Federal funds are on the way for several water projects in northern Illinois. One investment will help improve access to clean drinking water for Freeport residents.
U.S. Representative Eric Sorensen (IL-17) on Monday announced nearly a million dollars in federal grants to help replace wells in Freeport that were shut down due to contamination. Sorensen said chemicals seeping into the Pecatonica River and through the sand sub-structure were getting into the water supply. As a result, city leaders had shut down all but one well.
The money will be used to bring the city’s water supply back to original levels.
“But then," Sorensen said, "also making sure that these are in a different place, [and] these are deeper wells, so these aren't going to bring up those contaminants."
The city had detected contamination in all but one well, which meant residents were dependent on fewer water sources.
Representative Sorensen emphasized the importance of federal dollars coming to Illinois in addition to local solutions.
“It is the city and the federal government working together to solve the problem,” Sorensen said. “To make sure that we have the capacity for the wells, but then also it's making sure that the water mains and the lead service lines go away, because we cannot have Flint, Michigan and Jackson, Mississippi happen again. And so, today, it is this investment that is going to mean that that's never going to happen in Freeport, Illinois.”
The announcement this week in Freeport comes on the heels of another of more than a million dollars in federal funds for Rockford to replace lead service lines.