Lake County Gazette

During its March 28 meeting, village officials from Long Grove discussed their ongoing efforts with the Lake Michigan water connection project involving much of Lake County. The village officials have been in discussions with Congressmen Schakowsky and Schneider who have both recommended the project be approved but have to pass it through all the committees. The county has had other successful connections to Lake Michigan water for villages like Fox Lake Hills and Lake Villa, and now Long Grove is looking to be able to access the water source for their village, which they have been working on in past years.

The Long Grove Village Board discussed the village's ongoing efforts with the Lake Michigan Water Connection project, a federally funded drinking water improvement project involving much of Lake County.

Village officials have been in discussions with Reps. Jan Schakowsky and Brad Schneider, both of whom have recommended the project for approval. The county has had other successful connections to Lake Michigan water for villages like Fox Lake Hills and Lake Villa, and Village Manager Greg Jackson said Long Grove is looking to be able to access lake water as well after years of attempts.

"We had communication with all three of the congressional representatives’ offices last week," Jackson explained. "Congressman (Mike) Quigley's deadline was this past Friday. Publication of the grantees will be on April 7th. We are hoping to hear sometime this week we were contacted by Congresswoman Schakowsky, as well as Congressman Schneider, who both gave us favorable comments on the submission that Congresswoman Schakowsky put this project at the top of the list. So, we're hopeful."

The project could provide more water distribution for the southern areas of the village, and all current city well water users could be switched to Lake water, Jackson said. If so, the city’s wells would not be terminated completely, but would only be maintained and used as a backup or emergency source for residents. This would be an ongoing expense for the village to provide the infrastructure to deliver the water, and the board were unsure how the distribution would be divided among the village, but any steps towards getting Michigan water to the village would be a step in the right direction, the board decided.

“The project would also help the village with radium mitigation efforts its wells, an issue that is of greater importance,” Jackson said. “There is naturally occurring radium from the well water, which is filtered out through the village's water treatment systems, but it is just discharged into the sanitary sewer system and flows into the Lake County owned water treatment plant. Because of that, there will be charges and mitigation efforts from all entities putting radium into the water treatment facility, so continued well water usage from Long Grove will also have increased expenses if it doesn't switch over to Lake Michigan water.”