RLCD
JEFFERSON CO.—The Rend Lake Conservancy District must be feeling a little beleaguered this weekend.
After all, Rend Lake, created in the 60s, was supposed to be the “water savior” for downstate…it was supposed to provide a good drinking water source AND revenue from all the “water recreation” it was going to generate.
Unfortunately, it didn’t quite reach that level….the water was adequate, but “good” was a stretch….the recreation was there, including fishing, swimming, boating, etc….except that with an average depth that was considerably more shallow than most big lakes are expected to have (a huge portion of the lake is 6 to 8 feet, as it’s little but a river valley—the Big Muddy—flooded to encompass surrounding fields and woodlands), this shallowness created its own problems for many recreational boaters lured to the area by catchy advertising.
The water-providing opportunities amounted to such issues as the city of Mt. Vernon (in Jefferson County wherein most of the submerged farmland sat) was able to contract with most of the little outlying burgs in the area to provide their water at a low low cost. These contracts were renewable every 40 years beginning in 1968 and things went along swimmingly for awhile…until the prison went in at Ina.
Then, Mt. Vernon—and all the little outlying burgs—was suddenly swarmed with the families of those who were transferred to the prison from upstate, who of course moved to be near their loved ones awaiting release from this podunk prison in the sticks. When the population swelled, water demand swelled too. Of course, with increased demand, what came along? Increased costs, as with all utilities. Instead of Mt. Vernon just buying water from Rend Lake, they were now buying from the Rend Lake Conservancy District, and in turn, were “reselling” water from a district formed for the purpose of responsibly selling water to those who wished to buy it. So the little outlying burgs began applying for, and receiving, grants for water treatment facilities, storage tanks/water towers, infrastructure, etc…and Mt. Vernon no longer was the big dog water supplier, because some of the little burgs were able to treat and store their own water, and they could buy it outright from the RLCD, cutting Mt. Vernon out as the middleman.
Enter Waltonville.
The little village sitting to the west of Mt. V filed suit in Jefferson County court after the “big contract” was up for renewal in 2006, in it stating that since Rend Lake had formed a conservancy district, they were statutorily obligated to sell water to those who could provide the means to transport it to their business or community. And since Waltonville had been able to set up their own water treatment and storage facility, they saw no need to “repurchase” water from RLCD when they could now buy it directly. In other words, they wanted out of their contract with Mt. V, and they were going to try to utilize this reasoning to get there.
Last week, White County-based Associate Judge Mark Stanley ruled that the RLCD was indeed obligated to sell water to Waltonville as a customer, ruling that the village is in the district and the district, as defendant, “is ordered to perform its statutory duty to sell water to plaintiff (Waltonville).”
Now. What this means for Mt. Vernon and their contract remains to be seen, as Stanley hasn’t addressed that in his ruling yet. Stanley’s a fairly astute judge, so he’ll likely get around to addressing such a thing pretty quick; it may have its own quirks and technicalities that are harder to take on than just ruling that a conservancy district must provide water to those in its district.
However, the city fathers in Mt. V are kinda losing their little minds over it.
Media reports indicate that city manager Ron Neibert is fretting over the fact that Stanley’s ruling is “confusing” to everyone in town, and that they’re going to lose $28,000 a year if they don’t have that water being purchased by Waltonville.
That’s right: TWENTY-EIGHT-THOUSAND DOLLARS.
Now, I don’t know how anyone else reading this runs a household budget in their home, but I can tell you that the rough equivalent to such a dilemma in our household would be that we’re going to lose income of about $280 a year. A little more than $23 a month. Do we panic? NO. We stop buying chips for taco salad and turn a couple of lights off a little faster than ordinary. We don’t suffer a freak-out; we adjust, because $23 a month is really pittance, and we waste more than that sometimes in a week on foolish stuff.
Same for Mt. Vernon. If they can’t find a way to cut back $28k a year, there’s something seriously wrong going on. They have too many employees. They allow part-time employees to log too many hours. They pay too big of pensions. They allow some of their county offices to have a TV going all hours of the day, with soap operas being the main fare, and the taxpayers paying for not only the television set (sometimes flat screen, so it takes up less room, I shit you not) but also the electricity and the cable subscription to get it all in there, so JeffCo public servants won’t miss their “stories” while they’re on the job and it’s a slow day. You think I’m kidding? It’s going on in other counties, too; we saw it first-hand this past Thursday (I won’t say where, but….geesh).
In the print version, we’ve been tracking this trouble brewing between RLCD and the communities of Jefferson and Franklin for years. Prior to that, Ang was dealing with the issue when she worked in the area more than a decade ago. The water war boils viciously at times, we’ve learned. Water providers, by law, aren’t supposed to get rich doing the providing. If anything, they’re supposed to break even and make a little coin over and above, which they invest and set aside for infrastructure improvements.
But that’s not what’s happening in Southern Illinois. A bunch of greedy bastards get in positions of power (yes, even a water district can be considered a “power” entity….remember, ChickenBob Wilson is or at least was, last we checked, on the Saline Valley Water Conservancy District, and that’s not just because he’s the best man for the job) and use these entities for things they weren’t designed. And if that’s not the case, the middleman, like Mt. Vernon in this scenario, takes up that role, creating jobs for someone’s brother-in-law’s cousin’s housekeeper’s boy with the money they’re making off these poor villages who are being soaked with the expense, all so political favors can be made and returned, and all at a cost to the taxpayers that could be avoided if the whole thing were just handled responsibly.
What do you think? How familiar are you with water conservancy districts? How do you feel about how yours is run if you’re in one?…and should water be handled like the valuable commodity it’s become, or is this something to which everyone’s entitled to regardless of the cost?