Judge denies appeal in La Grange stormwater pipeline standoff

An appeals judge has ruled in La Grange’s favor in a decade-long standoff with the owners of a quarry in McCook over a severed pipeline.

If the ruling stands, it will pave the way for the village to go ahead with the planned $37 million 50th Street stormwater project.

“This clears another hurdle,” village manager Jack Knight said. “We have been pursuing the project through the appeal process, so with that out of the way, there’ll be one less obstacle for us.”

The pipeline in question partly runs through property owned by Heidelberg Materials. The 54-inch pipeline had, for the better part of a century, taken excess stormwater from the village directly to the McCook Ditch. Quarry operators severed the pipeline in 1992 during mining operations, which left the rainwater draining into the quarry. The water then had to be pumped into McCook Ditch.

The appeal stems from 2023 when a trial judge ruled that Heidelberg’s predecessor, Hanson Quarry had wrongfully severed the village’s storm sewer line in 1992. The quarry operators had filed suit against the village contending La Grange’s plan to increase stormwater flow into the quarry would cause the operations there “irreparable harm.”

But the ruling noted that “there would have been no issue had Hanson not cut the village’s legitimate access to the McCook Ditch by severing the pipe.”

At the 2023 trial, Hanson contended that it had every right to sever the pipeline as the village could produce no valid easement documentation from the original purchase of the property when the storm sewer was built in 1925.

But the village then countered that Hanson’s predecessors and other significant parties had always relied upon and acted as if the original easement agreement were valid.

Although the village has not heard yet as to whether Heidelberg Materials will appeal further to the Illinois Supreme Court, the decision seemingly brings an end to the dispute between the village and Heidelberg, allowing the stormwater project to finally move forward.

La Grange voters approved a $14 million referendum in 2015 to pay for stormwater drainage improvements by way of the 50th Street project, funded by a 1% sales tax, which the village has collected since then.

But the project, designed to help drainage particularly on the south side of the village, was delayed when the quarry brought suit against the village in 2016.

With increasingly heavy rainfall in recent years causing severe flooding, the litigation had become a critical issue for the public and village officials.

Knight said the village is ready to move forward.

“We are now at a point where we are finalizing permitting and then what we’ll be doing is working with MWRD (Metropolitan Water Reclamation District), who’s been our partner on this,” he said.

Knight indicated that the village will also be looking for grant funding as the project progresses, including funding from the MWRD.

The village also is looking to retain a financial consultant to assist with fundraising.

“We are anticipating going out to bid fairly soon in the summer or sometime in the fall,” Knight said, stressing that the start time for the project could still be this year, depending on the capabilities of the company contracted for the project.

Hank Beckman is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.