Village of Thayer seeking answers, state money after aging water mains repeatedly break

On a foggy winter afternoon in Thayer, 24 miles south of Springfield, Tish Robinson is trying to keep things together at her restaurant and bar, Pudock's Hideout.

She serves a solitary customer, providing him with an extra beer, before washing his plate in a dishwasher just off the main bar area. That sort of cleaning is usually easy for a restauranteur like Robinson.

Not today, not with another in what is becoming a long line of water main breaks and boil orders in the village of nearly 700 people in southern Sangamon County.

"We've got to boil water to do dishes," Robinson said. "I have to boil (the) water, then do it through the sink with bleach and all of that every time there's a water (main) break."

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This process is becoming a recurring theme in Thayer, with at least five water main breaks in the past two weeks, adding on to what has been 19 breaks over the past year − 13 since June.

As to why the mains keep breaking – and why the village has to go on boil order – village president Rob McMahan has a simple, yet still frustrating, explanation – their pipes are over 90 years old.

"The last eight years, it's really gotten bad," McMahan said. "We have tried to talk to people to get some help and there wasn't any money out there at the time. Now, there is some money out there to try to get a grant."

McMahan said that 1,100 feet of water main in the southern part of the village – along Elm, Main, and Sycamore streets – has yet to be replaced, and when those mains go down, the flow of water into Thayer is completely shut down.

"The last three streets is where the main water comes in and you have to shut the whole town down," McMahan said. "Back when they did it, they didn't put valves in to isolate different areas, so most of the time, the whole town's got to be shut down to repair a water main. You can't shut block-by-block off, it's the whole town."

Only one part of the village, Sugar Creek Estates, has newer lines and is unaffected by the water main issues.

"That wasn't put in until the 1970s, so their water mains are not as old as the rest of them," McMahan said. "The main line running out there has been replaced. They're not doing anything different – their lines aren't as old and they used more updated stuff when it was put in."

The village is limited in what it can do to alleviate the problems, as it doesn't have the resources of a larger city or village. The village has filed for a $1.5 million Community Development Block Grant with the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity. In addition, they are also seeking state funding through the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency's State Revolving Fund program.

McMahan said that work began on the grant application last fall, with the assistance of Benton & Associates, a Jacksonville-based engineering consulting firm.

"When they get these breaks, they're losing pressure on the system," said Ben Spreen, one of the principal consultants for the firm. "It's a system-wide issue. If they get a break, they haven't been able to isolate the problem quick enough to where they can control the water pressure and they're losing their whole system every time."

Spreen and his firm recommended replacing the affected water lines and installing more valves to help isolate problems within the system when they occur. With construction likely to cost the village about $1.5 million, the decision was made to file for the grant money.

IEPA officials say that water main breaks of this magnitude are not that unusual in Illinois. In a quick internet search, Gary Bingenheimer, section manager for the SRF program, found other communities with frequent water main breaks.

"I Googled water main breaks in Illinois and I see Dixmoor, Warrenville, Western Springs, Park Forest, LaGrange, Litchfield (and) Schaumburg," Bingenheimer said. "It happens all over the state in the wintertime, when the ground is freezing and thawing. It's a very common occurrence."

Other communities in central Illinois, aren't immune to water main breaks. Even Springfield had one such instance this week, with City Water, Light and Power reporting that a six-inch break shut down access to over 100 customers at Bissell Village Mobile Home Park.

Similar to what happened in Thayer, the age of the lines can be a problem for communities large and small.

"The older your system (is) – Thayer had water mains that are 90 years old – it's time for them to be replaced," Bingenheimer said.

The frequent shutdowns have been a cause for village trustee Kera Pusch, who was elected to the village board in 2022 in large part because of the water main breaks. She said that every person in the village wants to have access to clean drinking water. There isn't much of a plan B if they don't receive the funds from DCEO.

"We're putting all of our eggs in that basket," Pusch said. "That's the only option we have. There's no other way to mitigate the issue beyond temporary fixes."

Pusch said when she goes out to discuss the issue with Thayer residents, the response is consistent − frustration at the frequency of the outages. When a main breaks residents can't bathe themselves and their children or cook without boiling water. Many also express dissatisfaction with the quality of the water when the system is in full operation.

"We are under a boil order approximately half of every month," Pusch said. "If there's two breaks, the order lasts 5-7 days, so we could be under a boil order up to 14 days in a 30-day period. It has a significant impact. People are going and buying water from grocery stores to try and have it on hand when this happens and that's costly and that's inconvenient. We're paying our taxes and we're paying for a service that's not reliable."

McMahan said that there's plenty of expense to the village when the mains break. They only have one employee to patch temporary problems, so they need outside help to get everything back to working. In addition, thousands of gallons of water are lost with each break without any kind of return. McMahan said that the village loses $2,000-$3,000 each month because of water main breaks.

All of this has an impact on the businesses in and around Thayer, such as their three restaurants and Monarch Landscaping and Garden Center, who needs the water in order to keep their plants growing during the spring and summer months.

McMahan said he's hopeful about receiving the grant money so village officials can avoid raising water rates.

"I don't think we can keep going year after year at the rate we're going," McMahan said. "(With) 13-14 water breaks in the past year or so, it's just outrageous."

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Pusch agrees that finding funding for this project is important, looking to fix the mains and get every citizen to have access to clean water.

"This is a serious issue – (a) high priority for me," Pusch said. "I want every vulnerable resident – seniors, youth, families, everyone – to have access to safe water that's reliable."

Pusch and other village officials have enlisted the help of State Sen. Steve McClure, R-Springfeld, whose 54th Senate District includes Thayer, in their fight to get state funding for the mains. McClure has contacted everyone from IEPA to DCEO to the governor's office to even the Illinois Department of Transportation in hopes of finding someone willing to provide enough funding to fix the aging mains.

"We're letting everyone know that we're fully supportive of the project," McClure said. "My job is to make sure that everyone that needs to be aware of how vital this money is, is aware of how vital this money is. I'm fully supporting their grant request, but we're also trying to leave no stone unturned. We're going to go to every state agency that we can in order to find money."

He's hopeful that if they can secure funding for Thayer's water mains, the people of the village won't have to worry about one very essential thing during cold winters and hot summers.

"The fact that people have been going without water in Thayer for up to three days is very concerning," McClure said. "This is a problem that is not going to get better. It's only going to get worse and it needs to get fixed. I'm hoping we can get some resources from the state of Illinois to fix their problem."

As for Thayer residents, Robinson, the restaurant owner, just wants reassurance that the state of Illinois is looking out for the village.

"Just because we're a small town, we still need the help like everyone else," Robinson said. "I know they try to take care of the bigger problems in the bigger cities, but there's still some of us small-town folk, us mom-and-pop towns that need help."

This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Water main breaks in Thayer forcing village to ask for state money