EAST ST. LOUIS - National and state environmental agencies sued East St. Louis at U.S. district court on Dec. 11, claiming the city didn’t keep commitments it made last year to improve the sewer system.
The agencies alleged that the city has discharged sewage and other pollutants to waterways for many years.
According to the suit, the city has discharged sewage to the Mississippi River and Whispering Willow Lake at Frank Holten State Park.
The city has allegedly discharged sewage to public and private property, streets, storm drains, yards, and basements.
City sewers serve about 18,000 persons on 11.5 square miles. Sewers that combine stormwater and sanitary systems serve about 8.7 square miles in the city’s western portion.
Separate storm and sanitary sewers serve about 2.8 miles in the eastern portion.
The systems convey wastewater and stormwater to American Bottoms treatment plant which a third party operates. The system includes three outfalls.
In high flow conditions Outfall 1 and Outfall 2 allegedly discharge untreated combined sewage to the Mississippi.
Regulators allege they counted at least 246 overflows from Outfall 1 including 19 that occurred after two days with zero precipitation.
Outfall 3 allegedly discharges into Whispering Willow Lake.
Inspectors say they observed toilet paper in vegetation along the lake near Outfall 3.
They described failures throughout the city.
In 2021, inspectors allegedly observed raw sewage discharging from a manhole near the intersection of Highway 157 and State Street.
They claimed sewage accumulated in a concrete gutter and flowed into a storm drain.
They claimed that after a rain event in 2022 an inspector observed manholes overflowing and one bubbling with pressurized sewage.
The city reported an intermittent overflow for nine days at 1100 Quebec Street; reported sewage backing up in a building at 3718 State Street; reported an overflow of 5,000 gallons at 3400 Missouri Avenue causing ponding on the roads.
Last year an overflow at East St. Louis High School lasted 30 to 45 minutes.
The city’s clean water discharge permit expired in 2019 and the city didn’t apply for renewal, request a waiver or apply to reissue the permit.
The city entered an administrative order in 2022 to monitor overflows and complete a monthly report for each outfall.
“As of the date of this complaint, East St. Louis has not installed equipment to conduct this monitoring,” the suit claims.
The city entered an order to clean and maintain a trunk line between 89th Street and 53rd Street, effective July 27, 2023.
The city agreed to hire a sewer cleaning firm within 45 days and assess each manhole along the trunkline by the same date.
The city allegedly didn’t complete the cleaning or the assessment.
The city agreed to hire a professional firm to inspect the line within 60 days.
The city further agreed to repair or replace any damaged or missing manhole covers along the line by the same date.
The city allegedly didn’t complete the inspection or the manhole repair and replacement.
The city agreed to develop a repair plan for the line within 120 days, and agreed that by the same date it would install risers to elevate manholes in low lying areas along the line to prevent stormwater from entering sanitary sewers.
Regulators say the city didn’t complete the work.
They claimed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued a violation notice to the city in November 2023, for failure to comply with the 2022 overflow order and the 2023 maintenance order.
They requested a permanent injunction directing the city to take all steps necessary to comply with all terms and conditions of all permits.
They requested an order for the city to implement a plan that conforms to the agency’s overflow control policy.
They requested an order to eliminate dry weather overflows from all outfalls.
They requested an order to monitor and report discharges from Outfalls 1, 2, and 3.
They requested an order to relocate or eliminate Outfall 3.
They requested an order to increase sewer capacity, improve operation and maintenance, and take other necessary actions to prevent overflows.
They requested a permanent injunction to mitigate harm caused by violations of permits.
They requested orders for the city to pay civil penalties to the U.S. up to $66,712 per day per violation and $50,000 for each violation of Illinois environmental law.
Alvin Paulson and Grey Chatham of the Chatham and Baricevic firm in Belleville entered appearances for the city on Dec. 12.