Illinois Rep. Bobby Rush (D-1) recently met with members of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as well as south suburban Chicago mayors to discuss water infrastructure problems and potential solutions.
“It is totally unacceptable that Southland suburban families have been repeatedly left without water, especially on this Thanksgiving Day," Rush said in a statement on his Congressional website. "This is a serious issue that has long plagued these communities. That is why I have arranged to convene a roundtable meeting with senior State and Federal officials from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA).”
Rush gathered members of the EPA and several Southland officials on Dec. 14 to address the water main emergencies that been at issue in the communities for years, including some water systems that are more than a century old. Communities such as Dixmoor and Robbins have had unreliable water service due to water main breaks and other interruptions, according to Axios.
Rush has sought help from communities in District 1 since last year, and he wrote to EPA Administrator Michael Regan and Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works Michael Connor to seek help to fund water projects in Robbins, according to the release. Rush also invited EPA Regional Administrator Debra Shore, Illinois Environmental Protection Agency Director John Kim, and the Southland mayors to attend the roundtable, the release stated.
According to a story by WLS, Gov. JB Pritzker has allocated $94 million for infrastructure upgrades in Southland, including the replacement of the water mains. Unfortunately, however, that project is not expected to be finished until 2025. The next step for the local mayors is to reach out to Pritzker's office to make sure officials take advantage of all available resources.
"We'll take another look from a regional approach to make sure we changed some laws or change some procedures or change policies to make sure that all the people get what they deserve," Robbins Mayor Darren Bryant said in the story.
Rush managed to secure $15 million in Federal funds to update Dixmoor’s water supply infrastructure as part of the Water Resources and Development Act of 2022, which passed the House last summer, the release stated.