EAST ST. LOUIS - America’s original civil rights group, the NAACP, sent general counsel Martina Tiku here on behalf of Cahokia Heights residents suing for better sanitary and storm sewers after the city sought to dismiss or stay the suit.
Tiku entered an appearance for Cornelius Bennett and Earlie Fuse in August and represented them at a hearing before U.S. District Judge David Dugan in September.
Bennett and Fuse secured a January trial date, but Cahokia Heights moved to dismiss or stay the suit in deference to negotiation with state and federal regulators on a consent decree.
At the hearing last month, Susan Kraham of New York City opposed the motion first on behalf of plaintiffs in a parallel suit set for trial next September.
“There is no consent decree,” she said.
Kraham said environmental agencies have no authority to grant the relief plaintiffs requested.
She explained that the agencies can’t award damages.
She said if the city and the agencies signed a consent decree, Dugan would review it.
Tiku told Dugan, “Defendants haven’t provided any evidence to show that the future consent decree will also address concerns about the storm water flooding or guarantee that any repairs of the sanitary sewer overflows will be in areas that specifically benefit or remediate the harms that plaintiffs are alleging.”
Dugan has not yet reached a decision, but he said during the hearing that he wouldn't dismiss.
“Stay is on the table, but it doesn’t feel good either,” he said.
Attorneys Nicole Nelson of Belleville and Kalila Jackson of St. Louis filed the suit on behalf of the plaintiffs in 2020 against Centreville city, Centreville township, and Commonfields of Cahokia Water District.
The City of Centreville later merged into Cahokia Heights, which took over the water district.
Nelson wrote, “The request and reason for relief is as straightforward as this court will find both men. They want the problems fixed.”
“They want the flooding and raw sewage to stop coming into their homes and yards and to stop damaging their properties,” she added.
“Plaintiffs want to enjoy their properties once again without the stench of raw sewage and stagnant stormwater,” she continued.
Nelson claimed flooding and sewage overflows didn’t occur when they moved into their homes.
She added that they could pinpoint how it worsened over time with little or no intervention.
Nelson claimed streets framing Fuse’s home began to fill with water when it rained more than 15 minutes, making it impossible to navigate out of the driveway.
She claimed Fuse's basement wall collapsed four times in 28 years.
She added that he decorated his basement as a living space but hadn’t used it for years.
Nelson requested substantive resolution, claiming damages were insufficient.
She requested orders restraining defendants from depositing storm and waste water on properties of Bennett and Fuse.
She also requested immediate replacement of all pump stations in fair, poor, or flooded condition.
Lastly, she requested appointment of a monitor to oversee replacement of pump stations and repairs of plaintiffs’ homes.
A year later, Deborah Musiker of the Earth Justice firm in Chicago sued Cahokia Heights and Commonfields water district on behalf of Centreville Citizens for Change.
She asserted claims under citizen action provisions of the national Clean Water Act.
“Residents have been trapped in their homes for days after rains and some have even required rescuing by boat,” she wrote.
Musiker claimed ditches in front of homes hold stagnant water and become mosquito breeding grounds in warm months.
“The combination of mismanaged storm water infrastructure and broken sewage systems further compounds the destruction wrought by each alone,” she wrote.
Musiker sought declaratory judgment, injunctive relief, and civil penalties.
She listed 32 clients of Nelson and Jackson as individual plaintiffs asserting claims similar to those of Bennett and Fuse.
She later added Metro East Sanitary District as a defendant.
Dugan presided over that action while Senior District Judge Phil Gilbert presided over claims filed by Bennett and Fuse.
Last September, Gilbert toured neighborhoods and held a settlement conference at Kappa House in East St. Louis with “other interested community members” present.
No settlement resulted.
In November, Dugan denied a motion to dismiss the Centreville Citizens for Change case.
At a hearing in December, Gilbert said he and Dugan decided one judge needed to preside over both cases. Dugan now presides over the cases.
Someone lamented the loss of Gilbert's knowledge of the situation, and he said Dugan “has a mind like a sponge.”
Cahokia Heights counsel Ann Barron moved to dismiss the Centreville Citizens for Change suit in June, claiming primary jurisdiction belonged to environmental agencies.
She claimed they had expertise and resources to direct the project, “a task for which the court is not well suited.”
“Any injunctive order issued by this court may likely conflict with the work that is ongoing and that is scheduled to be completed in the next several years," she wrote.
Erica Spitzig of Cincinnati filed a similar motion for Cahokia Heights in the case of Bennett and Fuse in July.
She claimed that if the city and the agencies reach agreement and agency managers approve a decree, it would be lodged with the court for public comment, review and entry.
She also claimed Bennett and Fuse asked for the same type of repairs the city and the agencies already addressed.
She added that court intervention before the city has implemented the remedy of the agencies could delay the corrective measures all stakeholders want.
Jackson responded that Dugan shouldn’t abstain based on speculation that an agreement with state or federal agencies might conflict with his ruling.
She claimed Bennett and Fuse, ages 72 and 82, dealt with the issues for decades and urgently litigated this case for over three years.
Spitzig brought her motion to Dugan on Sept. 7 and said, “At the end of the day, the plaintiffs will get the relief they want.”
Dugan said, “What about the delays that have occurred with fashioning some sort of relief already for the homeowners?”
He said if he granted a stay, the agencies could take whatever time they want.
“I gather it hasn’t been all that stellar in terms of finding progress,” he said.
He said he heard the Illinois agency was working.
“It’s kind of a bimorphus bromide,” he said.