CAHOKIA HEIGHTS, Ill. — A coordinator from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has been appointed to oversee the response to sewage and drinking water problems that have plagued the Cahokia Heights community for decades.
When Yvette Lyles first moved into her home in Centreville, which is now Cahokia Heights, she was so proud of her accomplishments.
“Picture this, around Christmas, I was a divorced woman with four children moving from a small place into a nine-room brick ranch home off Lake Drive by the state park. How amazing. How wonderful. It was only to turn into a nightmare,” Lyles said.
A nightmare full of raw sewage seeping into her house again and again for nearly 30 years causing health problems she now has to live with.
Rep. Nikki Budzinski, (D)-Illinois, said in a news release that since 2019 alone, residents documented 91 different sewage backups.
“Half of my home is sinking down. When I bought this house, it wasn't. There wasn't anything wrong with it. Walls are now falling apart, cracking, the smell of sewage. No matter how much you bleach and disinfect your house, it's still a stench in your house,” Lyles said.
It’s been more than a year since Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker allocated millions in funding to fix these problems and residents say they haven’t seen any change yet.
Budzinski says with the appointment of an EPA coordinator they hope to see those funds put to work.
“The coordinator is going to be on the ground working with local and state officials to coordinate the efforts, the resources that have been made available already at the state level, but also federal opportunities, so that we're making sure that we're capturing as many federal dollars as we can for this project so we can get this resolved quickly,” Budzinski said.
Lyles says she’s never lost hope but they can’t keep living like this.
“They should be held accountable and come in and fix our homes. We're too old. I know I'm too old to look at another mortgage,” Lyles said.
Budzinski says this coordinator from the EPA is going to accelerate the timeline to get this project done and hopefully alleviate any disconnects in communication between everyone involved so people can finally see some relief.
In a news release, Budzinski’s team said:
“The inaugural coordinator is Beth Murphy. Murphy is a 20-year veteran of EPA who had previously been a supervisor in the Enforcement and Compliance Assurance Division, where she managed inspectors, case managers and program analysts responsible for investigating and enforcing the Safe Drinking Water Act and the Clean Water Act. Prior to that position, she spent 16 years in EPA’s Great Lakes National Program Office. Murphy received her Bachelor of Science in environmental science from North Carolina State University and her Master of Public Health in environmental public health from the University of Illinois at Chicago.”