Oak Park’s village board discussed plans to comply with a 2021 state law mandating that community water systems commit to a schedule of replacing all their public and private lead water service lines.
Complying with the state law presents a significant cost to the village and its residents, with Oak Park largely ineligible for financial assistance from the state to help complete the projects due to local income levels. There are more than 8,700 service lines in the village that will need to be replaced and an additional 2,845 that will need to be either verified as lead free or replaced, according to the village.
The village must submit its final plan for lead service line replacement to the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency by April 15, 2027.
Replacing the underground public service lines would make significant roadway reconstruction and other updates to the village’s aging infrastructure necessary, bringing the total cost of the project to an estimated $318 million. At least 215 blocks of Oak Park water main will need to be fully replaced during construction. If Oak Park were to absorb the cost associated with replacing parts of service lines that run on private property, as nearby Riverside has largely done, it would add about $85 million to that total bringing the cost of the project above $400 million, according to Erin Duffy, Oak Park’s deputy public works director.
“One of the factors that comes along with lead service line replacement is the need to replace our aging infrastructure, so our water main and then roadway reconstruction, as we’re doing all of this work,” Duffy said. “So I worked with engineering to come up with an estimate based on the 2024 project and the 2025 project, what that total burden might look like for the village.”
Those figures are in 2025 dollars, so the total cost could rise significantly with inflation and changes in average construction costs.
“Think of this over 30 or 40 years, this is an enormous amount,” said Trustee Jim Taglia. “Even if you take progress, you’re talking a billion dollars, maybe over, over the course of the project.”
State and federal laws concerning lead service line replacements mandate different timelines — 26 years for project completion by the Illinois law and 17.9 years by the federal law — but complying with ether set of regulations would require Oak Park to pick up its pace. Based on current lead service line replacement projects, Oak Park is on pace to have replaced all of its lead water service lines in about 50 years.
The mandated timeline for project completion and the high infrastructure costs presents a distinct challenge for the village. The village will likely dedicate some resources to supporting a lobbying effort in Springfield to push for more favorable state expectations, village leaders said.
“When you look at $400 million you know, it’s infeasible,” said Village Manager Kevin Jackson. “So we’ll do the best that we can right now. But I think that that consideration should be part of the communication strategy, from my point of view.”
While Oak Park leaders are unlikely to support the village absorbing the private side service line replacement costs, the village is weighing several different options on how it can help residents pay for their homes’ service line replacements. The costs for the replacements are steep, with current cost for a new private one-inch copper service line is estimated at $7,500, according to the village.
Options for the resident program could include full village financial assistance for low-income households, capped installation costs for residents and long-term repayment plans that residents would pay overtime through their monthly water bills.
Oak Park’s village board finance committee is expected to settle on what payment expectations will be for residents at a meeting on July 16.
“It is a tough pill to swallow, and it’s an unfunded mandate from the state and federal government,” said Trustee Brian Straw. “I lean towards an income-based hybrid model with an approach that allows repayment through the water bill over time for folks who are not income qualified. I think the question then becomes, what the income qualification level is, and so I think that’s something that we would need to consider further at the Finance Committee as to what that appropriate level is, and what those impacts look like.”
Later in the meeting, trustees approved a pilot program authorizing over $600,000 in village spending to support a low interest loan program that will support residents replacing their lead service lines before the broader project begins.