EAST ST. LOUIS – Cahokia Heights residents suing for clean water want U.S. District Judge David Dugan to hold the city liable for pollution so he can focus on remedies.
They moved for partial summary judgment on March 3, claiming an order finding that the city discharged pollutants without a permit would be a finding of liability.
Their counsel Mary Rock of Washington wrote that the Clean Water Act prohibits discharge of pollutants from a point source to waters of the United States without a permit.
“Despite this clear and unequivocal prohibition, defendant city of Cahokia Heights discharges sewage from its sewage system to waters protected by the Act,” Rock wrote.
“On one residential street, a fountain of sewage frequently spews from the city’s sewage system into waters, even during dry weather conditions,” she added.
“Sewage also pools in yards, runs down neighborhood roadside ditches, and spreads throughout neighborhoods and into homes,” she continued.
Rock claimed discharges pose grave health risks and prevent plaintiffs from using portions of their homes, planting gardens, entertaining, and fishing in nearby waters.
She claimed the city, the state, and the federal government have documented discharges.
“The city’s sewer system is supposed to convey wastewater and sewage to a wastewater treatment plant and the city’s sewer system was not designed to have any sewage overflow points,” she wrote.
Rock built her argument around the system’s weakest spot, a pipe on North 82nd Street, and she traced the path of its pollution to the Mississippi River.
She claimed there were at least 91 days of the pipe discharging to waters.
She called that a severe under counting, stating she included only days that clearly demonstrated discharges.
Rock quoted plaintiff William McNeal stating that the pipe overflows “basically every day” and that human waste and toilet paper comes out of it.
She claimed that in 2021, U. S. Environmental Protection Agency inspectors noted a sewage odor and toilet paper in the ditch along the street.
She claimed their laboratory found fecal coliform bacteria at almost 50 times the general effluent standard for Illinois waters.
Rock claimed the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency issued a violation notice in 2020 but didn’t bring an action in court nor before the state pollution control board.
She claimed the city and the U. S. agency entered a consent order in 2021, but the U. S. agency didn’t file a court action to address the discharges at issue in this case.
She stated that the Clean Water Act declared a national goal to eliminate the discharge of pollutants into navigable waters.
Rock claimed citizen plaintiffs may seek declaratory relief, injunctive relief, penalties for each violation within five years, and legal fees.
She claimed plaintiffs are unquestionably injured because raw sewage deters them from using their property and yards as they would like.
She added that they are adversely affected by the sight, the stench, and the mosquitoes.
Rock claimed they enjoyed Grand Marais Lake in Frank Holten State Park for fishing or aesthetic enjoyment, “but they have either stopped or limited these activities.”
She quoted plaintiff Leon Spruell saying, “Nobody wants to fish in a sewer.”
“Only one point source is necessary to demonstrate a violation of the Clean Water Act,” she wrote.
“In this case there are multiple, the pipe and the ditch as well as downstream point sources including Canal Number One and Harding Ditch,” she added.
Rock claimed the U. S. agency traced discharges from the pipe and ditch to Prairie DuPont Creek to the Mississippi.
She claimed sewage flows directly to the river and even an indirect path could constitute a violation.
Dugan has set trial for October 2024.