South suburban leaders say they need more money to combat water system problems
ROBBINS, Ill. (CBS) – For years, CBS 2 has been investigating serious water troubles in the South Suburbs. Broken water mains have left people living without water for weeks.
Late Wednesday afternoon, a group of South Suburban leaders met to find a solution. CBS 2's Shardaa Gray was at the Robbins Police Department to find out what was discussed.
The main issue for the five mayors is money and not having enough of it to fix these water main breaks. Rush said the money via an infrastructure grant needs to be available to them.
"There is money to invest in some of the immediate concerns that you have," Rush told the mayors on Wednesday.
It's a dialogue they haven't had before. Leaders from Dixmoor, Robbins, Harvey, Alsip and Posen are meeting with the state and national EPA, trying to find solutions to the water issues.
Many Robbins residents had public works crews passing out water bottles to them on Thanksgiving. At least 100 homes were without water or had very low pressure.
It was fixed, but the mayor said it's a water crisis and a public safety issue.
He called on state leaders for help after engineers told the village it would take $20 million to get their infrastructure up to par.
In August, a neighboring suburb, Dixmoor, closed three schools due to water main breaks, causing headaches for homeowners.
It's a problem that suburb has been dealing with for almost a year.
Dixmoor President Fitzgerald Roberts said they found leaks and capped them this past summer, which saved the village from losing 500,000 gallons of water a month.
But the extra pressure caused by capping the leaks cause the water main breaks.
Fitzgerald blamed the pipes, which are 100 years old. He said they've always been patched, but never replaced.
Robbins Mayor Darren Bryant said this is the first time the south suburban leaders are having regional cooperation, but no solution will come quickly.
