Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel’s recent proposal to jack up city water rates is guaranteed to make most Chicago residents grouse. After all, Chicagoans have been used to cheap and plentiful water for decades. Not too long ago, water fountains in the city’s parks used to run continuously from Memorial Day to Labor Day, perhaps because installing push-button valves was too much trouble — or because water was considered to be practically free. Moreover, most residents and businesses didn’t even have water meters regulating their water usage. Talk about an open tap!

Those days are about over, thankfully, because from a sustainability standpoint, Chicago’s longtime water profligacy is almost as embarrassing as its inability to implement an effective solid waste recycling program or its propensity for dumping non-disinfected wastewater into its rivers and canals.

So while most citizens will grumble about the rate increases on the horizon, forward-thinking institutions like the Center for Neighborhood Technology are singing a different tune:

CNT welcomes Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s move to modernize Chicago’s water infrastructure through increased, and arguably fairer, rate prices. The decision will reduce the amount of water lost through leaks in crumbling pipes, and improve the system’s ability to deal with intense storms that cause flooding and wreak costly havoc on property owners.

The decision was unveiled in the city budget proposal for 2012 to the Chicago City Council today. Among the new initiatives it puts forward is an increase in the annual fee for water and sewer services. The water fee for property owners would increase by 25 percent next year and would begin to charge institutions, such as CNT, for water services that have historically received those services for free.

CNT’s Vice President of Policy Jacky Grimshaw served on the mayoral transition committee that recommended it to him. “Equitable and accurate rates for usage is essential for both system efficiency and managing long-term operational costs associated with water services in the City,” the transition document states.

As a leader and proponent of stormwater management techniques, such as green infrastructure, CNT and its Water program staff look forward to working with the mayor to ensure innovative, sustainable stormwater management measures are a significant part of the City’s water infrastructure modernization effort.