The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Department of Justice (DOJ) and state of Illinois announced a settlement on December 10, 2024, with the city of Cahokia Heights, Illinois, resolving violations of the Clean Water Act and the Illinois Environmental Protection Act resulting from the city’s failure to properly operate its sanitary sewer system.
The settlement requires that the city pay a $30,000 civil penalty and implement an estimated $30 million in extensive compliance measures.
The complaint against the city alleges that on more than 300 occasions since November 2019, the city discharged sanitary sewage from an overflow point in its sewer system to nearby waters in violation of section 301 of the Clean Water Act.
The city also discharged untreated sewage in other locations throughout the community, including into ditches, roads, yards and homes.
Sanitary sewer overflows also can damage property and harm water quality when they enter waterbodies. Discharges of raw sewage, or sanitary sewer overflows, carry bacteria, viruses and other harmful organisms.
Under the settlement, the city will conduct more than 80 near-term capital improvement projects, such as constructing an interceptor to reroute wastewater flow, system-wide repairs and various investigations and assessments.
The city is also required to keep the community informed about the work, have plans in place for emergencies and update its operations such as creating digital maps and monitoring in real-time known overflow points.
The proposed consent decree, lodged in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois, is subject to a 60-day comment period and final court approval.
