Illinois EPA grants aimed at unsewered communities

[July 16, 2022]  By Elyse Kelly | The Center Square contributor

(The Center Square) – Illinois is working to make sewage overflow from the neighbor’s yard on a rainy day a thing of the past through a series of grants to help unsewered communities.

More than $500,000 of taxpayer funds from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency is available in the form of Unsewered Community Planning Grants to communities lacking proper wastewater collection and treatment systems, a news release said.

“This grant right now is the first step in many, but is a very necessary step to get somebody moving forward,” Frank Dunmire, executive director of the Illinois Rural Water Association, told The Center Square.

Using individual septic tanks instead of a town sewage system isn’t always a problem, Dunmire pointed out, but other times it’s a big one.

“As long as it’s functioning fine, it’s pretty good, but when they’re not it can become a huge issue especially in crowded areas like in small towns where your lots are only 50, 100 feet wide,” he said.

In wet weather, residents can end up with sewage backed up into the house or rank sewage swamps in their backyards creating a health hazard.

EPA Director John Kim noted the detrimental effects on both people as well as the environment.

"Communities that lack proper wastewater collection and treatment systems have a significant impact on the health and wellbeing of their residents as well as Illinois waterways," Kim said in the news release.

Thanks to funding from this year’s federal infrastructure bill, Illinois will likely make these grants available every year for several years, Dunmire predicts.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker decried the existence of unsewered communities in the modern era.

"It is unconscionable that – in the year 2022 – there are still underserved neighborhoods throughout our state without access to up-to-date wastewater collection and treatment systems,” he said in the state’s news release.

Illinois isn’t the only state where residents have to deal with sewage backed up into the house or covering their lawn. Dunmire said there are unsewered communities all over the country.

The reason behind why these underserved communities still exist comes down to dollars and cents because most of these are small rural towns that just don’t have any money, according to Dunmire.

“The biggest problem with trying to get sewers into a community is it’s just about the most expensive utility that you can install,” he said.

While not nearly enough for everyone or everything, the $500,000 in grants will allow towns to hire an engineer consulting firm to design a sewer collection system, Dunmire said.

“Once they get a plan in place to put in a sewer then there’s a cost associated with whatever improvements that they need,” he said. “Then they can start shopping around for low-interest loans, grants through rural development or the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency.”

Dunmire estimates between 10 and 20 communities could be helped through this grant.

“If the money was not there, then probably nothing would be getting done,” he said.