Rep. Avelar, Sen. Rezin, Rep. Syed, Sen.
Ventura urge long-suffering private water customers to attend
upcoming public forums on Illinois American's $152 million and Aqua's $19 million rate-hike requests
CHICAGO, July 10,
2024 /PRNewswire/ -- As frustration mounts among 1.5
million private water customers in Illinois, state legislators from both sides of
the political aisle joined the Citizens Utility Board (CUB) on
Wednesday to urge state regulators to reject rate hikes proposed by
Illinois American Water and Aqua Illinois, call on the General
Assembly to reform state water policy that has hurt consumers, and
alert people of the upcoming Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC)
public forums on the proposed increases.
State Rep. Dagmara Avelar, a
Democrat from Romeoville, state
Sen. Sue Rezin, a Republican from
Morris, state Rep. Nabeela Syed, a
Democrat from Palatine, and state Sen. Rachel Ventura, a Democrat from Joliet, held a news conference with CUB
Director of Governmental Affairs Bryan
McDaniel in Bolingbrook–a community that has suffered under
high Illinois American bills. They detailed how Aqua and Illinois
American–the state's two biggest private water utilities–have
abused their customers in recent years:
- In January, Aqua, which serves about 273,000 customers in
Illinois, filed for a $19.2 million rate-hike request that could
increase water/wastewater bills by as much as $29.91 per month. Aqua's parent company,
Essential Utilities, saw a 7 percent increase in profits, to
$498 million in 2023, and the utility
last received a rate hike, about $7
million, in 2018.
- In February, Illinois American, which serves about 1.3 million
Illinois customers, filed for a
$152.4 million rate-hike request that
could raise water/wastewater bills by up to $29 a month. The utility's parent, American
Water, made $944 million in profits
in 2023, a 15 percent increase from the year before. Illinois
American has won $120 million in
additional rate hikes in less than a decade–an $85 million increase in 2022 and a $35 million hike in 2016.
- While they pay higher bills, private water customers have also
been the victims of extremely poor service—including an Aqua water
outage in Lake County in 2023 and
unacceptable levels of lead in drinking water in University Park in 2019. While Aqua says the
problem in University Park has
been fixed, years later some customers were still drinking bottled
water because they didn't trust the company.
- Even before the utilities' rate-hike requests, their customers
contacted CUB to complain about excessive water bills, because
water policy is sorely in need of reform in Illinois:
-
- Private water utilities in 2000
won state legislative approval to add a "Qualifying
Infrastructure Plant" surcharge to bills, which has needlessly
increased costs for customers.
- In 2013, the utilities successfully pushed for a state law that
allows Illinois American and Aqua to buy up depreciated water and
wastewater systems across the state and charge their customers to
cover 100 percent of the acquisition costs.
CUB Water Tracker, CUB's special online center monitoring
the problem, found that these for-profit companies have so far
purchased 59 systems since 2013 and have passed $402 million in acquisition costs onto their
customers. Private water companies often charge customers more,
once they take over those municipal systems.
CUB's legal team is challenging the rate-hike requests,
uncovering $7.6 million in
overcharges buried in Aqua's proposed increase, and
$48.8 million in overcharges in
Illinois American's proposed increase. At the same time, CUB is
fighting for legislative reforms. Those include eliminating the QIP
surcharge; requiring shareholders to cover most of the price tag
when they buy a local water/wastewater system; and requiring local
approval through a referendum before Illinois American or Aqua
could buy up municipal systems.
"The acquisition of our municipal water systems by for-profit
entities has turned a basic necessity into liquid gold for these
companies," Sen. Rezin said. "It's imperative that the public have
a voice in these decisions through a required referendum to ensure
fair and reasonable water rates for our communities."
"Private water utilities are expensive, and, just like
consumers' bills, their dividends keep going up and up," said
Bryan McDaniel, CUB's director of
governmental affairs. "It's time for Illinois lawmakers to insist water utility
shareholders pay their fair share."
"By working alongside the Citizens Utility Board, we are
committed to reforming Illinois
utility laws that unfairly burden our families with rising water
rates, essentially putting our hardworking families underwater,"
said Rep. Avelar. "We must act now to protect our communities from
losing access to this essential resource fundamental to the health,
safety, and well-being of our residents. By advocating for fair
utility laws, we allow the millions of consumers who depend on
running water to continue to have access to an everyday resource
and ensure a sustainable and equitable future for all."
"Last summer, our community faced a dangerous water disruption
crisis that lasted five days," Rep. Syed said. "Inadequate and
drawn out mitigation of the leak coupled with poor communication
from Aqua Illinois is not the kind of service that people in my
community pay for. Now those same residents are facing a
significant rate hike. People deserve more reliable service, not
new expenses. Considering our constituents are still not seeing
enough protections against for-profit water utility companies, I
will continue to work for new legislation to provide the
protections we need."
"Water is essential to all life. We cannot allow profits to be
put over people," Sen. Ventura said. "I believe water should never
be privatized for this reason. I will continue to work with my
colleagues to protect access to clean, affordable drinking
water."
The ICC will rule on the rate hikes in November for Aqua and
December for Illinois American. In the meantime, CUB and
legislators urged private water customers to speak out against the
rate hikes at ICC public forms.
On Illinois American Water's rate-hike request:
- 7-9:30 PM, Monday, July 22, Levy Center – DuPage
Township, 251 Canterbury Lane, Bolingbrook
- 7-9 PM, Tuesday, July 23, Champaign Public Library,
Robeson Pavilion Room AB, 200 W. Green Street, Champaign
On Aqua's rate-hike request:
- 7-9 PM, Monday, July 29, McHenry
County College, Luecht Auditorium, 8900 US Highway 14,
Crystal Lake
- 7-9 PM, Thursday, Aug. 1, Olivet
Nazarene University, Wisner Auditorium, One University Ave.,
Bourbonnais
"Everyone who is unhappy with their Aqua or Illinois American
bills should attend the upcoming public forums and let their voices
be heard against unfair water bills," McDaniel said. "We've got a
lot of work to do, but the first step is for people to get involved
in fighting for justice for themselves and their neighbors."
The Citizens Utility Board (CUB) is celebrating its
40th anniversary as Illinois'
leading nonprofit utility watchdog group. Created by the Illinois
Legislature, CUB opened its doors in 1984 to represent the
interests of residential and small-business utility customers.
Since then, CUB has saved consumers more than $20 billion by helping to block rate hikes and
secure refunds. For more information, call CUB's Consumer Hotline
at 1-800-669-5556 or visit CUB's award-winning website,
www.CitizensUtilityBoard.org.
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SOURCE Citizens Utility Board