(The Center Square) – The federal government filed suit against East St. Louis on Wednesday, alleging the city’s practice of repeatedly dumping untreated sewage in the local community violates federal environmental protections.
The Justice Department, on behalf of the Environmental Protection Agency and the state of Illinois, filed the complaint against the city of East St. Louis, Illinois. City officials face financial challenges, including overdue pension payments to its police officers and firefighters.
Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul said the sewer systems in East St. Louis and nearby Cahokia Heights were “chronic failures.”
“For too long, the neglected and aging sewer systems in Cahokia Heights and East St. Louis have forced local residents to deal with raw sewage in their basements, in their streets and in local waterways,” Raoul said in a statement. “I am proud of my office’s collaboration with the Department of Justice and local and state entities as we work toward a solution to solve this real environmental and public health threat.”
The federal complaint seeks penalties and infrastructure improvements to fix the city’s failure to operate its sewer system in compliance with the Clean Water Act. The city made hundreds of unlawful discharges of untreated sewage to various locations in the community, including the Mississippi River and Whispering Willow Lake in Frank Holten State Park, according to federal prosecutors.
East St. Louis has a combined sewer system that carries sewage and stormwater through the same pipes. During heavy rain, combined sewage is discharged directly from East St. Louis’ outfalls to the Mississippi River or Whispering Willow Lake without any treatment. Federal prosecutors allege that’s in violation of the Clean Water Act.
Since 2020, East St. Louis has discharged untreated sewage to the Mississippi River on over 140 separate days. The city has also discharged untreated sewage into Whispering Willow Lake, though the precise number of discharges is unknown because the city has failed to install required monitoring devices.
The sewage goes into the Mississippi River, where it reaches recreational waters for swimming and kayaking. Whispering Willow Lake offers fishing and boating.
The city’s failure to monitor outfalls interferes with EPA’s ability to evaluate the danger that discharges to these water bodies pose to human health, prosecutors said.
Untreated sewage contains pathogens such as E. coli, which can cause severe illness if ingested.
East St. Louis also operates a separate sewer system that carries sanitary sewage only. Both the combined and separate sewer systems that the city operates are in disrepair. Prosecutors said the city’s failure to properly operate and maintain these systems has led to additional discharges of combined or sanitary sewage into streets and buildings and has put members of the public at risk for unknowingly coming into contact with untreated sewage.
The complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois. Federal and state officials want an order for the city of East St. Louis to stop further violations of the Clean Water Act. The compliance measures will likely include sewer improvement and other infrastructure projects, state and federal officials said.
Under terms of a consent decree, Cahokia Heights must pay a $30,000 civil penalty and invest about $30 million in sewer projects, make system-wide repairs and keep the community posted on the progress.
“Both of these cases reflect the improper operation and maintenance of sewer systems located in environmental justice communities where both residents and the environment have been negatively impacted,” Illinois EPA Acting Director James Jennings said.
Both Cahokia Heights and East St. Louis are in a floodplain with a high groundwater table that requires pipe maintenance to prevent water infiltration and inflow into the system, Raoul’s office said.