DuPage Water Commission

DuPage Water Commission Facilities

The Commission added 2.4 miles of a 12 foot diameter tunnel to the City's distribution system. This was constructed through limestone, 150 feet below the surface. The tunnel ends at the Lexington Pumping Station, located at Lexington and Laramie, near Chicago's western city limits. The Lexington Station and the tunnel connecting it to the Central Park Station were constructed for the City of Chicago by the Commission under a buy back agreement.

The Lexington Pumping Station is the largest treated water pumping station in the State of Illinois. Excavating all the way down into bedrock, 90 feet deep, the construction of this station took 36 months to complete. Currently, the station can pump 220 million gallons of water per day. With modifications, it will be capable of pumping even more when required in the future.

There are eight pumps that send water to DuPage County. Each pump has a daily capacity of 37 million gallons. In addition, two 120 million gallon per day pumps are used to fill a 30 million gallon reservoir just east of the station. The reservoir water supplements the City's tunnel system during high demand periods. Each of the large pumps, by itself, could fill the reservoir in about six hours.

The Lexington Pumping Station draws water from two 96-inch diameter pipes connected to the end of the 12-foot diameter tunnel. The eight 37 million gallon per day pumps push the water up to the discharge pipes. The water then continues its journey to DuPage County through a 90-inch and 72-inch diameter water transmission main. These mains, constructed by the Commission, transport water west to the reservoirs at the DuPage Pumping Station in Elmhurst.

The treated water travels 9.3 miles from the Lexington Pumping Station to the DuPage Pumping Station. This facility houses the administrative offices of the DuPage Water Commission. The DuPage Station's nine distribution pumps have a pumping capacity of 185 million gallons per day. The station's reservoir, like the Lexington Station's reservoir, holds 30 million gallons. The complex control center is equipped with sophisticated computers that monitor the delivery of water though more than 130 miles of transmission and feeder mains to the Commission's wholesale customers.

After leaving the pumping station the water flows through the distribution pipes to storage tanks and metering stations serving the Commission's wholesale customers. Once it travels ten feet beyond these metering stations, the water becomes the property of the receiving utility.

Each wholesale customer owns and operates pressure adjusting stations to increase or decrease the water pressure it needs for its own particular water works system. After leaving the pressure adjusting stations, water flows to local distribution systems where it is used for commercial and industrial purposes, as well as for fire fighting and residential consumption.

The Water Commission system is the second largest in the State of Illinois. It will provide a better quality of water to its service area of more than 300 square miles, projected to have a population of almost one million by the year 2020. The Commission's large network of underground mains assures DuPage County of a plentiful water supply for at least the next 100 years.