Democracy on the Front Lines
City Administrator’s Blog
Walter Denton
May 23, 2007
It’s summer time again, which means warm weather, vacations, and using more water. I cannot do anything about the first two, but the City of O'Fallon is very interested in water usage. Two years ago, we had a water shortage that resulted in a system-wide boil order and severe conservation measures. Last year, our water supply came perilously low several times but we barely squeaked through.
Unfortunately, the water system has not changed since last summer. We are taking steps to improve our situation, but the basic infrastructure of the system is the same as it was two years ago.
First, let’s review how our water system works. While City of O'Fallon owns the water distribution lines in O’Fallon and Fairview Heights, we do not make our own water. We buy water wholesale from the Illinois American Water Company, a private business that treats water from the Mississippi River and provides drinking water to most of the Metro East (including East St. Louis, Belleville, Columbia, Waterloo, Shiloh, and Caseyville). Illinois American brings water to a large pumping station along Hwy. 50 at French Village, where we take over the distribution of water through Fairview Heights and O’Fallon.
We have water storage tanks for water pressure and emergency reserves, but our system is dependent on the amount of water that comes to us through the French Village pump station. When demand increases, Illinois American has trouble distributing water to all of its customers. This is what happened two summers ago, when the high water demand caused a major water main break and a system-wide boil order was imposed.
Illinois American installed a new pump at the French Village Pump Station last year that was more effective at keeping our distribution lines and water tanks supplied. This spring, Illinois American is replacing some of their old valves that should also improve the water flow.
This does not address the fundamental challenge of getting water from the East St. Louis treatment plant to the French Village Pump Station. Illinois American claims to have plenty of treatment capacity at their plant, but the weakness is in the major distribution lines. In periods of high demand, there is concern whether they can push the water to us fast enough.
So what is the City doing about this? We are addressing the issue from both supply and demand perspectives. Since the water shortage two years ago, the City’s Engineering Division has been working to construct a bigger pump station at French Village and to install two one-million gallon storage tanks. Designing these things takes a long time and is expensive. The total cost is around $6 million and we have applied to the state for low interest loans. The pump station will help push the water up the hill to O’Fallon and the additional storage will provide emergency supplies during extreme water shortages. We hope to have the new pump station operational next spring and the water tanks going later in 2008.
On the demand side, there are three ways to encourage conservation: invoke usage restrictions, adjust your rate structure, or say “please.” Over the past two summers, the City has used the “please” approach and has asked residents to voluntarily conserve their water use during the summer. It has not been particularly successful. The only reason we did not have another water shortage last summer is because it rained more often.
The City Council has discussed usage restrictions (such as scheduled watering days for specific areas of town), but ultimately decided against it. Usage restrictions are unpopular and difficult to enforce. We do not have an excess of employees to drive around as the “watering police.”
Adjusting the rate structure is the third method of conservation through charging more for higher volumes. The City Council is now considering an ordinance that increases the water rate for customers who use more than 10,000 gallons per month. Around 85% of water customers use less than 10,000 gallons so the purpose is that high volume users will have increased rates that will encourage conservation. The ordinance has passed first reading and will be discussed at the Public Works Committee meeting.
These water supply measures will help, but ultimately we are dependent on the weather. It is important to our system that it rains regularly throughout the summer. When it rains, people don’t water their lawns, our water demand goes down, and we get a chance to refill our storage tanks. It doesn’t even have to rain in O’Fallon – if it rains anywhere in the Metro East, demand drops for Illinois American and they can get more water to us. As long as it rains every 10 days or so, it doesn’t matter how hot it gets in between.
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