Extra water in sewer costs town - Board targets illegal dumping
By CHRIS ETHERIDGE
Source: Register Mail

EAST GALESBURG (IL) - The village of East Galesburg plans to take a tougher stance on residents who knowingly or unknowingly dump extra water into the sanitation sewer this summer.

And they are targeting one specific neighborhood.

Village President Mike Bartlett says the lift pump serving Columbia Heights - the area south of the BNSF railroad tracks and west of State Street - is working nearly twice as hard as some of the others, and he believes it could be because residents have attached rainwater drainage or sump pumps to their sewer lines. Some may even have been attached to the sewer line when the house was built.

But village ordinances do not allow dumping rainwater or runoff into the sanitation sewer and Bartlett said he plans to make it a priority this summer to find those houses and make the residents detach those connections at their own expense.

"We are trying to get a grip on this problem, because it's just getting out of control." he said.

He says the effort is necessary because quarterly water bills for the village have been ranging from $10,000 to $23,000 and the high bills are straining an already cash-strapped sewer fund.

And Bartlett warned that if the bills still do not drop, the village may have to consider raising water rates to pay for the high bills.

The village maintenance department will start trying to find underground tile connections or sump pumps that could be the cause of the extra water soon, Bartlett said.

If that does not solve the problem he plans to ask the Village Board to hire a professional service to find the problem.

May 4, 2006