Learn about the pros and cons of using two different methods to establish a new lawn.

What is the right price for water? It depends on whom you ask. Every community has unique needs and must decide what it wants to achieve with water rates—revenue recovery, revenue stability, affordability, economic development, encouraging efficient use of water, to name a few. This factsheet discusses rate design to encourage efficient water use, in other words, conservation pricing.

This fact sheet is for boaters to educate them on handling oil and fuel spills.

En Español

Una Guía para los Aficianados a la Navegación en español está aquí.

This product is a guide to selecting low-input turfgrass in the northeastern Illinois region.

The original brochure is available from the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (https://www.cmap.illinois.gov/documents/10180/296668/FY19-0072_BEYOND_BLUEGRASS_BROCHURE.pdf/80239944-7a22-0b71-8e62-2aff006aef41).

This document provides a review of policies and programs addressing water bill affordability issues and equitable access to water. Five broad strategies are discussed, including: cost reduction, water efficiency, rate design, customer assistance programs, and hard to reach programs. For each solution, a definition, implementation considerations, examples, and potential recommendations are provided. More extensive case studies from a handful of water systems and a brief summary of the literature reviewed is also included. Results will be used to inform a community water affordability technical assistance program.

Concern over water service affordability has grown in recent years as water bills escalate at a faster pace than the overall cost-of-living.While the cost of water has been rising over the past decade, the ability of consumers to pay for water service has declined. This review examines the definition and measurement of water affordability through a chronological search and presentation of the regulatory and research literature. Results will be used to determine a method for measuring water affordability for the northeastern Illinois region.