CAHOKIA HEIGHTS, Ill.–You don’t have to go far in this city to find stories about flooding and sewer problems.

Mayor Curtis McCall, Sr., has heard them, and he has his own, in his own home and those of his family.

“I too have family that when it rains hard I have to call and say do you need us to come get you out of the home so we live this,” he said. 

The Metro East has faced decades of issues when it comes to sewer systems, flooding and drinking water problems. They existed before the July 2022 flash flooding events that hit the St. Louis region but were definitely exacerbated by them.

The response to that event set in motion actions celebrated Friday by local, state and federal officials at Cahokia Heights City Hall. Last month, crews completed a $3.5 million phase one of a project that cleaned and re-lined a third of a nine mile long storm sewer. 

The city also received a $10 million federal block grant via St. Clair County that will start the work of addressing flooding in the Piat Place Neighborhood and the lower Harding Ditch area, which have continually been flood-prone, especially since the July 2022 flash flood event.

“This is a critical step in rebuilding this community for the better. This community's been devastated so many times by flooding. It's time that residents stopped having that worry,” said Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, who helped secure the funding for the projects.

There is much more money that needs to be raised at the local, state and federal levels to address the entirety of the problem. McCall said it could be at least $60 million. The availability of funds will dictate how fast the projects move and when they get done.

Federal funding could be tenuous. Durbin, a long-tenured member of the Senate who was born and raised in East St. Louis and has championed these projects, is retiring next year.

The Trump administration has already had an impact on federal funds that leaders here thought was on the way before, and Durbin acknowledged the idea of future federal clawbacks were a concern.

“But I hope we can sell the premise that once you’ve made a commitment to a community you keep your word. This notion of taking the money and using it for something else to me that’s a deception and you’re just going to waste taxpayers dollars,” he said.

If no one could identify an exact timeline for future progress, Friday’s event served to offer up unity on the path forward.

I think we’ll define success as the day that the sewer department, the street department don’t have to get up on a rainy night because they got a phone call to come out and pump water,” said Col. Andy Pannier, St. Louis Commander for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

“When we reach that point I think we’ve succeed in what we’re doing here and that’s going to take us some time, but throughout that process we’re going to implement every solution we can in the meantime to piece this whole big puzzle together and have a final resolution,” he said.