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ESU board recommends updated sewer fee structure, proposes separate industrial class
Summary
The board voted to forward proposed sewer ordinance fee changes to city council, creating two classes of sewer customers, increasing industrial load charges and proposing a 3,000,000-gallon monthly threshold for special rates.
The Kankakee City Environmental Services Utility Board voted March 17 to recommend that the City Council consider revisions to the sewer ordinance fee schedule that create two customer classes and raise industrial load charges to better recover costs related to fats, oils and grease.
Board members and staff said the proposed structure would designate Class 1 as domestic customers (residential and ordinary commercial businesses) and Class 2 as identified industrial users with heavier biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), total suspended solids (TSS) and grease loadings. The proposal also includes a provision that applies a separate rate structure for any industrial user averaging more than 3,000,000 gallons in a month; the first 3,000,000 gallons would be charged at the Class 2 rate and volumes above that would be charged at a lower listed fee.
According to staff, the changes aim to charge heavy industrial dischargers closer to the costs they impose on the treatment system — particularly for pretreatment, grease control and extra lab testing — while limiting increases for residential and general commercial customers. Staff said Class 1 users would see approximately a 2% increase; industrial load and FOG (fats, oils and grease) charges were described as “significantly upped” in the draft ordinance but specific percentage increases were not specified during the meeting.
City staff told the board the ordinance is time-sensitive: the existing three-year agreement expires April 30 and the board recommended the new fee schedule be considered at the City Council’s first April meeting so the billing agency can provide 30-day notices ahead of the utility’s fiscal-year billing cycle.
Alderman Olsinga made the motion to recommend the ordinance changes and Alderman Swanson seconded. The board approved the recommendation on an 8–0 roll call vote.
No final ordinance was adopted at the ESU meeting; the item will go to City Council for consideration and formal ordinance adoption.
