'Untenable' Situation With La Grange Flooding

LA GRANGE, IL – Last month, La Grange celebrated a victory over a nearby quarry in years-long litigation on flooding. This meant the village could proceed with a multimillion-dollar project.

But Village President Mark Kuchler said Monday that Heidelberg Materials, formerly Hanson Aggregates, appealed the decision and asked the court to stop the project in the meantime.

In a statement to Patch, Heidelberg spokesman Jeff Sieg said, "The company maintains that our (quarry) cannot accommodate the volume of stormwater associated with the Village’s plans and our operations would be severely disrupted as a result."

At Monday's Village Board meeting, Kuchler promised the village would continue with engineering for the project, which is expected to prevent much flooding south of 47th Street.

Meanwhile, fears of flooding persist. Last Wednesday, nearly 1.4 inches of rain fell on the village in less than a half hour, Kuchler reported.

In some areas, drainage was impeded by storm grates clogged with leaves that fell because of the drought, he said.

Before the storm, the village's public works crews tried to remove leaves, but more leaves replaced them soon enough, Kuchler said.

After the storm, the village received reports of flooding in homes, including at Trustee Shawana McGee's house and church, Kuchler said.

"It's frustrating when your property is ruined due to these events," he said. "It's absolutely why flooding remains a top priority for this board. The impacts are regrettable."

During public comments, resident Sarah Gaul, who lives in the 100 block of Sunset Avenue, implored the village to take action as soon as possible on flooding.

"When our entire block gets so nervous whenever there's a drop of rain, it is truly untenable living conditions," Gaul said. "I don't come to the board meetings for a weather report. It's going to rain."

One of her neighbors, Laura West, said she was playing Scattergories with her children when the rainstorm occurred last Wednesday. Floodwaters from the street corner neared her house, she said.

Some years ago a sewage outlet was installed nearby.

"Now, sewage is bubbling like a geyser adding to all of this rainwater that gathers," said West, who has frequently spoken to the board for more than a year. "We just get lucky sometimes that it stops raining."

Her husband, Michael West, said only the village can take action to stop the neighborhood's flooding. He thanked La Grange Trustee Tim O'Brien and Village Clerk Paul Saladino for showing up to see what was happening. Saladino, he said, came early enough to help move the family's belongings to the top shelves in the garage.

"This is untenable," Michael West said. "We need help."

In June, a Cook County judge found the McCook quarry in 1992 wrongly cut a village pipe that drained water into the quarry. The judge determined that the village had a nearly century-long right-of-way for the pipe.

If the village ultimately prevails over the quarry, the resulting stormwater project would not assist the residents on Sunset Avenue, who live north of 47th Street. The village has outlined the parameters for a project to help the Sunset neighborhood, but officials say it couldn't take effect until 2029 at the earliest.