La Grange is struggling with flooding issues again after the heavy rains last week.
Sarah Gaul, who lives on Sunset Avenue near the Lyons Township North Campus, spoke of the recurring flooding in that area at a recent Village Board meeting.
“I understand that we got a lot of rain on Wednesday, but that is becoming a normal occurrence,” she told the Village Board during its regular meeting. “I mean, an inch in 30 minutes, we should be able to manage that.”
Gaul spoke of the anxiety her neighbors experience “whenever there was a drop of rain. It is truly untenable living conditions.”
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She urged the Board to “identify what we can do, what is within our control, because it is going to continue to rain. Let’s figure out what we can do to help the residents of this wonderful community with these flooding issues.”
A neighbor on Sunset Avenue, Laura West, echoed Gaul’s frustration.
“This is a serious problem and there’s a lot of things outside our control,” West said. “We’re still talking about the lawsuit. Now there are a lot of things up in the air.”
West referenced a lawsuit involving the recent court victory over the Lehigh Hanson Quarry, who had sued the Village to prevent it from going forward with reconstructing a stormwater system.
But while that would help the residents south of 47th Street, West and her neighbors live in the northern section of the area.
“If there were flooding in the streets, I wouldn’t be here,” she said, “I would say ‘that’s great, it’s in the street.’ This is over my parkway, over my sidewalk. And now it is no longer just rainwater … now sewage is bubbling like a geyser, adding to all the rainwater that gathers up.”
West has been speaking at board meetings about the flooding issue for the last 18 months, and also expressed concern about a new turf field coming to the high school playing field.
“We need help,” she said.
Trustee Glenn Thompson, who was a member of the citizen’s group, Dry Up La Grange, that formed in 2021 in response to flooding, gave a review of the situation.
After listing the individual storms of the last two years, Thompson pointed out the realities of the situation.
“Why bring all this up?” he asked. “These rainstorms have showed that our sewers can only absorb so much water. Our sewer system was built a hundred years ago … we have a combined sewer system, not a separate rainwater and sewer system.”
Thompson stressed that the Village was not to blame for the problem.
“Number one, the quarry did destroy our sewer pipe, that we could (have) restarted removing water,” he said, pointing out that the quarry was now making legal moves that would further delay progress on the issue.
Thompson also pointed out that the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MWRD) had restrictions on how much water could go into the deep tunnel until the McCook water reservoir was finished, which will not be completed until 2029.
He noted that “our streets will always be part of our flood control, and the reason for that is our sewer system is old. We do not have a separate storm sewer system.”
While Thompson pointed out the fiscal and logistical limitations involving a complete rebuild of the Village’s system, he also urged residents who suffered sewer backups and flooding to apply for Village grant money to help alleviate the problems.
With the next two La Grange Village Board meetings canceled, the next meeting will be 7:30 p.m. Monday, Aug. 28 at the La Grange Village Hall, 53 S. La Grange Road.
Hank Beckman is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.