Comments Off on ILLINOIS: Residents’ Lawsuit Seeks Damages as Raw Sewage Floods Homes
CAHOKIA HEIGHTS, Illinois, July 21, 2021 (ENS) – The community group Centreville Citizens for Change and 24 individual residents are suing Commonfields of Cahokia Public Water District and the City of Cahokia Heights in federal court.
They are seeking a court order to stop years of raw sewage pollution and stormwater still flooding into their homes, yards and streets resulting from what the group calls “the defendants’ severely deteriorated, malfunctioning and poorly designed sanitary sewer and stormwater systems.”
In this lawsuit, Centreville Citizens for Change alleges that Commonfields has been discharging raw sewage into this residential community in violation of the Clean Water Act.
Southern Illinois Town Sued by Residents Over Sewage, Floodwater
Residents of Cahokia Heights in southwestern Illinois are taking their town and public water district to federal court over what they say is a violation of the Clean Water Act and basic human rights.
In this screenshot from a lawsuit, a lift station at North 82nd Street and Bluff Street in Centreville, Illinois, is seen during a flood on March 30, 2019. (Screenshot via Courthouse News)
EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. (CN) Walter Byrd is tired of his town s crap. Literally.
The longtime resident of Cahokia Heights, Illinois, formerly known as Centreville, has been dealing with storm water and raw sewage flooding his home for years - and he s had enough of it.
Last modified on Fri 12 Feb 2021 13.36 EST
Sharon Smith has to plunge her toilet to get it to flush. On rainy days, wastewater spills into her yard from nearby drainage ditches. Twice in the last year her house has flooded, leaving behind the sickening smell of sewage, she said.
Her carpets are ruined, the floorboards are buckling, the bathroom wall is pulling away from the tub, she said. In the laundry room, the worst-hit part of the house, the smell of mold lingers. âI want to move, because this flooding is ridiculous,â said Smith, 59.
For decades, residents of Centreville, a nearly all-Black town of 5,000 in southern Illinois, just a 12-minute drive from downtown East St Louis, have been dealing with persistent flooding and sewage overflows. The smell of it is in the air all over town after a rain, and bits of soggy toilet paper and slicks of human waste cling to the grass in neighborhoods where children used to play on warm days, locals said. Kids donât play out