Saint Charles moves forward on water master plan and three IEPA-funded well projects

The Government Services Committee received a high-level presentation of Saint Charles’ 2024 water and wastewater master plans and approved notices of award for three construction projects the city expects to fund with Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA) loans.

Jim Wilson, who introduced the master-plan presentation, said the documents are management road maps that identify community water and wastewater needs, capital infrastructure priorities, and the relationship between those needs and future rate studies. "The purpose of this plan, is really a management planning document... It looks at the community's current needs and future needs as far as how much water we have available," Wilson said.

Wilson and staff provided system facts: the city operates several wells and three treatment facilities, treats on average about 4.5 million gallons per day systemwide, and sells water to Illinois American Water at a master meter. The wastewater system averages about 5 million gallons per day at the main treatment plant and about 0.5 million gallons per day at the West plant under normal conditions, with peak wet-weather flows above 21 million gallons per day at the main plant. The master plan documents, staff said, are posted on the city website and the committee will consider more detailed sections in future meetings, including distribution and treatment-plant capacity.

Wilson noted the city is operating with a capacity shortfall for drinking water availability and described a roughly 970,000-gallon-per-day deficit that the master plan and phased capital projects aim to address. "The capacity is... the number where with our largest well offline, we have to have so much capacity. We do not meet that number," Wilson said, adding that recent and planned smaller projects are intended to "eat away at" that deficit while conservation efforts continue.

Separately, the committee approved resolutions authorizing notices of award for three related projects: the raw water line and wellsite development, the well drilling and development (Well No. 8), and rehabilitation of the Well 8 water treatment plant. Staff said these projects are part of an IEPA loan package; verbal contact with IEPA confirmed the loans will be offered but loan documents were still pending at the time of the meeting. The presenter said the low bid for the well drilling came in about $1.5 million, under the $3.3 million the city had budgeted for the work.

Committee members asked about loan terms and timing; staff said IEPA loan interest rates have been in the range of about 1.6% to 2% in recent cycles but the actual rate and loan contingencies will be known when IEPA returns final documents. Several members asked about conservation and alternatives; staff described prior ordinance updates, plumbing-code changes that reduce potable-water use, regional conservation work with planning groups, and plans to develop a conservation program in the coming fiscal year that will run in tandem with capital projects.

All three notices of award were moved, seconded and approved by roll call at the meeting; staff said once IEPA returns formal loan documents the city will finalize contracts and begin construction per the awarded contractors' schedules.