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Small Towns, Big Pipes
You turn on the tap and clean water comes out. You flush and it goes away. Rain falls and the street drains. Three systems, all buried, all older than most of us, all wearing out at the same time.
We present here a plain-language series on what that means for small towns like ours across Illinois, why it costs so much to fix and what a village our size can actually do about it. Every fact comes with a source you can check yourself.
None of this is exclusive to Kansas Illinois. Small municipalities across Illinois and the Country are experiencing the exact same failing infrastructure. Understanding how these systems reached this point will hopefully help us figure out how to find a solution.
When It Rains
Drinking water has a water bill. Sewer service has a sewer bill. Storm drainage, the third system every town depends on, has nothing. No bill, no fund, no line item with its name on it. [...]
Where the Waste Goes
Nobody thinks about water after it goes down the drain. That is the whole point of a sewer system. It takes the dirtiest part of daily life and makes it invisible. Until it stops working. [...]
Old Pipes, New Rules
Turn on your kitchen faucet and clean water comes out. It feels automatic, like flipping a light switch. It isn't. That water traveled through a well or intake, a treatment plant, a storage tank and [...]
Construction of the new Water Tower for the Village of Kansas Illinois is financed by the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (SRF). The SRF program is administered by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency and receives a portion of its money to fund these types of projects from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
This project includes a new water tower. Once complete, it will improve water quality for area residents and businesses in Kansas Illinois by replacing the aging water tower. SRF programs operate in each state to provide communities the resources necessary to build, maintain, and improve the infrastructure that protects one of our most valuable resources: water.
