Illinois Customer Communications

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Hawthorn Woods, Kildeer & Lake County Public Works Updates

For updates, background and a timeline on the issue click here

Friday, July 21, 5 p.m. update:

Hello — 

We know the week of July 4th was a difficult time for many people in Hawthorn Woods, Kildeer, and parts of Lake County.

We want to make things right. So, over the past few days, we’ve met with your local leaders to discuss immediate and long-term solutions.  

First, to recognize the impact you experienced, we are sending a $100 gift card. We hope that this gesture, begins to rebuild your trust in us. Please look for your gift card in your mailbox over the next few days.

Secondly, you will see a partial credit on your bill for the service and protection charges for the week your service was disrupted. We hope this additional action shows our commitment to serving you. We also hope these initial steps demonstrate our regret for your troubles, as well as our commitment to being your reliable provider of clean and safe water.

We’ll share more information on what happened shortly. We’ll also provide details on our plans to ensure system reliability. And you can expect to hear from us more frequently in the future. Lastly, we have our standard claims process for specific physical damage. You can find the details here.  

Our thanks to the leadership of Hawthorn Woods, Kildeer, and Lake County for meeting with us this week. And on behalf of everyone at Aqua Illinois, thank you again for your patience earlier this month — and for the opportunity to make things right.

With kind regards,

David C. Carter

Tuesday, July 11, 3 p.m. update:

After continuing to monitor our system closely, we are pleased to report that the stability continues to remain strong. As a result, as of 3:30 p.m. today, we are lifting the lawn watering ban as promised. Please return to the previous lawn sprinkling schedule for the summer season (see below). 

Since Lake County also lifted its boil water advisory for local customers this afternoon, we ended our bottled water distribution at the Hawthorn Woods Aquatic Center.

We apologize once again for the inconvenience and thank you again for your continued patience.

Please be sure to sign up for WaterSmart alerts here to receive regular updates on your water service.

Hawthorn Woods & Kildeer Lawn Sprinkling Schedule

1. Homes with an address ending with an odd number may water on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday. 
2. Homes with an address ending with an even number may water on Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday.
3. We ask customers to refrain watering between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. on ALL watering days, as more water is lost to evaporation during this timeframe.

Sunday, July 9, 3:40 p.m. update

As a result of our efforts we are lifting our boil water advisory, effective immediately. Water quality tests from a third-party lab indicate that our water is safe for use and meets the necessary approval by the Illinois EPA. We will lift the lawn watering ban in 48 hours. As a standard practice, we will continue to monitor our system’s stability.

We apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your continued patience.

Please be sure to sign up for WaterSmart alerts here to receive regular updates on your water service.

*Lake County Public Works customers should refer to provider communications for updates on boil water advisory status.

Sunday, July 9, 9am update:

We continue to make progress and are pleased to report that our system is back to normal operating pressures. Water samples were submitted to a state-certified laboratory and we are now awaiting the testing results. If favorable, we will remove the Boil Water Advisory. We will provide an update later today on the results. Thank you again for your continued patience.

Saturday, July 8 update:

We discovered and isolated what we assess to be a significant leak in our system at the property of Spencer Loomis Elementary School. This is an important milestone, and our water pressure and reserves are both improving. We will next collect the water samples that are needed for testing and submittal to regulatory authorities to remove the Boil Water Advisory.

The Boil Water Advisory remains in effect until at least the end of the weekend. We will share more updates on a specific targeted end date as we move through the testing process. For more details about how Boil Water Advisories work, click here. Thank you again for your continued patience and flexibility.

Friday, July 7 update:

Thank you for your patience as we work to fully identify the scope of this problem and move quickly to resolve these issues. We have all available resources focused on fixing this situation for you. 

We are still assessing conditions throughout this large system, and we don't have an estimate at this time of when the challenges will be fully addressed.

We’ll be sure to update this webpage when we have new information, and we’ll also share information through our Water Alerts channel. You can sign up for that here.

How we got here. Nine times out of ten, when a leak or break is discovered, it’s a single point of weakness in a system. It gets fixed, we share that update with customers, and then we move on. 

This time, however, the fix is complex and putting strain on other parts of the system, which we now also have to identify and address. 

Changes in water pressure – when water returns to a low or empty system – can create new breaks. And that appears to be what’s happening here.

What we’re doing now. Now that we know there are multiple challenges, we’re taking new and broader action:

• We’re bringing in additional water supply.
• Our teams are working to fully identify any new causes of water loss and get those shored up.
• We’re sending an updated customer communication through our WaterSmart Alerts system (sign up here).
• We continue to provide bottled water at the Hawthorn Woods Aquatic Center from 8am to 8pm. We’ll do this for as long as the advisory to boil your water remains in place.

What you can do to help. In the meantime, there are several things you can do to help:

• Please reduce your water use during times of drought. Following the temporary ban on lawn irrigation systems helps enormously, as does reducing your in-house usage.
• Please urge businesses that use significant amounts of water to join you in conserving water.
• Keep an eye on this page for updates.

What comes next. Once we solve the current issues, we’ll be taking several important steps:

• We’ll work with different assumptions about these systems when we detect future problems. 
• We’ll continue to collaborate with state, county, and municipal leaders to get more accurate forecasts of demand. We will explore what can be done to limit demand during drought conditions.
• We'll look at accelerating the addition of another well to supply more water for the system. This was already on the books for 2024.

Again, we thank everyone in the Hawthorn Woods, Kildeer, and Lake County areas for your patience. 

Thursday, July 6, 6 p.m. update:

We’re continuing to make progress on the water system and water pressure is building as we expected – our customers should have water at acceptable pressure levels, and we are continuing to increase our reserves. 

As a result of this additional pressure in the system, we’re identifying and investigating some leaks caused by various changes to the system over the past few days. That means you may see some additional activity in the community as we investigate and repair these leaks, but please know that these smaller leaks are a sign of progress that what we’re doing is working, and pressure is continuing to build. As we address the leaks we may need to turn off some water valves across the community and it may cause some isolated short-term outages. We will notify customers in advance through our WaterSmart alerts.

We sincerely thank our customers for their patience and their conservation efforts, which are making a difference in our system recovery.   As our reserves continue to increase, we expect we’ll be able to conduct the necessary testing to confirm our water is safe and lift the boil water advisory by the end of the weekend.  Bottled water remains available 8 a.m. – 8 p.m. at the Hawthorn Woods Aquatic Center until this issue is fully resolved.

What we’re doing to make sure this doesn’t happen again:

Immediately, we’re supplementing our supply to build pressure, and we’re identifying and isolating any additional failure points so that we can lift the boil water advisory. 

The lasting fix is more complicated, but we’re committed to making sure this doesn’t happen again. We will work collaboratively with the municipalities on demand projections for this growth area and develop a plan for water supply. We had already had in our planning consideration of an additional well to meet the growing water supply needs.  We have a strong water main replacement program, as well, that will be updated.

Also, note we’re in a period of drought, and increased water usage particularly for irrigation can put great stress beyond typical conservative designs for water systems.  We’ll need to again work collaboratively with state government, county government, and the communities on a robust conservation program.  

Thursday, July 6, Noon:

We have identified what we believe may be a water line break on N. Quentin Road. We are closing the valve to confirm, which will impact water service on Ensell Dr., Empress Dr., Acacia Dr., Adler Ct., Acacia Ct., N Empress Ct., S. Empress Ct., Catalpa Dr., Roman Lane and Kiddie Academy. If a break is confirmed, a longer shutdown will be required to do the repair. We apologize for the inconvenience, and we are communicating directly with impacted customers through WaterSmart alerts - to sign up visit: https://www.aquawater.com/watersmart-alerts.php#

Thursday, July 6, 8 a.m.:

We continue to make progress in stabilizing our water system by hauling additional water to help supplement our supply and increase pressure.  A vast majority of our customers have water at acceptable pressure levels, and we believe that number will continue to grow today if there are no unexpected changes in the system or sudden increases in demand.  

We need our water reserves to continue to increase before we can test to ensure the safety of our water. As a result, we expect the boil water advisory to stay in effect through the weekend. We will continue to provide bottled water at the Hawthorn Aquatic Center until the boil water advisory has been lifted.  

To support our system stabilization, water conservation from commercial and retail customers remains essential. Every drop counts as we stabilize the system and we are, in partnership with the Village of Hawthorn Woods, requiring that residents eliminate all sprinkler usage until further notice.  

We continue to thank our customers for their continued patience as we work to restore full service and lift the boil water advisory. 

Wednesday, July 5, 6:30 p.m.:

Due to a lightning and severe thunderstorm warning, have closed the water distribution center early for the safety of our customers and team members. We will resume normal hours, 8 a.m. - 8 p.m., on Thursday, July 6.

Wednesday, July 5, 5 p.m.:

After addressing a broken service line on S. Tournament Drive in Hawthorn Woods, we identified another issue and had to shut down water to a small group of approximately 60 households on Wednesday afternoon at 4:30 p.m. We believe water service will resume in that area by 8 p.m.

Wednesday, July 5, 3:30 p.m.:

We’re continuing to supplement our system’s water supply and expect customers will slowly regain water service throughout the day. More than half of our customers are back online and we expect that number to continue to grow if there are no unexpected changes in the system or sudden increases in demand.  

We are aware of the areas that are experiencing continued outages and low pressure. As we fill the water lines with water, we’re being careful to ensure air that was in the lines can escape.  Doing this helps to protect the integrity of the system and can minimize further failures, but it’s a slow process. It is essential that both residential and commercial customers refrain from lawn irrigation and conserve as much water as possible.

We thank customers for their continued patience as we work through this process and remind our customers that a boil water advisory will remain in effect until further notice. Bottled water will be available from 8 a.m. - 8 p.m. at the Hawthorn Woods Aquatic Center until this issue is completely resolved. 

Wednesday, July 5, 8 a.m.

Due to focused operations and continued work on leaks overnight, our system began to stabilize. Some customers who are without water should see increased pressure and resumed service slowly throughout the day. Today we will supplement our supply with the Aqua regional network to fill up our tank and help maintain system pressure. We’re asking that all customers - residential and commercial - continue to refrain from irrigation during this time.  

A reminder for customers as water service returns: we are still under a boil water advisory; water must be boiled for five minutes before consumption. Our bottled water distribution will be open today from 8 a.m. – 8 p.m. at the Hawthorn Woods Aquatic Center for customers who need it. 

Tuesday, July 4, 7 p.m.  

Our team is fully committed to resolving the water pressure and intermittent outages in our Hawthorn Woods, Kildeer and Lake County Public Works systems.  We recognize this is terribly inconvenient and frustrating, especially during a holiday weekend. We sincerely apologize and are working around the clock to address this issue as quickly as possible. We will continue to provide updates as frequently as we can.  

This evening and overnight, we are using all possible resources to bring in supplemental water supply from the Aqua regional network to fill both our reservoir and our water supply tank to get service back for our customers. We do not have an estimated time of restoration, but we will share updates as they become available.  We are also working through the night to eliminate any new leaks or address breaks that may have arisen

Tuesday, July 4 at 10 a.m.  

We saw some progress in addressing the water pressure issues facing the Hawthorn Woods, Kildeer and Lake County Public Works systems overnight, as our system pressure stabilized. However, increased morning demand caused pressure to drop again. As a result, we believe customers will continue to experience low pressure and outages today.  

We apologize for this inconvenience, and we’re continuing to work around the clock to fully resolve the issue. To help support our customers, we’re setting up a bottled water distribution center at the at the Hawthorn Woods Aquatic Center beginning at 1pm CT.    

We’re asking our customers to continue conserving as much water as possible to help expedite system recovery, including eliminating all outdoor water usage, taking shorter showers, minimizing the use of washers and dishwashers and not letting the water run unnecessarily.   

A boil water advisory will remain in place until our supply increases and tests indicate our water is safe to consume. You can sign up for our WaterSmart alerts for updates on service and bottled water distribution here: https://www.aquawater.com/watersmart-alerts.php  

Monday, July 3 at 11 p.m.  

We are facing additional pressure issues in the Hawthorn Woods, Kildeer and Lake County Public Works systems, which we believe are caused by an additional line break. Our teams are working around the clock to determine the source. This work may cause reduced water pressure or outages throughout the system overnight. In the meantime, we ask that our customers continue conserving and boiling water.  

We appreciate the inconvenience and are working to quickly to coordinate bottled water distribution for our customers. We will share more updates as soon as they become available.  We appreciate your continued patience and are committed to fully resolving this issue.  

Monday, July 3 at 3 p.m.  

Our teams successfully restored water service to the Hawthorn Woods, Kildeer and Lake County Public Works systems. A precautionary boil water advisory is in effect until our testing confirms the water is safe to consume.   

We believe we identified the root cause as a leaking fire hydrant on a commercial property connected to our system. The leak, exacerbated by this week’s drought conditions, created the dramatic losses in water pressure and system outages. We appreciate our customers’ continued patience. We will continue to keep you updated and notify you once the boil water advisory is lifted.  

Monday, July 3 at 11 a.m.:  

Our team continues to work around the clock to address the low pressure and water outages in the Hawthorn Woods, Kildeer and the Lake County Public Works systems. We have identified the root of the issue, and we believe we will soon be able to fully restore service with a boil water advisory remaining in place.    

To help support these efforts, we ask our customers to conserve as much water as possible. This includes eliminating all outdoor water usage, taking shorter showers, minimizing the use of washers and dishwashers and not letting the water run unnecessarily.  

We thank our customers for their patience while we address this issue - we will continue to keep them updated.  

Sunday, July 2 at 4:30 p.m.:

Due to the severe drought facing our region, Aqua Illinois is addressing low pressure and water outages in the Hawthorn Woods, Kildeer and the Lake County Public Works systems. As a result we have issued a precautionary boil water advisory, asking all customers to use bottled water or to boil all water for consumption.

Our operations team is working diligently to increase water pressure and supply to fully restore service as quickly as possible, including the use of booster pumps in our reservoir.

To help speed up service restoration and to end the boil water advisory, it is essential that customers conserve as much water as possible. In addition to our conservation notices and recommended irrigation schedules sent throughout the month of June, we’re asking customers to discontinue all non-essential water use. This includes eliminating all outdoor water usage, taking shorter showers, minimizing the use of washers and dishwashers and not letting the water run while shaving or brushing teeth.

We apologize for the inconvenience over the holiday weekend, and we thank our customer for helping to conserve water in support of our efforts - every drop counts.

Sunday, July 2 at 2 p.m.:  

Due to the severe drought facing our region, Aqua Illinois is addressing low pressure and water outages in the Hawthorn Woods, Kildeer and the Lake County Public Works systems.  

Our operations team is working diligently to increase water pressure and supply to fully restore service as quickly as possible, including the use of booster pumps in our reservoir. To help speed up service restoration, it is essential that customers conserve as much water as possible.   

In addition to our conservation notices and recommended irrigation schedules sent throughout the month of June, we’re asking customers to discontinue all non-essential water use. This includes eliminating all outdoor water usage, taking shorter showers, minimizing the use of washers and dishwashers and not letting the water run while shaving or brushing teeth.  

We apologize for the inconvenience over the holiday weekend, and we thank our customer for helping to conserve water in support of our efforts - every drop counts.    

Sunday, July 2 at 8 a.m.  

This is an important notice from AQUA sent 07-02-2023. Please note, only notified customers in Hawthorn Woods water system are affected. This is not a system wide notification.