Chicago, Illinois: water and wastewater capital improvement projects
80 line items · $4.7B · starting 2026–2028 · 2 plans
Chicago's published capital plans list 80 water, sewer and wastewater line items with a combined planning budget of $4.7B, of which 14 items worth $1.5B sit in the wastewater and sewer departments. The largest single item is Water Main CIP w/ LSLR at $772M (2025–2028). The ten largest items are listed below; the full list with descriptions and page references is in Klarifi.
A capital improvement plan (CIP) is a city’s multi-year budget for building and replacing infrastructure. The water, sewer and wastewater sections list each project with its budget and the years it is funded, which makes them the earliest public signal that a plant, pump station or pipe network is about to be upgraded, usually two to four years before a contract is awarded.
The largest water and sewer projects in Chicago
| # | Project | Department | Type | Budget | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Water Main CIP w/ LSLR | Water Distribution | Lead service line replacement | $772M | 2025–2028 |
| 2 | Leaks & Breaks LSLR | Water Distribution | Lead service line replacement | $446M | 2025–2028 |
| 3 | Sewer Construction w/ LSLR | Sewer | Lead service line replacement | $404M | 2024–2028 |
| 4 | Regional Solution - Area 4 | Sewer | — | $319M | 2024–2028 |
| 5 | JWPP - Filter Underdrain Replacement | Water Supply | Membranes and filtration | $306M | 2028–2035 |
| 6 | Block Level LSLR | Water Distribution | Lead service line replacement | $280M | 2025–2028 |
| 7 | Sewer Main Lining | Sewer | Sewer rehabilitation and I&I | $241M | 2024–2028 |
| 8 | Water Meter Replacement Program | Water Distribution | Meters and AMI | $210M | 2025–2028 |
| 9 | BES Consulting Services | Water Supply | Planning, studies and asset management | $200M | 2025–2028 |
| 10 | Private Drains in the Right of Way | Sewer | — | $190M | 2025–2028 |
70 more line items in Chicago, with descriptions and contacts
Klarifi holds every Chicago line item with its description, the page it appears on and the source document, plus 10 verified contacts at the city’s treatment plants. Track new plans as they are adopted and compare with similar projects in other cities.
Planned spend by start year
Before 2026
$4.3B
76 items
2026
$111M
1 items
2028
$310M
3 items
By department
| Department | Line items | Budget | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sewer | 14 | $1.5B | 31% |
| Water Supply | 50 | $1.2B | 26% |
| Water Distribution | 16 | $2.0B | 42% |
Project types in Chicago's plan
Wastewater treatment plants in Chicago
1 publicly owned treatment plant in Chicago with 10 permit violations in the last three years. Each profile shows flow, permit, technology and compliance data.
| Plant | Avg flow (MGD) | NPDES | Violations (3y) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Metropolitan Water Reclamation | 281.73 | ILL028061 | 10 |
Other Illinois cities with capital plans
Chicago capital plan questions
Sources and methodology
Budgets and years are as published in Chicago’s capital improvement plan or adopted budget. Klarifi extracts the water, sewer and wastewater line items from the published document, keeps the page reference for each one, and assigns a project type from the title and description with a keyword classifier. Figures are planning budgets, not awarded contracts, and can change when a plan is re-adopted.
Documents: Adopted Budget 2025 (2 line items); CIP 2024–2028 (78 line items).
Data refreshed October 5, 2026.
Wastewater terms: Lift station · Inflow and infiltration · Sludge dewatering · WWTP · Significant industrial user · Biosolids · all terms