LAWRENCEVILLE, Ill. (WTWO/WAWV) — Residents of a local town have been dealing with sewage back-up and leaks for months and in some cases years.
Last week the city of Lawrenceville received several violation notices from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for sewage violations that the city had failed to handle in the past.
Faulty sewage lines and pipes with tree root intrusions resulted in some residents with sewage spilling out in their homes from there toilets, bath drains and sinks. There was even flooding in the streets that had sewage spewing from the drains and people’s sump pumps.
The Mayor of Lawrenceville, David Courtney, spoke on the incident and said, “this is a new problem they we are facing,” he added, “We have responded to these incidents and are being compliant with the EPA.”
However, some residents see it differently and they said they have been voicing concerns for years.
“Multiple people are reporting that they have had issues with both flooding in their homes which I understand that’s not a sanitary issue, but also sewer backing up into their homes for decades,” said Louie Campbell, a resident in Lawrenceville.
“The state EPA says that they’ve never had a report of this because the city of Lawrenceville has never reported one of these back up issues, which is a problem because people have been reporting it to the city,” said Campbell. “Multiple residents that I’ve spoken to have made reports to the city, both to this mayor and prior mayors.”
Some residents are actively trying to work on addressing these issues at monthly city hall meetings and are trying to keep their homes and streets clean and safe.
