Protestors from the Warehouse Workers for Justice gathered outside Joliet City Hall on Monday to keep the pressure on in advocating for clean, and affordable water now and in the future for all residents and to highlight the seriousness that warehouses and the corporations that own them pay more so residents can pay less.
In late January of this year, the Joliet City Council voted unanimously in favor of a deal to obtain Lake Michigan Water from the City of Chicago by 2030. The new water source will cost the average user about $90 per month by 2030 and increase to about $143 by 2040, according to city officials. The city needs to find a new water source before the local aquifer it currently receives water from dries up.
Joliet City officials plan to sell its water to surrounding communities once it taps into the Lake Michigan Water source and they hope to use those fees from those communities to offset the higher cost to Joliet residents. But the city has to first get enough of the surrounding communities to buy into the plan.
Without a city water approved plan, the protestors said residents will not be able to afford the proposed higher cost of water and that higher cost should be placed on the warehouses in Joliet and the corporations that own them.
Roberto Clack, executive director of Warehouse Workers for Justice, said those corporations are hugely profitable and are also some of the largest users of water. The corporations have “benefited from the local aquifer and their profits have been made possible because of this water.
“We think that these corporations and warehouses can do much, much more,” Clack said.
“They can pay a little bit more so residents can get a break on the expected increases. We think this is fair. There are examples of this in other areas of the country.”
Joliet City Councilman Cesar Guerrero also spoke at the protest before heading inside City Hall for a pre-council meeting.
Guerrero said when he ran for city council in 2020 the city’s impending water crisis was the one issue during his campaign that could not be ignored.
“We need to do everything in our power to ensure that our residents have access to clean and affordable water for decades to come,” Guerrero said. “We cannot afford to wait any longer on this issue.”
Guerrero vowed to encourage his fellow city council members to support him on the move to ensure safe and affordable water for all Joliet residents. Guerrero, who had yet to be on the council when it approved the deal to bring Lake Michigan Water to Joliet via a pipeline from Chicago, also supports imposing higher water fees on corporations.
“Amazon and others like them can afford to pay just a little bit more so our working-class families won’t have to make those decisions of paying their light bill, gas bill or their water bill. Our people are struggling enough as it is. I and the rest of the Joliet City Council need to make that commitment to you today.”