City Moves Forward With Plan to Fix Sanitary Sewer Backup Woes

The Elmhurst City Council this past week approved $8.7 million in capital projects for improvements meant to fix sanitary sewer backup issues that have affected as many as 2,300 homes, according to the Chicago Tribune. 

Last year, the city approved the design work for the Southwest Elmhurst Wet Weather Control Facility, which will include improvements "to and around the Saylor and Jackson lift station," and is meant to alleviate issues for an area where 70 percent of the city's sanity sewer backups occurred following a July 2010 storm, according to the article. 

The project is "the first and most important component in addressing sanitary sewer backup," RJN Group's Alan Hollenbeck told the City Council in September. But it will not address overland flooding, 5th Ward Alderman Chris Healy said during the meeting. 

"We're doing a lot of things at Saylor/Jackson that are good … but none of that will impact that area when it comes to overland flooding. That area is still a FEMA flood zone," he said. "This is purely sanitary (sewer backups)."

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