Cahokia Heights

The cash will funnel through the Army Corps of Engineers to the city. In all, the project to help repair the city’s main trunk line will cost $4.67 million.

Residents have dealt with sewage flooding their homes and neighborhoods after heavy rains for years. With a new grant from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, Cahokia Heights plans to complete repairs in February 2026.

La’Tatia Stewart, 56, of Cahokia Heights, was found dead on Wednesday. She'd become well known in St. Louis after her son was shot and killed in 2020.

The mayors and the director of the Metro East Sanitary District said other, wealthier St. Clair County communities should help pay for a key drainage ditch’s maintenance.

While there is a Schnucks and Aldi on the same road, Walmart’s closure in the lower-income community will limit options for residents, experts say.

Cahokia Heights, long plagued with a faulty sewer system, will receive a grant from the Illinois EPA.

Raw sewage backups and chronic flooding have been a decades-long issue in Centreville, now Cahokia Heights. Residents previously filed two federal lawsuits over these issues in 2020 and 2021.

Officials announced Cahokia Heights would receive $37 million in funding because of failing infrastructure. Over two years later, that money is still to be seen.

“The arguments were basically that the lawsuit we filed was too long and too confusing for them to respond to,” an attorney for the plaintiffs said. The case is now continuing.

The Illinois Democrat toured homes in the area to see the damage from chronic flooding during heavy rains, which often contains raw sewage.