With underground aquifers that supply drinking water to Chicago suburbs drying up, the city of Joliet examined two pipeline projects to connect the region to water from Lake Michigan - one through Chicago and the other through Hammond, Ind. The challenges are almost as enormous as the undertaking. вЂњWhat we have provided is a way for everybody to move forward.вЂќ We understand they donвЂ™t have the resources,вЂќ he said.

вЂњWe understand other communities around us are facing the same problems we are. OвЂ™Dekirk insists those benefits will be shared with nearby towns that sign up now to help him build it. вЂњI definitely believe the city of Joliet is going to reap dividends from this 50 or 100 years moving forward.вЂќ вЂњThe water we buy from the city of Chicago can be resold,вЂќ OвЂ™Dekirk said at his March state of the city speech at a Holiday Inn Express in one of the cityвЂ™s warehouse districts. Joliet officials acknowledge the pipelineвЂ™s success hinges on whether the city can sell the lake water it buys wholesale from Chicago with enough profit to pay off the debt and keep JolietвЂ™s rates from soaring. WhatвЂ™s more, OвЂ™Dekirk is saddled with a string of legal and political quagmires.ДЄmong them is his strained relationship with JolietвЂ™s Black community following his physical confrontation with a Black Lives Matter protester and a well-publicized memo from his former police chief alluding to a possible federal corruption probe. Joliet is already in court fighting to annex land for large, water-gulping industrial and warehouse developers he needs to help pay for the massive pipeline. вЂњJoliet is looking to regionalize to lower the cost of their issue,вЂќ said Ben Benson, the city administrator in nearby Lockport, which ended negotiations with Joliet earlier this summer because of the price tag.Д®nvironmentalists and other groups, meanwhile, are looking to strangle the mayorвЂ™s economic development plans. вЂњWe did not have the option to let the city run out of water.вЂќД«ut officials in some neighboring suburbs are concerned about becoming overly dependent on Joliet - and OвЂ™Dekirk. вЂњIвЂ™m going to have the debt with or without the growth,вЂќ OвЂ™Dekirk said in an interview with the Better Government Association. Neighboring towns may lose the opportunity for discounts, he said, if they stay on the sidelines now and try to buy their way in later.ДЄnd OвЂ™Dekirk makes no apology for his willingness to borrow money or his embrace of development and growth to help pay it back. OвЂ™DekirkвЂ™s plan calls for leveraging JolietвЂ™s deal by bringing in neighboring communities early at the same discounted rate to help offset borrowing costs.Д«ut heвЂ™s holding a stick, as well as a carrot. The projected price tag to build it and get the water to Joliet homes and surrounding towns by 2030: up to $1.4 billion the city of Joliet and its potential partners do not have.Д®arlier this year, OвЂ™Dekirk cut a preliminary deal with Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot to buy water from Chicago at a discount.

OвЂ™Dekirk, mayor since 2015, is pressing to build an enormous, 5ВЅ-foot-wide, 31-mile-long pipeline of steel and concrete to deliver water from Lake Michigan. Enter controversial Joliet Mayor Bob OвЂ™Dekirk, whose quixotic solution could leave him poised to become the regionвЂ™s new water czar.

Suburban turmoil