When the Floodwaters Rise: Environmental Racism and the Human Right to Sanitation in Cahokia Heights
In Cahokia Heights, Illinois, the residents fear the rain, as it brings raw sewage that floods their homes and endangers their health. This predominantly Black community in St. Clair County has endured this reality for decades. After it rains, the smell of sewage fills the air, soggy toilet paper and slicks of human waste cling to the grass in the neighborhoods, kids don’t play outside anymore and the gardens don’t grow. Some residents have resorted to using boats to navigate the sewage-filled floodwaters. Despite the severity of this ongoing crisis, government officials have failed to take meaningful actions to address the flooding. This is more than a case of poor infrastructure; it is environmental racism and a human rights crisis.
The Legal Right to Sanitation and the Environment
Access to water and sanitation are recognized by the United Nations as fundamental human rights, essential to health, dignity and well-being. In 2010, the United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution 64/292, affirming the right to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation as essential for the full enjoyment of life and all human rights. This resolution, supported by 122 countries, changed the conversation about water and sanitation for policy makers and activist around the world. Yet, the United States abstained from the UN vote and has consistently failed to fully support this principle. Despite water and sanitation being necessary for human survival and health, the U.S. has taken the position that water is not a human right. Although the U.S. has not ratified all international treaties supporting the right to water and sanitation, this does not release it of its moral obligations to uphold the basic standards of dignity.
Environmental racism describes the disproportionate exposure of marginalized communities to environmental hazards such as toxic waste facilitates, garbage dumps, and foul odors that lower the quality of life. The flooding in Cahokia Heights is a public health crisis that highlights the devastating and inhumane conditions faced by marginalized communities, and how resident are stripped of their basic sense of safety and dignity in their own homes.
Cahokia Heights: A Case Study of Systemic Neglect
The crisis in Cahokia Heights did not emerge overnight, it is the result of decades of neglect and discrimination. Much of the city’s sewage infrastructure dates back to World War II, and the pump stations that are supposed to direct waste away are not functional. The failure to maintain these systems has led to hundreds of illegal sanitary sewer overflow discharges, contaminating homes and the environment. According to the U.S Environmental Protection Agency, raw sewage discharges contain bacteria, viruses, and other harmful organisms that pose serious health hazards.
In 2022, a study conducted by professors at Washington University and the University of Colorado found that more than 40% of the 42 adults in a sample of Cahokia Heights residents had the same stomach infection from the bacterial Helicobacter pylori, and nearly half of them had intestinal inflammation. Residents have filed repeated complaints over the years. In 2024, The Illinois Attorney General’s Office in collaboration with the U.S Department of Justice and the Environmental Protection Agency, filed a lawsuit against the city, citing over 300 instances since 2019 where sanitary sewage was discharged into local waterways, violating the Clean Water Act.
In interviews, residents speak of exhaustion and a deep sense of abandonment. “We’ll be dead before this is resolved, and I am already so exhausted by all this,” said Ms. Lyles, a longtime resident, “[c]lean water is a basic necessity, and when you are paying bills for your sewage treatment, and still get other people’s crap floating into your house every month making you sick, you really question ‘What is really going on in the United States of America.’” Another resident who moved to Cahokia Heights in the 1960s remembered a different time, “[i]f all those white people were still here, this wouldn’t happen ,” she said. She is right. In 2023, a complaint filed against St. Clair County revealed that the County made a deliberate and discriminatory choice to spend 98% of its ARPS funds on projects in predominantly white communities that were less urgent and important, including fixing flooding issues in an animal shelter. The disparity is not coincidental, it is systemic.
Path to Accountability
The situation in Cahokia Heights raises some fundamental questions. Who gets to live with dignity in America? When should the government be held accountable for its failure to take meaningful actions against this form of systemic neglect? The answer should be simple. Everyone deserves dignity, regardless of race, zip code or socioeconomic status.
Under the Illinois Constitution, “Each person has the right to a healthful environment.” Yet the residents of Cahokia Heights have not been afforded this right. The right to water and sanitation is not merely an administrative or political issue, it is a human rights and racial justice issue, one that demands proper recognition and immediate enforcement. The residents of Cahokia Heights have endured this cycle of neglect for too long, and it is time they are granted the basic human right to accessible sanitation and adequate infrastructure.