Why our water rates are surging – and why black and poor suburbs pay more

Same Lake, Unequal Rates

Lake Michigan water rates have been surging throughout the Chicago region in recent years, squeezing low-income residents and leaving them with little, if any, recourse, a Tribune analysis shows.

And the financial pain falls disproportionately on majority-African-American communities, where residents’ median water bill is 20 percent higher for the same amount of water than residents pay in predominantly white communities, the Tribune’s examination revealed.

In this tangled network that delivers water to the vast majority of the region’s residents, the Tribune found an upside-down world, one where people in the poorest communities pay more for a basic life necessity than those in the wealthiest.

Consider Ford Heights, a cash-strapped, predominantly African-American suburb south of Chicago. People there pay nearly six times more for the same amount of water than residents of Highland Park, a wealthy, predominantly white town on the North Shore — and four times more than Chicago residents.

In the end, little is stopping local leaders from raising rates even more: Illinois regulators have no oversight authority over towns’ water rates.

“Their residents are experiencing a regressive kind of tax that is having a significant impact on their quality of life,” said Robert Bullard, professor of urban […]

Full article: Why our water rates are surging – and why black and poor suburbs pay more