require a four-tiered water-rate increase. Edwards says it was the first aldermen had heard
about a new increase since CWLP increased water rates by 24 percent in
2003. He wasn’t impressed, he adds, when Renfrow told them that a
major reason for the latest rate-hike was the need to replace the
70-plus-year-old pump house at a cost of $67.5 million.
“They were saying that it’s a 70-year-old
problem,” Edwards says. “So, when you guys raised the rates
three years ago, didn’t you know about it? And if you didn’t
know about it, why not?”
Even though Renfrow stressed that Springfield’s
new water rates would be phased in and still compare favorably with those
in other cities, Edwards and the other aldermen were concerned with the
steep increases. According to CWLP’s proposal, water rates would
eventually double, jumping by 24 percent on March 1; 20 percent on Sept. 1;
14 percent on March 1, 2009; and 11.5 percent on Sept. 1, 2009. Because a majority of the aldermen were dissatisfied
with the last-minute initiative, they asked Renfrow to come up with other
feasible options, including stretching out the rate increase over more than
two years. CWLP spokeswoman Amber Sabin says that Renfrow will present two
or more budgets — the first a maintenance budget without a water-rate
increase and the others including various levels of infrastructure
improvements and upgrades — during a second hearing, tentatively
scheduled for Feb. 13. Edwards says the entire conversation doesn’t
bode well for the city’s Hunter Lake plans, especially since the
7,128 acres set aside for the second reservoir can be sold to offset the
costs of the water-treatment plant’s infrastructure improvements. “There’s been this whole discussion about
spending all this money on Hunter Lake and talking about putting water in
reservoir,” Edwards says, “but we haven’t been talking
about getting water from the present lake into the plant. “It’s kind of ass-backwards.”
The Citizens Club of Springfield recently held a
public forum to address Springfield’s future water needs, and several
notable city leaders and water experts discussed the pros and cons of
building Hunter Lake. Former Springfield Mayor Mike Houston told the
audience that the city shouldn’t abandon its second-lake plans after
spending between $27 million and $30 million and 18 years on the project.
Michael Ayers, executive vice president and CEO of the Illinois Chamber of
Commerce, joined Houston as a Hunter Lake proponent and said that residents
should consider the lake before other alternatives because it’s the
only option with a deadline.
“What Hunter Lake does provide us is a
resource, and a good one, for economic growth and development, for
recreation, for water supply — and, simultaneously, one that
guarantees us a future with all of the other alternatives still
there,” Ayers said. “If you take it away, then we’re
driven to the other alternatives.”
Clark Bullard, a professor of engineering at the
University of Illinois, argued against Hunter Lake from an environmental
standpoint, saying that its design would cause shoreline erosion, water
stagnation, pollution from agrichemicals, and the need for periodic
dredging. Donald Hanrahan, of Citizens for Sensible Water Use, also spoke
as a Hunter Lake opponent, accusing the city of relying on flawed data and
suggesting that officials consider the gravel pits under the Sangamon River
as a better, cheaper alternative. “To destroy beautiful land is hard to take when
alternatives are staring us in the face,” Hanrahan said. Ironically, Hanrahan also mentioned that the money
saved could be used for much-needed infrastructure improvements. The forum will be broadcast at 8 p.m. Friday on
WSEC-TV (Channel 14), Springfield’s PBS station.
Contact Amanda Robert at arobert@illinoistimes.com.
This article appears in Feb 7-13, 2008.
