Frankfort Water Is Hard. So Why Didn't We Switch to Lake Michigan Water?

There may not be many subjects easier to get Frankfort residents arguing about than the water.

Frankfort has hard water.

Really hard water.

But here is the part that makes the discussion more interesting.

Frankfort actually had an opportunity to seriously explore switching to Lake Michigan water in 2025.

The Village studied the engineering, infrastructure and expected rates. Residents were surveyed. The Village Board discussed it publicly.

And ultimately, Frankfort decided to keep its well-water system.

So why?

Where Does Frankfort's Water Come From?

Frankfort does not currently receive Lake Michigan water.

The municipal water system relies on groundwater wells.

The Village's 2025 drinking-water information described a system supplied by individual wells drawing groundwater from the local aquifer. Water is pumped, treated and distributed through Frankfort's municipal system.

Frankfort also operates iron-removal filtration equipment to reduce naturally occurring iron before the water reaches homes and businesses.

But those filters do not remove all of the calcium and magnesium responsible for water hardness.

How Hard Is Frankfort Water?

The Village has previously published a typical analysis of treated Frankfort water showing hardness of approximately 31-36 grains per gallon.

That is why water softeners are so common in Frankfort homes.

By comparison, Lake Michigan water distributed through regional systems in the Chicago suburbs is much softer. The DuPage Water Commission, for example, reports Lake Michigan water at approximately 8 grains per gallon.

That difference is significant.

Hard-water minerals can leave scale on faucets, shower doors, water heaters, dishwashers, coffee makers and plumbing fixtures.

That does not necessarily mean something is wrong with the water. It means homeowners often have to manage the mineral content after the water enters the house.

The Frankfort Solution Is Usually a Water Softener

For many homeowners, the practical answer is pretty simple:

Keep the water softener working and keep salt in it.

A properly operating ion-exchange softener removes much of the calcium and magnesium that creates household scale.

That comes with its own cost.

There is the softener itself, eventual repairs or replacement, water used during regeneration, and the recurring cost and inconvenience of buying bags of salt.

How much salt a household uses varies considerably based on:

• household water consumption,
• the hardness setting,
• softener size and efficiency,
• how often the system regenerates, and
• whether the unit is adjusted properly.

Current retail prices for common 40-pound bags of water-softener salt are roughly $8.50 to $10.50 per bag.

Using those prices, the salt expense could look something like this:

There Is Another Cost to All That Salt

The salt does not simply disappear after the softener regenerates.

It enters the wastewater system.

Frankfort has previously dealt with elevated chloride levels in wastewater discharged toward Hickory Creek, and the Village has specifically encouraged residents to properly adjust their softeners so they regenerate less frequently and use less salt.

That creates an unusual tradeoff.

The water's natural mineral content encourages residents to soften it, while widespread water-softener use creates another environmental and wastewater-management issue.

So Why Not Just Switch Frankfort to Lake Michigan Water?

That question was seriously considered in 2025.

In late 2024, representatives from the Village of Oak Lawn approached Frankfort about potentially joining the Oak Lawn Regional Water System.

That system purchases treated Lake Michigan water from the City of Chicago and distributes it to participating suburban communities.

Several communities around Frankfort already receive Lake Michigan water through the Oak Lawn system, including:

• Mokena,
• New Lenox,
• Orland Park,
• Orland Hills, and
• Tinley Park.

So at first glance, connecting Frankfort might sound obvious.

It was not.

Frankfort Could Not Simply Tap Into the Pipe Next Door

One of the questions raised during the discussion was why Frankfort could not simply connect to a neighboring community already receiving Lake Michigan water.

According to the Village, those neighboring systems were not designed to supply the additional 5 to 10 million gallons per day Frankfort could require.

Those municipalities also do not hold enough additional Lake Michigan water allocation to simply begin supplying Frankfort.

The proposed Oak Lawn connection therefore required Frankfort to build significant new infrastructure of its own.

That included a new transmission main between Frankfort and the regional system near Tinley Park, along with pumping, storage and other system improvements.

The Preliminary Price Tag Was About $74 Million

Frankfort hired engineering firm HR Green to study what a transition would require.

The preliminary engineering estimate came in at approximately $74 million.

Later public materials described a broader potential range of approximately $75 million to $100 million as engineering and system requirements were refined.

The expense was not simply the cost of buying water from Chicago.

Frankfort would have needed to:

• build new transmission infrastructure,
• modify its local water system,
• construct or upgrade pumping facilities,
• provide additional storage and treatment equipment,
• pay its share of Oak Lawn Regional Water System capital costs,
• pay ongoing operations and maintenance costs, and
• continue maintaining backup infrastructure.

That is why comparing the proposed Frankfort rate directly with a City of Chicago resident's water bill is not really an apples-to-apples comparison.

Frankfort would have been buying Lake Michigan water through a regional wholesale system while simultaneously paying for the infrastructure needed to get that water here.

What Would It Have Done to Frankfort Water Bills?

This is where the proposal became difficult.

Frankfort's preliminary analysis in 2025 put the existing water rate at $5.44 per 1,000 gallons.

The projected Lake Michigan water rate was roughly $21.64 to $21.75 per 1,000 gallons, depending on the stage of the preliminary estimate.

That represented an increase of approximately 300%.

Those figures are for the water portion of the bill.

The Village also modeled the effect on the complete monthly utility bill.

For a household using 5,000 gallons per month, the preliminary estimate increased the combined monthly bill from approximately:

$105.71 to $186.71.

That is roughly $81 more per month, or about $972 per year.

At 10,000 gallons per month, the preliminary difference was approximately $162 per month.

Would Lake Michigan Water Actually Be Better?

If by "better" you mean softer, then yes.

Lake Michigan water contains substantially less of the calcium and magnesium that cause Frankfort's hard-water scale.

That could mean:

• less mineral buildup on fixtures,
• less spotting on glass and dishes,
• less scale inside water heaters and appliances,
• less reliance on household water softeners, and
• less water-softener salt entering the wastewater system.

That does not automatically make Frankfort's existing water unsafe or unusable.

It is primarily a difference in water source, mineral content, household maintenance and cost.

Was Frankfort Running Out of Groundwater?

No.

This is another important part of the story.

The Village's public information said that ongoing monitoring and a 2022 engineering study found Frankfort's aquifer remained healthy and capable of supporting long-term use.

In other words, Frankfort was not being forced to find another water source because its wells were failing or running dry.

Oak Lawn approached Frankfort because the regional system had excess Lake Michigan water capacity available.

That gave Frankfort an opportunity to reconsider a question the community had already debated before.

Frankfort Considered Lake Michigan Water Before

This was not the first time.

In 2000, Frankfort placed a non-binding referendum on the ballot asking residents about switching to Lake Michigan water.

Approximately two-thirds of voters opposed the change.

The Village stayed with wells.

Twenty-five years later, the question came back when Oak Lawn approached Frankfort with its excess-capacity proposal.

So this is not something Frankfort tries to push through every year.

It is a long-running infrastructure question that resurfaces when another realistic water-supply option becomes available.

Was There a Political Issue Too?

Yes, although not really in the partisan sense.

During the Village's May 2025 Committee of the Whole discussion, trustees raised concerns about:

• the projected rate increase,
• mandatory conservation requirements associated with Lake Michigan water,
• loss of some local political control, and
• changes in customer-service control.

Frankfort would still have owned and maintained its local distribution system.

But instead of producing its own drinking water from Village wells, Frankfort would have become a wholesale customer purchasing treated water through Oak Lawn.

That changes who controls part of the water-supply equation.

Was the Proposal a Money Grab?

I have not found evidence supporting that description.

The public records show something more straightforward.

Oak Lawn had excess regional system capacity that had already been built and financed and approached Frankfort about becoming another customer.

Frankfort would have received access to Lake Michigan water, while also assuming its share of regional capital debt and operating costs.

Oak Lawn obviously benefits from having another large customer helping support the regional system.

Frankfort residents would have benefited from substantially softer water.

The argument was over whether those benefits justified the infrastructure cost, higher rates and reduced local control.

That is a legitimate debate without needing to manufacture a scandal around it.

What Did Frankfort Residents Say?

The Village spent the summer of 2025 gathering feedback and held a public open house on the water question.

According to the Village, 68.2% of respondents to its resident survey opposed transitioning to Lake Michigan water.

At its September 8, 2025 Committee of the Whole meeting, the Village Board decided to continue using Frankfort's existing well-water supply.

For now, that settles the question.

So Which Is Actually Cheaper?

For most households, that depends on what you choose to count.

Staying with well water means dealing with:

• water-softener salt,
• softener maintenance and eventual replacement,
• hard-water scale if the softener is not operating properly, and
• the inconvenience of maintaining the system.

Switching to Lake Michigan water could have reduced many of those household costs.

But the preliminary municipal cost increase was substantial.

For the 5,000-gallon example, the projected increase was approximately $972 per year.

Even somebody buying two 40-pound bags of softener salt every month at current retail prices might spend only roughly $200-$250 per year on salt.

That does not include the cost of owning and maintaining the softener itself, but it illustrates why residents could reasonably look at the municipal rate increase and decide they would rather keep buying salt.

The Frankfort Water Debate Is Really About Tradeoffs

There is a legitimate argument on both sides.

The case for Lake Michigan water:

• dramatically softer water,
• less mineral scale,
• less dependence on household softeners,
• less softener salt entering the wastewater system, and
• connection to a large regional surface-water supply.

The case for staying with Frankfort wells:

• the existing aquifer remains viable,
• Frankfort retains greater control over its own water supply,
• the Village avoids a massive transmission project,
• residents avoid the projected Lake Michigan water-rate increase, and
• many of the everyday hardness problems can be managed with a properly maintained home softener.

That is probably why the debate is more complicated than simply saying Frankfort has bad water.

The water is hard.

Lake Michigan water would be considerably softer.

But getting that water to Frankfort came with a very large price tag.

The Bottom Line

Frankfort had a real opportunity in 2025 to reconsider how the community gets its drinking water.

The proposed Lake Michigan connection offered an obvious quality-of-life benefit: much softer water and potentially far less dependence on household water softeners.

But the preliminary numbers were difficult to ignore.

Approximately $74 million in infrastructure.

A projected water-rate increase of nearly 300%.

And roughly 68% of surveyed residents opposed the switch.

So Frankfort stayed with the wells.

Which leaves the same question residents have been dealing with for years:

Would you rather keep the hard Frankfort water and maintain a softener, or pay substantially more each month for Lake Michigan water?

Official Information and Sources

• Village of Frankfort: Drinking Water Fact Sheet
• Village of Frankfort: Water Source Transition FAQ
• Village of Frankfort: Lake Michigan Water Feasibility and Rate Discussion
• Village of Frankfort: May 14, 2025 Committee of the Whole Minutes
• Village of Frankfort: Water Hardness and Water Softener Information
• Illinois EPA: Frankfort Public Water System
• DuPage Water Commission: Lake Michigan Water Hardness Information