Dixmoor, Illinois celebrates water main project completion, but water woes are not over
DIXMOOR, Ill. (CBS) -- South suburban Dixmoor celebrated the completion of a brand-new water main project Monday after years of water issues for residents.
Leaders from across the Village of Dixmoor, Cook County, and the Army Corp of Engineers cut the ribbon on $2 million project that included the replacement of existing 8-inch water main with nearly 4,000 feet of new 12-inch main in the hopes of reducing water loss, increasing water pressure to the north end of the village, and improve the village's ability to effectively fight fires throughout the community.
Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle was among those present for the ribbon-cutting for the project.
"You've got to excuse me for feeling this way," said Dixmoor Village President Fitzgerald Roberts. "This is something the residents have needed for years."
Roberts got choked up during the announcement Monday, because it has been such a strain on the village's roughly 4000 residents.
"It's very personal for me," Roberts said. "Going without water is indescribable."
The serious water issues in Dixmoor have been in the headlines since 2021, after multiple main breaks resulted in boil orders, schools shutting down, and unreliable water pressure.
But as Roberts explained, the new main, funded by an expensive federal lifeline, is just an "artery," and the village still has to replace the "veins." When it comes to those "veins," the village is still having issues.
"Just in the past week and a half, we've probably had right at 20 breaks — 20 new breaks," Roberts said.
Dixmoor is not alone in this issue. Water infrastructure issues are also plaguing other parts of the south suburbs, and are a problem across the U.S.
"This is not a Dixmoor-as-an-island phenomenon. This is a phenomenon across the country," said Drew Williams-Clark of the Cook County Bureau of Asset Management. "I just want to continue to emphasize that it's most acutely felt, again, in communities that are disinvested or underrepresented, and primarily those tend to be communities of color."
The Cook County Bureau of Asset Management said it is still calculating the true cost for repairs in Dixmoor and beyond.
"I don't think that we have a good understanding as the county of the total need of throughout the village of Dixmoor, but across the suburbs, and in the west suburbs — across our underrepresented communities in Cook County — The need is in the billions, with a B — not in the millions," Williams-Clark said. "There's a longstanding structural need for water main replacement."
The village is still in the process of calculating the full cost to modernize the entire water system. It hopes to have a solid figure in the next few weeks.
"It's going to take us at least a good $50 [million] to $60 million to kind of, you know, get a hold of the project with this infrastructure," Roberts said, "because all of the mains are bad in Dixmoor.
But Roberts is glad that Dixmoor may be leading the way for other communities that have also faced years of disinvestment.
A new standing water tower will be built in what is now an open field in the next phase of this project.