The Village of Homewood is changing its water supplier to help ensure our residents will have continued access to a safe, good quality water supply, and at a better rate and with more rate certainty into the future. 

Our current supplier, the City of Harvey, has increased rates 52% over a seven-year period (2012-2020). The new supplier, the City of Chicago Heights, will sell us water at a lower rate than we are currently paying, and with locked-in rate increases for the next 25 years.

We have looked at variety of scenarios and determined this option provides the safest and most cost-effective solution.

Major construction was recently completed. The transition to the new supplier is anticipated to start in Summer 2022, and testing will continue throughout the entire process. We will be reaching out to the community and communicating regularly as we approach the transition phase, ensuring customers know what to expect and where to go with questions or concerns.

The Village has planned ahead, and this project comes at no added cost to rate payers as it will be funded by the Village’s ‘Water Fund'.

Chicago Heights has been purchasing water from the City of Hammond, Indiana since 1984.

25 years.

Chicago Heights supplies water for the following municipalities: Ford Heights, Glenwood, South Chicago Heights and Thornton.

All major construction is complete.

We have also been working diligently to follow all federal and state EPA guidelines and testing protocols, to ensure the water is safe, this includes taking daily water samples. Burns & McDonnell, the project engineering firm, initiated a study In November 2020, to understand the potential impacts of the new transmission line on our system, which included taking daily water samples.  The daily testing and analysis will continue through and after the transition to the new transmission main and new water supplier.

The connection will be made at 183rd Street and Indiana Avenue in the Village of Thornton and run northwest for 2.3 miles through the old IC railroad right-of-way in the Izaak Walton Preserve to the Village’s pumping station at Ashland Avenue and Maple Road. The project team has been in close coordination with the Izaak Walton Preserve.

The Village of Homewood is constructing the transmission line and will own and maintain the line. Construction of the transmission line is being paid for by money available through the water fund.

Yes. The volume and flow rates needed by the Village and its customers are not changing; therefore, the existing infrastructure will remain the same. Lake water will be pumped from the new station in Thornton into the existing Village water treatment plants.

The Village of Homewood has been working diligently to follow all federal and state EPA guidelines and testing protocols.  In November 2020, we started performing a study to understand the potential impacts of the new transmission line on our system. We took actual pipe sections from the Village of Homewood system and connected them to the pumping station we will use with the new supplier and then pumped the water through the pipes, just like we will when the new transmission line is operational.

Daily water samples (32,964 as of 9/9/2021) have been taken from this “test system”, and all data has shown that the new system will provide the high-quality water our customers depend on. This study will also inform the steps we will take before transitioning the water line to ensure we are prepared to mitigate any out of the ordinary issues that may come up. Daily testing will continue throughout the transition to the new water supplier.

Water quality reports are issued every year in (month) for the previous calendar year. View the current Water Quality Report.

Flint and University Park changed their water sources. The Village of Homewood is not changing its water source. We are changing our water supplier.  The process and potential implications for changing a water source (like Flint and University Park) is very different and poses different potential risks. Unlike Flint and University Park, our water source is staying the same and will continue to come from Lake Michigan.  The Village is also taking additional steps to thoroughly study the potential impacts of changing our water supplier and performing extensive water quality testing before, during and after the transition.