Lake County officials and a consultant on July 30 outlined options to improve long‑term resiliency for the Vernon Hills water system, which currently obtains treated Lake Michigan water through the Central Lake County Joint Action Water Agency (CLC JAWA).

Luke Mattson, project manager with Sea Harbor Group and lead author of the Vernon Hills resiliency evaluation, told the Lake County Public Works and Transportation Committee the study tested 18 alternative combinations to supply water if CLC JAWA could not provide treated water. The study used two performance criteria: maintaining system pressures at or above 20 psi and keeping elevated‑tank water levels stable.

Mattson said the recommended short‑term improvement is a new interconnection with the Village of Buffalo Grove consisting of a connection vault, about 3,700 feet of 14‑inch water main along Buffalo Grove Road, delivery to Lake County’s Corporate Woods reservoir, and upgrades to the reservoir pump station. He said that connection "essentially raises the pressure in the system about 20 PSI overall," which allowed the system to meet the study’s pressure criterion and to keep elevated tanks from draining.

For longer‑term redundancy the study modeled adding five average‑capacity groundwater wells sited at existing county facilities to avoid land acquisition. Mattson provided a high‑level budget estimate of roughly $15 million in current‑day dollars: about $5 million for the Buffalo Grove interconnection and roughly $10 million for the groundwater wells. The cost estimate excludes ongoing operational costs and, for wells, potential land acquisition if new sites are required.

Lake County Public Works Director Austin McFarland introduced the presentation and told the committee that Vernon Hills is the county’s largest water system by demand. Mattson said the system’s average day demand is roughly 3,000,000 gallons and the maximum day demand about 6,000,000 gallons; system storage totals roughly 7,000,000 gallons across nine facilities.

The study modeled several failure scenarios and focused on the case of a treatment‑plant outage at CLC JAWA — the scenario the county asked to prioritize because a plant outage would affect all JAWA members. Under that scenario the study found interconnections with neighbors such as North Chicago and Lincolnshire alone could not maintain required pressures in parts of Vernon Hills; adding the Buffalo Grove interconnection met the engineering criteria for the study.

Discussants raised questions about well chemistry and treatment. Mattson said the study scoped "average capacity" wells likely drawing from shallower aquifers, and that the budget includes contingencies for treatment; he said the intention was to use existing county facility sites where possible to avoid land purchases.

Committee members emphasized that most JAWA members reportedly have extended backup supplies (wells) while Vernon Hills does not, making resiliency planning important. Chair Clark noted JAWA infrastructure is aging and cited prior short outages; another member said there had been brief shutdowns in the past 12 months and several repairs over five years. No formal action was required or taken by the committee; staff said they will finalize the report and integrate recommendations into capital‑planning decisions. Mattson provided a tentative project schedule with design starting January 2026 and phased construction beginning in FY 2026.

If adopted in whole or part, the short‑term Buffalo Grove interconnection would require coordination and additional hydraulic modeling with Buffalo Grove to confirm their system could supply the added demand.