Village Explains Water System, Defends Quality

Buffalo Grove officials took the opportunity to defend the village’s water quality last week following a staff presentation about the system's history and current operations.

Greg Boysen, director of , delivered a 20-minute presentation July 9 that outlined Buffalo Grove’s water sources and testing procedures.

The village’s water, which comes from Lake Michigan through the Northwest Water Commission, is pumped from four reservoirs in Buffalo Grove, he explained.

In all, the reservoirs can hold 7.5 million gallons of water. On a typical day, a single reservoir could accommodate the entire village, Boysen said. Should one reservoir go out of service, service would continue to be provided by the others, he said.

Water is regularly tested at labs certified by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA). Reviews also are conducted by the Insurance Service Office and are run occasionally by independent consultants, Boysen said. The village’s water consistently meets or exceeds standards.

The village also has a deep well system that serves as an emergency backup for the village’s reservoirs.

Boysen’s complete report is attached to this story.

Bragg addresses water quality

While the Public Works director made no reference to that has raised repeatedly, Village Manager Dane Bragg alluded to them and one trustee addressed them directly in comments that lasted nearly as long as the presentation did.

Bragg reminded the community that the village’s  proved the safety of the water from the village's regular supply and deep well system. He also emphasized that the village has no jurisdiction over the Pekara well system in unincorporated Lake County. Stone has voiced concerns about the quality of that well water.

“There’s been questions about potential contamination of that system by the Land and Lakes landfill,” Bragg said. That well system is owned and operated by Lake County’s Public Works department and is not tied to the village’s system, he said.

Neither the IEPA nor the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have confirmed “any linkage between aquifers that service the Pekara well system or other domestic wells in the area and the Land and Lakes landfill,” Bragg said. The landfill, which is located at the northeast end of Buffalo Grove, near the Pekara well system, received  earlier this year.

Meanwhile, village-owned wells run deep — hundreds of feet into the ground — and are not connected to local or shallow water sources, Bragg said. “It is connected only to deep aquifers that are sourced, I believe, in Wisconsin, if I’m not mistaken, and have nothing to do with the local ground water or runoff,” he said.

“I bring these things up just because there are a lot of questions about our water system. And certainly I want people to understand where our water comes from and that we do have a closed system and we have very high quality water that comes from that system.”

Stone, who last month with members of her , did not attend last week’s meeting.

Berman: 'I hope we’ve heard the last of it'

“I appreciate and understand why you thought it was necessary, and it’s unfortunate that you thought it was necessary, to go through the exercise of making this presentation tonight,” Trustee Jeff Berman said following the report. “Hopefully, the public can draw whatever additional comfort they think is necessary from it.”

“Unfortunately, at least in my opinion, the one person who most desperately needed to hear and comprehend the substance of your presentation doesn’t appear to be here and would be unlikely to pay much attention to it anyway,” he said.

“As was recapped tonight by Mr. Bragg and Mr. Boysen, Mrs. Stone’s tales of doom, despotism and despair have been rejected repeatedly … and yet that hasn’t stopped her, and so we spent a good portion of our meeting this evening discussing the same issue once again. We as a board and as a community apparently will remain hostage to the inane ramblings of a half-baked crusader vainly in search of a legitimate cause,” Berman said.

“We’re spending taxpayer money that can be used for other purposes," he added.

As officials have suggested in the past, Berman said Stone should deliver any documentation to village staff that “substantiate[s] her claims and somehow make[s] them village business.

Otherwise, Berman told Village President Jeff Braiman, “there is no need for additional presentations, contrived meetings, roundtables or other publicity stunts.”

“I hope we’ve heard the last of it, I doubt we have, but I believe we should hear the last of it right here, right now tonight,” Berman said.