Water Supply Issues: A Letter from former Mayor Howley

[This was written by former Mayor Howley to the City Council.]

Tonight's the Decatur City Council will begin an important study session which promises to attain a long-range solution to Decatur's water supply issue. The following facts are pertinent to the Council’s decision-making process and hopefully will be considered:

• Water supply has been at the top of this city's priority list since the lake was built in 1920 due to the concentration of large industrial users in the city,
• There have been dozens of studies completed since the 1940's about increasing the capacity of our lake,
• There have been dozens of studies completed since the 1940's about decreasing the amount of silt entering into Lake Decatur from the Sangamon River watershed,
• Most of these studies, paid for with taxpayer dollars, are sitting on shelves in the Public Works library and have never been fully implemented,
• Decatur makes enough water daily for a city of approx 300,000 population (approximately 38 million gallons per day “MGPD”),
• Our water supply currently is replenished from the Sangamon River, Big Creek, and Sand Creek and other small streams that feed into our lake. In total over 960 square miles provide water to Lake Decatur,
• Normal daily inflow from the Sangamon River averages 225 MGPD, at present that is down to about 5 MGPD (according to Jon Smith of the City),
• The Decatur Sanitary District processes approximately 30-32 MGPD of waste water through their system every day of the year,
• After processing this treated discharge daily, the sanitary district of Decatur discharges a similar amount down the Sangamon River.

Perhaps one of the most important and least discussed alternatives is:

Can this processed water from the city be recycled back to ADM, SWTP or the Lake on a daily basis rather than discharged downstream?

Is this not one of the most logical steps towards preserving this precious water resource so vital to our community? The city and county have sponsored a re-cycling program for several years dealing with newspaper, aluminum, plastic and glass containers. Yet we have not exhausted the possibility of recycling our water. We have all heard that the water supply is not the problem in Macon County. It is the management of those resources that is in question. There is plenty of water here. Our challenge is not to store more water but to ask that it be managed correctly by those entities who make and treat it on a daily basis.

The Council will hear a proposal from the City’s consultant to spend $60 million or more for a second reservoir that may provide the city only an additional 60-day emergency water supply. While tempting when we see our lake levels drop, we must ask ourselves if this is this the most cost effective alternative?

If we contrast this alternative with increasing our daily water supply by ten or fifteen million gallons everyday, we must be sure all alternatives are being fully considered. Companies like ADM, Tate & Lyle and potential new companies would certainly welcome an increase in daily supply versus an additional 60 day supply.

We all should ask why the last four ADM plant expansions have not been in Decatur. What is the city doing to work with ADM and others to ensure that any future job expansions happen here and not along the Mississippi River?

As the Council studies issues tonight, other alternatives also warrant attention. One example is the city the dredging program. This program must continue at a more rapid pace. The lake has already lost 50 percent of its storage capacity.

Even more important are water resources that are currently available including Vulcan Pits, Lake Toko and the additional wells. These may be able to double the amount of water available daily to this city. If instead, we continue to use our water and discharge it downstream, some of the currently available resources may be claimed by the State of Illinois in the future.

A 45% water rate hike over the next three years is also unpalatable to your largest users when they can re-locate to other areas where water is cheaper. Your goal tonight is to find the least expensive long-range solution to this problem that has plagued this city for the past 50 years.

I do not believe that endorsing the consultant's proposed platform in total will achieve this without missing the ultimate opportunity of constructing a re-cycling system whereby we can reuse these millions of gallons of water daily again and again and again and thus potentially lower the water rates for everyone. Some creative “out-of-the-box” thinking on your part may be the only way to approach this issue for the dollars involved.

The City Council set a precedent on the police department space needs by telling city staff to explore other alternatives. I would hope that I see and hear the same direction tonight. Before, deciding to spend $62 million on a project that does not give this city a long-term expansion of our water supply.

The Council should avoid being lulled to sleep by the fact that ADM, Tate & Lyle, CAT are here now and are our largest customers. These companies manage their bottom line and if they can determine it is in their best interest to re-locate operations to another site, they will. Lowering high costs increases their profits and returns to their shareholders.

It is better be on the offensive here rather than playing catch up - it may be too late by then!

Comments

[John]

You mentioned that we should tell you what we think.
I think that the city NEEDS to raise the water rates.
Higher rates will encourage more water conservation.
It will fund for the future a wider range of options to develope a greater water supply, which in turn, will encourage more growth. The situation right now in Atlanta proves that, in order for a community to promote and maintain growth, it will have to have adequate water supply not only for the present, but for the future as well. Also, increasing water rates will also encourage the industries using tremendous amounts of water to seek more cost effective methods. It's my understanding that it requires over 1000 gallons of water to produce one gallon of ethanol fuel.
Well, that's my thoughts on the matter.
John Norris
Decatur, Illinois

[AssoseCiz]

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[HICEIMMELDJUM]

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Again, be aware unencumbered to ifiable bounce off whatever comes to mind. Thanks in advance.

[sofevallsat]

allowed the boot abide Friday. I'm not asd why, but I expected more than a Friday session striking me I'm done when I've resolveed there 8 years. It's a minor visitors, and they certainly knew this was coming- why do I get no warning?

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[Scucculadiala]

Okay, this is a happy moment.
I fixed the washing machine. I tried this a few weeks back and nothing worked right then (got it working though), but today the thing just fell apart again. I popped open the front cover, the motor was (this time) easy to remove, I super-glued the bottom pulley back together, and it was running again in 30 minutes. The squeak and rattle are gone. And it looks like this time they'll stay gone!
What's your recent victory?