Flooding in Cahokia Heights has been an issue for years. Here’s what you should know
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For years, residents of the former city of Centreville, now part of Cahokia Heights, have struggled with flash flooding and raw sewage in yards and homes.
In at least 54 homes of the 4.29 square mile area, the flooding has made life difficult for the people who live there, so much so that the residents meet regularly to find a way to make local officials fix the problem, and two residents have filed a lawsuit in hopes the problems will be fixed.
Cahokia Heights officials say they want to fix the problems but need state and federal money to help. With word of the federal government’s recent rejection of a $22 million grant application, the community’s efforts received another setback.
The problems are often evident in the former north Centreville area several days after heavy rain: man-made ditches connected by clogged pipes are filled with debris, yard and streets are filled with water to the point that they are impassable and the smell of raw sewage hangs in the air.
On top of that, even on days that it doesn’t rain, infrastructure runs amok. On 82nd street, a pipe has had brownish water pouring from it on and off again for years, sometimes with toilet and other items coming out of it, residents say, and several of the pump stations around the area do not work.
Lawyers Nicole Nelson and Kalila Jackson are working with the group Centreville Citizens for Change and have been trying to get help for residents for nearly three years. Nelson is the founder and executive director of Equity Legal Services, a nonprofit that provides free legal services for low-income people. Jackson works for the Metropolitan St. Louis Equal Housing and Opportunity Council, a not-for-profit agency that fights against housing discrimination.
Support from lawmakers, Pritzker
Since the Belleville News-Democrat’s 2020 in-depth report on the issues, U.S. Sens. Tammy Duckworth and Dick Durbin both have visited the area and vowed to help get relief for the residents. In March, Gov. J.B. Pritzker pledged his administration’s support of the city’s efforts to win a federal grant to help fix the problems. He called the situation in the area “a textbook example of environmental racism.”
In January, the former towns of Cahokia, Centerville and Alorton applied for a $22 million grant through a new FEMA program titled BRIC (Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities). The government recently rejected their application.
In April, the three towns merged, forming Cahokia Heights. Residents elected Curtis McCall Sr. mayor. McCall is the former Centreville Township supervisor and board chairman of Commonfields of Cahokia, the controversial water and sewer district. Residents have criticized Commonfields for its management of the Centreville water and sewer system. Voters have approved a referendum to dissolve the agency.
After his election as mayor, McCall said fixing the issues in old Centreville is a priority for his new administration. He said he will explore funding options to make those fixes.
Walter Byrd, who heads the group Centreville Citizens for Change and lives in the area, said recently that he’s seeing slow progress at fixing the water and sewer problems.
Sharon Smith, another resident, recently said she too has had better luck with flooding in the past year. In March, after Pritzker’s visit to the city, she said while she has seen people working near ditches to improve the issues, fixes aren’t coming quickly enough.
Residents have been skeptical about whether the problems will ever be fixed.
Senators push FEMA to hold city accountable
Last spring, Duckworth and Durbin called on the Environmental Protection Agency to force Cahokia Heights to fix flooding issues. The letter followed the EPA’s notice of potential violation of the Clean Water Act by the Commonfields of Cahokia Public Water District.
The agency sent the notice after EPA inspectors observed sanitary sewer overflows and “serious” operations and maintenance issues in the sanitary sewer systems, according to Duckworth’s office.
In their letter, the senators also urged the EPA to take steps to avoid “further financial burden and suffering” being passed on to the residents of Cahokia Heights.
This story was originally published July 20, 2021 at 1:27 PM.
