Arlington Heights, Cook County, Illinois
What a Plumber Arlington Heights Homeowners Call Is Really Working Against
Most municipal websites tell you what the system is supposed to do. Arlington Heights publishes something rarer and considerably more useful: what the system currently does, what it is meant to do instead, and the size of the difference. In the combined sewer problem areas the Village states the present level of service protects basements up to 1.8 inches of rain in a one hour event. The ten year service level its consultants were asked to price is 2.1 inches in one hour. The gap is three tenths of an inch.
That single pair of numbers explains more about drainage work in this village than any amount of general advice. It tells you the system is close rather than broken, that a heavy summer cell rather than a season of rain is what puts water in a basement, and that the fix on the private side of the line is a known and subsidised piece of plumbing rather than an emergency. It also explains why the Village pays three quarters of the cost of that fix.
The Shortfall, in the Units It Was Measured In
Inches of Rain per Hour, Which Is How Flooding Is Actually Priced
Three flood studies were carried out between 2013 and 2016 and produced seventeen stormwater improvement projects for the capital programme. The village is split into two very different drainage worlds and the studies treated them separately, because the failure mode is not the same in each.
In the Combined Sewered Tributary Area, storm water and waste water share one pipe on their way to the deep tunnel system and then to the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District plants. The sanitary service line connecting a house to a combined sewer will also act as a conduit for excess storm water to enter the house, which is precisely how a basement backup happens. In the separately sewered areas, storm water goes to a creek and waste water goes to the treatment plants down a different pipe, so the same storm produces overland flooding rather than a backup.
| What is being measured | Rainfall in one hour | Service level | What the Village says about it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Present protection against basement backups in the combined sewer problem areas | 1.8 inches | Current, as measured | Stated with a plus or minus 15 per cent level of accuracy, which the Village writes out as 0.3 inches |
| Target protection against basement backups in those same areas | 2.1 inches | 10 year | The level the improvement alternatives were costed against |
| Protection against severe street ponding at three separate locations | 2.59 inches | 25 year | Chosen as the lowest level leaving water on pavements passable for emergency vehicles |
| Design standard in the separately sewered areas | Not stated in inches | 100 year | Achieved with storm water control and detention basins, and described as not feasible in a combined system |
Read that table once and the arithmetic does something uncomfortable. The measured shortfall between what exists and what is wanted is 0.3 inches, and the published accuracy of the measurement is also 0.3 inches. That is the Village being honest about the limits of its own model rather than the Village being vague. Outside the identified problem areas it states plainly that the system already meets the desired service level.
What Closing the Gap Costs
Four Public Prices for Three Tenths of an Inch
The consultants costed more than one route, and the Village published all of them rather than only the chosen one. Enlarging the combined sewers alone, described as the relief sewer only alternative, comes to approximately $13 million. Combining smaller relief sewers with overhead sewers on private property comes to approximately $11 million, and that figure deliberately excludes the private share because the Village assumes its homeowner cost sharing programme continues.
The third number is the one worth pausing on. If the Village funded 100 per cent of the private property overhead sewer work instead of sharing it, the same plan rises from approximately $11 million to approximately $15.5 million. The difference is what householders are collectively expected to bring to the table. Separately, protecting the three street ponding locations against a 2.59 inch hour is estimated at approximately $3 million, with the $2.7 million Campbell and Sigwalt work excluded because it is already inside the relief sewer figure.
On the damage side the Village offers one figure and immediately undercuts it. After the storm of 23 July 2011, average reported damage in affected single family homes was approximately $8,500 adjusted to today dollars. The Village calls that calculation unscientific in its own words, because many survey respondents gave no dollar value and not every affected property owner replied. We are repeating the caveat because publishing the number without it would be the dishonest half of the sentence.
The Largest Homeowner Plumbing Subsidy We Have Recorded
Seventy Five Per Cent of an Overhead Sewer, up to $11,250
An overhead sewer converts a gravity fed sanitary connection into one that pumps, and the Village explains why it works in engineering terms rather than sales terms. Completing an overhead sewer on a house raises its lowest possible opening by several feet, so the house is no longer exposed when the Hydraulic Grade Line rises. That is the pressure and flow depth of water inside the sewer, and it is what decides whether your floor drain becomes an inlet.
As an incentive, the Village offers a rebate of 75 per cent of the cost of installing a Village approved overhead sewer or an approved alternative flood control system, up to a maximum of $11,250. The enhanced version of the programme began in 2018, and the underlying principle goes back to a Village Board decision in 2001 to fund a cost sharing programme for overhead sewers on individual private properties.
- Converting a gravity fed sanitary sewer system into an overhead sanitary sewer system
- Or an approved alternative flood control system, where the Village has approved the alternative
- A rebate of 75 per cent of the cost, so a quarter of the bill remains yours
- A maximum of $11,250, which caps the Village share regardless of the total
- Qualifying homeowners, with the application filed through the Village programme rather than assumed
- Permit work, described in the permit catalogue as its own permit type
Two things follow that nobody tells you at the quotation stage. The 75 per cent and the $11,250 ceiling interact, so above $15,000 of work the effective share stops being three quarters and starts falling. And the modelling behind the programme found that overhead sewers alone did not fix everything: several problem areas still saw high Hydraulic Grade Lines during the design event, which is why relief sewers were added back into the preferred alternative. Your house can be protected while your street is not.
A Second Ceiling, Four and a Half Times Smaller
The Lead Service Line Reimbursement, and Where the Line Divides
On 3 September 2024 the Village Board approved a Lead Line Replacement Reimbursement Program. The Village covers 100 per cent of the cost of replacing the public side of a lead service line, which runs from the water main to the buffalo box or shut off valve in the right of way. For the private side, from that shut off to the house, it reimburses 50 per cent or up to $2,500, whichever is less, subject to funds available each year.
The route matters as much as the money. The private side is replaced by the homeowner at their own expense through a New Water Service permit with the Building and Life Safety Department, and the Village states that work may qualify for a no fee permit. Reimbursement is applied for after the work is complete, not before it starts.
Public side replacement is prioritised in neighbourhoods where major capital projects are already under way, and after that it runs first come first served. From 1 January 2025 the Village allocates $3 to $4 million a year to this work, and it secured a $2 million federal grant in 2024. The deadline behind all of it is Illinois law: the Village states it aims to eliminate all lead from its water systems by 2035.
Two Rebates, Two Very Different Ceilings
How the Village Prices Two Problems That Both Live in Your Basement
Placing these side by side is not an idle comparison. Both are plumbing jobs on private property, both are subsidised by the same village, and the ceilings differ by a factor of four and a half. The shape tells you which risk the Village considers the more expensive to leave alone.
| Programme | Share paid | Ceiling | Route | Dated |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overhead sewer or approved alternative flood control system | 75 per cent | $11,250 | Village rebate programme, own permit type | Enhanced from 2018, cost sharing decision 2001 |
| Private side lead service line replacement | 50 per cent, or less | $2,500 | New Water Service permit, then reimbursement | Board approved 3 September 2024 |
| Public side lead service line replacement | 100 per cent | No ceiling stated | Village capital work, prioritised then first come first served | $3 to $4 million a year from 1 January 2025 |
Notice what the third row does to the second. The Village will pay the entire cost of the half of the pipe it owns and half the cost of the half you own, which means a full replacement is funded very unevenly along its length. That is not a criticism, it is simply the ownership boundary made visible in money, and it is the reason a lead replacement job is normally scheduled around the Village programme rather than against it.
Where the Water Comes From
Lake Michigan, Treated in Evanston, Delivered by a Commission
Beginning in 1985 the Village changed from a deep well ground water source to Lake Michigan surface water, and the supply chain since then has three separate owners. The City of Evanston provides complete treatment and filtration of all water supplied to Village of Arlington Heights municipal customers. The Northwest Water Commission receives that treated water from Evanston and distributes it to its four member communities, of which Arlington Heights is one.
The Evanston plant adds fluoride and chlorine in accordance with state and federal guidelines, and it adds poly orthophosphate as a corrosion inhibitor specifically to guard against lead and copper contamination. That is worth restating plainly: the chemical treatment that keeps an old Arlington Heights service line from shedding metal into your kitchen tap is dosed in a different city, by a different water utility, before the water ever reaches the commission that delivers it.
The Village tests its drinking water for lead every three years and states those tests have never shown elevated levels. It also runs enhanced notification, in place since the summer of 2016: residents get a notice at the door when a water main replacement happens within one block, when a main break is repaired within one block, or when their own meter is replaced, because each of those can disturb the protective lining inside pipes.
The Meter in Your Basement Is Being Replaced
A Programme With No Opt Out, and a Consequence for Ignoring It
The Village is replacing water meters village wide through a contractor, Professional Meters Inc, working across seven identified zones. The awarded contract amount is $3,200,000, the tentative start date was 1 March 2024 and the tentative completion date 15 December 2025. The Village states it has over 18,000 residential accounts.
Two answers on the programme page are unusually direct. Asked whether a resident can decline, the Village answers that there is no opting out. Asked what happens if notices are ignored, it answers that failure to respond to attempts to notify residents could result in having your water shut off. Those are not the sentences a utility writes when participation is optional.
The new meters do not use household internet. They run on the existing ComEd and Itron smart grid mesh network that has read electric meters in the village since 2015. The stated benefit is a customer portal showing daily usage, so a running toilet or a hose left on shows up as consumption while nobody is home rather than as a surprise on a bill. The Village also cites an EPA target of no more than 10 per cent of a municipal supply being lost as unallocated water.
Permits, and One Rule Most People Get Wrong
Emergency Work Still Needs a Permit, Within 24 Hours
The Village requires permits for certain building and construction projects, and everything now runs through the Civic Access Portal. Anyone seeking a permit in the Village is required to use it, so there is no counter route to fall back on. The Building and Life Safety Department takes questions on 847-368-5560.
The rule worth knowing before something bursts is this one. Asked directly whether a permit is needed for emergency work, the Village answers yes, a permit is required for all emergency repair work and must be submitted within 24 hours after the work begins. The work does not wait for the paperwork, but the paperwork does not get skipped either, and a day is the whole window.
Permits are valid for one year from issuance. A permit becomes expired if substantial work has not started within six months of issuance, or if work is not completed within one year. Extension requests go in writing to Building and Life Safety, and extensions can be granted for periods of not more than 180 days each. Construction hours are Monday to Friday 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
The permit catalogue is granular in a way that helps you know what you are buying. Alongside a general plumbing permit for standalone residential work there are separate entries for water heater replacement in the same location, a new water service, water supply line repair, sewer repair and clean out, interior drain tile, lawn sprinkler installation, lead line service replacement and the sewer back up rebate conversion itself. Exterior drainage work such as buried downspouts and sump discharge pipes sits under engineering rather than building.
The Sequence in Order
How an Overhead Sewer Conversion Actually Runs Here
Written out as a sequence, the flood control route is a series of decisions rather than a single purchase, and the order is what protects the rebate.
- Establish which drainage world your address is in
The combined sewered tributary area and the separately sewered areas fail in different ways. A basement backup is the combined area problem. Overland and street flooding is the separate area problem, and the remedy is different.
- Identify the failure you actually have
Water entering through a floor drain during heavy rain points at the sanitary service line acting as a conduit. Water entering from outside points at grading, downspouts or the storm system, which is engineering drainage work rather than a sewer conversion.
- Apply to the programme before the work, not after
The rebate is a Village programme with its own application and its own permit type. Treating it as a receipt you send in later is how the 75 per cent gets lost.
- Get the system approved rather than assumed
The rebate covers a Village approved overhead sewer or an approved alternative flood control system. Approved is doing real work in that sentence, and an alternative that nobody approved is simply a private purchase.
- Book the permit and the inspection through Civic Access
Applications, documents, inspection scheduling and messages to staff all live in the portal. Emergency work gets its application in within 24 hours of starting.
- Understand what the conversion does and does not buy
It raises your lowest opening several feet above the Hydraulic Grade Line. It does not lower the Hydraulic Grade Line in your street, which is why relief sewers stayed in the Village preferred plan.
Four Pairs, and the Gap in Each
Numbers Arlington Heights Publishes About Itself in Twos
1.8 inches against 2.1 inches
Basement backup protection you have against the ten year level being priced. A gap of 0.3 inches, alongside a stated accuracy of 0.3 inches.
$11 million against $15.5 million
The same flood control plan with the homeowner cost share in place, and without it. The difference is the private contribution made visible.
$11,250 against $2,500
The overhead sewer ceiling against the private lead line ceiling. Two subsidised plumbing jobs in the same basement, priced four and a half times apart.
100 per cent against 50 per cent
What the Village pays on the public side of a lead service line against the private side. One pipe, one job, two funding rules along its length.
There is a fifth pair that has no money attached and matters anyway. Public Works is open Monday to Friday from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. and takes service requests on 847-368-5800. Outside those hours, for a broken water main, a blocked sewer or a sewer backup, the Village instruction is to dial 9-1-1 and someone will be dispatched. Very few municipalities route a sewer backup through the emergency number, and knowing that at two in the morning is worth more than any of the figures above.
What This Means on a Job
How the Local Rules Change a Plumber Arlington Heights Call Out
Three practical consequences follow from everything above. Work that starts as an emergency still generates a permit application inside 24 hours. A sewer backup in the combined area is a design event problem with a subsidised private remedy rather than simply a blocked line. And a lead service line replacement is scheduled against a Village programme with its own permit, its own reimbursement route and its own annual funding pot.
Sewer line repair is the service most directly touched by the combined sewer arrangement here, and drain cleaning is where a recurring backup usually gets investigated first. Hydro jetting answers a line coated along its length, which matters in a village that flushes and root cuts its own mains for exactly that reason.
Water heater repair has its own permit type here for a replacement in the same location. Leak detection and repiping cover supply pipework, and burst pipe repair and emergency plumbing cover the first hour. We publish no response time for Arlington Heights, because a number typed into a web page helps nobody standing in water.
Two nearby pages on this site are worth naming. Chicago sits south east of here on a different water and permitting arrangement entirely. And Arlington, Texas is a wholly separate city in Tarrant County that shares only the first word of this village name, which is exactly why these two pages exist independently of each other.
Where We Work
Arlington Heights Neighbourhoods and Corridors
These are the parts of the village people name when they book. Several of them appear by name in the Village own stormwater programme, which is a genuine difference in drainage history rather than a marketing distinction.
Arlington Heights Plumbing Questions, Answered Straight
A published gap of three tenths of an inch, a 75 per cent rebate with a ceiling, a lead programme with a smaller one, and a village that sends sewer backups to 9-1-1 after 4 p.m.
Arlington Heights, Illinois, a village in Cook County north west of Chicago. Arlington in Texas is a separate city in Tarrant County and it has its own page on this site. The two are genuinely different places and the keyword data behind them is separate too: the Arlington Heights partition holds 60 rows, of which 8 carry an explicit Illinois token, no row carries a competing state token at all, and the international check returns nothing. Every fact on this page is a Village of Arlington Heights arrangement.
Because the design event here is measured in inches per hour rather than inches per storm. In the combined sewered tributary area the Village states the present level of service protects against basement backups for 1.8 inches of rain in a one hour event, with a plus or minus 15 per cent accuracy that it writes out as 0.3 inches. A long soaking day can deliver more total rain than a short intense cell and still not exceed the hourly rate that overwhelms the pipe.
It converts a gravity fed sanitary sewer connection into an overhead sanitary system. The Village explains the mechanism plainly: completing an overhead sewer raises the lowest possible opening of the house by several feet, so the property is no longer exposed when the Hydraulic Grade Line, the pressure and flow depth of water inside the sewer, rises during a storm. The Village rebates 75 per cent of the cost of a Village approved overhead sewer or an approved alternative flood control system, up to a maximum of $11,250.
For the private side, from the buffalo box or shut off valve to the house, 50 per cent or up to $2,500, whichever is less, subject to funds available each year. For the public side, from the water main to that shut off, the Village covers 100 per cent. The private work is done at the homeowner expense through a New Water Service permit with Building and Life Safety, which the Village says may qualify for a no fee permit, and the reimbursement is claimed once the work is complete.
The Village publishes an identification method and a map. Find the service line where it enters the property, usually in the basement next to the meter, scratch through surface corrosion with a key or a coin rather than a knife, and look. Copper coloured like a penny is copper. Shiny and silver is likely lead. A refrigerator magnet will not stick to either copper or lead, but it will stick to a galvanized connector, and a magnet sticking to the connector points at a lead service line. The Village also maintains a GIS water service material map, and under Illinois Public Act 102-0613 a galvanized line once connected to a lead village side line is treated as if it were lead.
Yes. The Village answers this one directly: a permit is required for all emergency repair work and must be submitted within 24 hours after the work begins. The repair itself is not held up waiting for the permit, but the application follows inside a day. Permits are then valid for one year, expire if substantial work has not started within six months, and can be extended in writing for periods of not more than 180 days each.
The Village instruction is unusual and worth knowing in advance. Public Works is open Monday to Friday from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. on 847-368-5800. Outside those hours, for an emergency such as a broken water main, a blocked sewer, a sewer backup or limbs blocking a roadway, the Village tells residents to dial 9-1-1 and states that someone will be dispatched to assist. Very few municipalities route a sewer backup through the emergency number.
Lake Michigan, since 1985, when the Village changed from a deep well ground water source. The City of Evanston provides complete treatment and filtration, adding fluoride and chlorine in line with state and federal guidelines and poly orthophosphate as a corrosion inhibitor to guard against lead and copper. The Northwest Water Commission receives the treated water from Evanston and distributes it to four member communities including Arlington Heights.
No. The Village states that there is no opting out of the water meter replacement programme, and that failure to respond to attempts to notify residents to have their meters replaced could result in having the water shut off. The contractor is Professional Meters Inc, the awarded contract amount is $3,200,000, and the work runs across seven zones from a tentative start of 1 March 2024 to a tentative completion of 15 December 2025 across over 18,000 residential accounts.
No. The Village states the new meters do not rely on personal or business internet service. They use the existing ComEd and Itron smart grid mesh network which has collected usage information from electric meters since 2015 and already serves all homes in the village. The stated resident benefit is a customer portal showing daily usage, so water running while nobody is home becomes visible immediately rather than at the end of a billing period.
The private service line runs from the water meter pit, buffalo box or shut off valve to the house, and it is owned and maintained by the property owner. The public service line runs from the water main to that buffalo box or shut off inside the Village right of way, and the Village maintains it along with the water main itself. The Village Water Distribution Unit is responsible for the main and for the public portion of the service line.
No, and the Village is explicit about it. The seventeen improvement projects came out of three flood studies between 2013 and 2016, and outside the identified problem areas the Village states its system meets the desired level of service. Within the combined sewered tributary area the storm water control provides between a 10 and 25 year level of service, while in the separately sewered areas a 100 year design is achieved with storm water control and detention basins, which the Village says is not feasible in a combined system.
Work Priced Against Numbers That Are Public
A Plumber Arlington Heights Residents Can Check the Homework Of
Everything on this page came off the Village own pages, which means you can check any of it before you agree to anything. Ask which drainage area your address sits in. Ask whether the remedy being quoted is the one the rebate programme covers. Ask whether the lead line work is going through a New Water Service permit and whether that permit carries a fee. Those three questions separate a considered job from an expensive one, and the answers are all matters of public record.
Sources for the 1.8 inch present level of service and its plus or minus 15 per cent accuracy, the 2.1 inch ten year target, the 2.59 inch 25 year street ponding level, the 100 year separate sewer design standard and the seventeen projects from three flood studies of 2013 to 2016: the Village of Arlington Heights Storm Water and Flood Management page.
The same page is the source for the four cost alternatives at approximately $13 million, $11 million, $15.5 million and $3 million, the excluded $2.7 million Campbell and Sigwalt figure, the 23 July 2011 average reported damage of approximately $8,500 together with the Village own description of that calculation as unscientific, the Hydraulic Grade Line explanation, the over 200 miles of storm sewer being televised, and the 75 per cent overhead sewer rebate up to a maximum of $11,250 with its 2018 enhancement and 2001 board decision.
Sources for the Lead Line Replacement Reimbursement Program approved 3 September 2024, the 50 per cent or up to $2,500 private side reimbursement, the 100 per cent public side cover, the New Water Service permit route and the no fee permit possibility, the prioritisation then first come first served rule, the $3 to $4 million annual allocation from 1 January 2025, the $2 million grant awarded in 2024, the 2035 elimination target under Illinois law, the three yearly lead testing statement, the public and private service line definitions, the scratch and magnet identification method and the Public Act 102-0613 treatment of galvanized lines: the Village of Arlington Heights Residential Lead Line Replacement and Lead Information page.
Sources for the 1985 change from deep well ground water to Lake Michigan surface water, the City of Evanston treatment and filtration role, the fluoride, chlorine and poly orthophosphate dosing, the Northwest Water Commission and its four member communities, and the enhanced notification rules in place since summer 2016: the Village Water Quality Reports and Standards page.
Sources for the water meter replacement programme, the contractor Professional Meters Inc, the $3,200,000 awarded contract, the 1 March 2024 to 15 December 2025 dates, the seven zones, the over 18,000 residential accounts, the no opt out answer, the water shut off consequence, the ComEd and Itron mesh network and the EPA 10 per cent unallocated water target: the Village Water Meter Replacement Program page.
Sources for the Civic Access Portal requirement, the 24 hour emergency permit rule, the one year validity, the six month start rule, the 180 day extension periods, the construction hours and the permit catalogue entries for general plumbing, water heater replacement, new water service, water supply line repair, sewer repair and clean out, interior drain tile, lawn sprinkler installation, lead line service replacement and the sewer back up rebate conversion: the Village Permits and Licenses page.
Source for the Public Works hours, the 847-368-5800 number and the instruction to dial 9-1-1 out of hours for a broken main, blocked sewer or sewer backup: the Village Public Works Services page. Source for the combined sewer overflow notification arrangement under NPDES CSO General Permit No. ILM58006 and the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District opt in alert system: the Village Combined Sewer Overflow Public Notification Plan page.
No permit fee, plan review fee, water rate or sewer rate is quoted anywhere on this page. Permit fees are published inside the Civic Access Portal and inside per permit document packets that were not opened, and no water or sewer rate page was located on the Village site. No count of properties with known lead service lines is stated, because that inventory is published as a map layer rather than as text. No completion status is claimed for the meter replacement programme, because the Village states a target of end 2025 and does not report progress against it.
The two rebate ceilings are quoted exactly as the Village publishes them. Any comparison between them on this page, including the observation that one ceiling is four and a half times the other, is our arithmetic on published figures rather than a Village statement. No response time, crew count, office or address of ours is stated for Arlington Heights. Codes, fees, rebate ceilings, funding and programme dates change, so confirm current requirements with the Village of Arlington Heights before relying on anything above.