Riverside trustees on Thursday approved an agreement with the village of McCook to have it supply Riverside with water through the year 2060.
While substantially similar to the villages’ existing contract, the 35-year agreement will help Riverside continue to replace lead service lines in town as required by the Illinois Lead Service Line Replacement and Notification Act of 2022.
To replace lead service lines in 2025, Riverside has received a zero-interest loan from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency in the amount of $4 million, which the village will have to pay back over a 30-year span.
As part of the terms of the loan, Riverside must keep an active intergovernmental agreement for the purchase of water for the duration of the repayment period, which the new contract with McCook will satisfy.
“The revision is for a period of 35 years because, if we were to secure any funding in the next couple of years, we wouldn’t want to have to go through this process again,” Dan Tabb, Riverside’s director of public works, told the village board.
According to Riverside’s website, the village anticipates the replacement of all lead service lines in town will cost about $25 million. The high price tag means the village must space out the replacements over time, though staff expect Riverside will keep up with the state’s expectations of replacing at least 6% of the village’s leaded lines each year, with work beginning no later than Nov. 1, 2027, and completing by 2044.
According to the village’s lead service line replacement plan, dated April 1, 2025, Riverside knows of 1,474 lead service lines and suspects 291 further lines are leaded for a total of 1,765 lines that must be replaced. Through 2024, the village had replaced 72 lines.
