Ending Sewage and Stormwater Flooding in Centreville

Centreville Citizens for Change and the residents are seeking short-term and long-term solutions that will address not only the sewage pollution, but also the subsequent chronic flooding and public health crisis ravaging this community.

Case Overview

The community group Centreville Citizens for Change (represented by Earthjustice) and more than two dozen residents (represented by Equity Legal Services and the Metropolitan St. Louis Equal Housing and Opportunity Council) sued Commonfields of Cahokia Public Water District and the City of Cahokia Heights in federal court, in response to years of raw sewage pollution and stormwater flooding in the community’s homes, yards, and streets resulting from the defendants’ severely deteriorated, malfunctioning, and poorly designed sanitary sewer and stormwater systems.

In this lawsuit, Centreville Citizens for Change alleges that Commonfields has been discharging raw sewage into this residential community in violation of the Clean Water Act.

Centreville Citizens for Change and the individual residents are seeking a court order to stop the illegal discharges. Residents are also seeking damages for the many harms that the sewage and flooding issues have caused to their yards and homes. Centreville Citizens for Change is an organization made up of residents of the predominantly Black community of Centreville, now part of Cahokia Heights.

Danny Lane, right, gives his friend Walter Byrd a push as Byrd prepares to head down a flooded Centreville street in June 2015. Firefighters evacuated residents earlier in the day.
Danny Lane, right, gives his friend Walter Byrd a push, as Byrd prepares to head down a flooded Centreville street in June 2015. Firefighters evacuated residents earlier in the day. (Robert Cohen / Post Dispatch / Polaris)

Case Updates

March 9, 2023 In the News: St. Louis Dispatch

Attorneys ask judge to rule that Cahokia Heights is violating Clean Water Act

Courtney Bowie, Managing Attorney, Northeast Office: “We don’t really need to go to trial over this. The court can just rule that the Clean Water Act has been violated, and we can just then focus on how to remedy that problem.”

June 2, 2022 document

Open Letter: One Year Later and Still Waiting for Change

Creative and aggressive community-led solutions are needed to address water crises in the former Metro East communities of Centreville, Alorton, and Cahokia, but it’s difficult to see how these solutions will come about if the same local officials in charge of these failing systems remain at the center.