CARTERVILLE — Aaron Jones was walking his land in Carterville with a prospective homebuyer five years ago when he said he saw the ditch that runs alongside his property was filled with human feces.
“It looked like someone flushed the toilet” into the ditch, Jones said. On other occasions, Jones said he found, in addition to feces, used tampons, condoms and toilet paper. Ever since the day with the potential buyer, he’s been trying to sell land he can’t develop because he can’t guarantee it won’t happen again.
Jones’ land is just north of the city of Carterville, about 20 minutes east of Carbondale in Southern Illinois. It’s next to the Dewmaine-Colp Cemetery where dozens of veterans who served in both world wars, the Vietnam War, and the Korean War were laid to rest. Some headstones are so old there’s barely any stone left, and inscriptions are nearly or completely illegible.
When Jones, 63, bought the 18 acres of land in 2015, he wanted to build a village of tiny homes — typically 400 square feet or less — for fellow veterans. Jones served in the United States Air Force and spent time overseas until roughly 2007, he said.
Because of the sewage and smell, he can’t build.
Jones suspects that the waste in the ditch near his property was caused by an overflow — when a sewer system floods and raw sewage escapes the sewage treatment system — at the wastewater treatment plant. When overflows at the plant occur, according to reports, treatment plant staff can discharge partially treated wastewater into permitted nearby water bodies to alleviate pressure and lagoon overflows, if contaminants are below a certain threshold.
Carterville’s wastewater treatment plant reported more than 40 sewage overflow incidents over the past decade. It’s one of five dozen communities in southern Illinois and the Metro East that accounted for roughly a third of reported sanitary sewer overflows in the state within the last decade. Carterville needs a new wastewater treatment plant, which it committed to building more than five years ago, but bids for the project did not open until this spring. While they wait, residents cope with basement backups, flooding and the smell of sewage near their homes, and while bureaucratic processes drag on, costs for the project have risen.
The majority of overflow incidents in Carterville — 84% — were attributed to rainfall, with two caused by the system being “biologically overloaded” and another caused by a blockage that broke loose, according to reports submitted to the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency.
Climate change may be contributing to the overflows, too.
“In Southern Illinois and the Metro East, we’re seeing a larger increase in the frequency of these types of events, where we’re going from fairly dry to very wet in a quick period of time…and that has affected that area more than other parts of the state,” said Illinois State Climatologist Trent Ford. This increase in sogging rain events, he said, is “partially if not mostly attributable to human-caused climate change.”
Unless authorized by a permit, sewer overflows into U.S. waters are violations of the U.S. Clean Water Act. Emails sent in October 2022 from the Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s Environmental Bureau indicated that the office had drafted a consent order related to the city’s wastewater treatment plant and sewer overflows. A consent order would legally require Carterville to take certain actions to address issues identified by the Illinois EPA. However, as of July 2025, no official consent decree has been filed in court.
With a population of almost 6,000, the city is one of few communities in southern Illinois that saw population growth in recent years. The city grew by 1,200 people between 2000 and 2020. Carterville residents support growth, but they also recognize that growth means the wastewater infrastructure needs to be repaired or replaced.
Water infrastructure is just as important to a community’s economic vitality as highway connections and abundant sources of power, said Brian Turmail, spokesman for the Associated General Contractors of America.
“Ultimately, a community’s ability to attract employers and to attract residents and to attract economic activity is directly linked to the health of its water systems.”
Last year, Carterville was approved for a $31 million federal loan administered through the Illinois EPA for the project. Yet city council did not sign the loan agreement, one of the requirements for dispersal of the funds, until March of this year — more than five years after the project was proposed.
The loan amount has since increased to $44 million, according to minutes from the May meeting of the Carterville water and sewer board. The city’s contracted engineer, Rodney Potts, reached out to state representatives and senators to ask for additional funding assistance, but they did not have anything to provide.
Carterville Mayor Bradley Robinson said the Illinois EPA is providing $13 million in upfront forgiveness.
Jones thinks the new plant would solve the problem on his property.
In the time since the overflows started, Jones has attended public meetings and called and emailed officials at the city of Carterville, the Illinois EPA, the Illinois Attorney General’s office, and the United States Army Corps of Engineers more than three dozen times regarding the conditions on his property.
“The complainant was talking about all of these different things he was seeing in the water,” said Tyson Zobrist, Illinois Branch Chief at USACE. “And you know, a creek flows. We’d get out there, and we wouldn’t see anything,” said Zobrist, who confirmed that Corps inspectors visited Jones’ property, but said the agency regulates the discharge of dredge or fill material into U.S. waters, not wastewater.
Despite violation notices from the Illinois EPA and plans to build a new wastewater treatment plant, Jones said local officials have not acknowledged the problem on his property. The Illinois EPA also said in a report that Jones’ claims “cannot be substantiated.”
Meanwhile, the ditch has become a main character in Jones’ life. The city made some improvements at the existing wastewater treatment plant that have reduced the severity of the issue but did not completely eliminate it, Jones said — the problem is at its worst when storms dump inches of rain at a time on Carterville, but even during dry periods the water in the ditch has an oily sheen with a white foam on top. He can tell there’s “something wrong with the water,” and particularly in the summer, the air becomes thick with the stench of sewage.
Prior to discovering the sewage issue, Jones said he spent thousands of dollars and countless hours on preparing the land for the tiny home village. He said he spent around $30,000 cleaning raw sewage out of the ditch. He estimated the development could have brought in $10,000 to $25,000 per tiny home. Now, he feels like he’ll never see the returns.
He filed a civil lawsuit against the city and the mayor two years ago, but even if it resolves in his favor, he said he wants to sell the land and move on.
With no guarantees that the problem will be addressed, he said he’s struggled to find buyers for the land.
Mixed messages about a faulty treatment plant
Carterville Mayor Bradley Robinson said in an interview that the issues on Jones’ land and the need to build a new wastewater treatment plant are unrelated and that the plant is in compliance.
Carterville’s wastewater treatment plant has reported more than 40 sewage overflow incidents to the Illinois EPA since 2015. The agency said it “did not locate” any electronic reports of overflows in 2024 in response to an Illinois Answers request for such records.
The Illinois EPA issued Carterville two violation notices related to overflows in the last decade. One in April 2015 and another in January 2020, one month after Jones tried to show his property. The agency can fine up to $10,000 per day for these violations but was unable to determine if any of the more than 100 violations issued statewide over the last decade resulted in such a fine.
Jones isn’t the only one in Carterville raising the issue.
Curt Messamore liked to sit outside his home in Carterville with his wife Karen and drink beer by a fire. They bought the house on Pear Street almost 20 years ago, and have endured sewage smells wafting through the yard for years, he said. The house is paid off, but late last year, the Messamores couldn’t stand it any more and moved 10 miles north of Carterville to Bush, Illinois.
“I’ve got bad allergies, and I can’t be around all of that crap,” Curt Messamore, 57, said.
When he complained to the city about the smell in recent years he said officials told him they inspected nearby homes and found no issues. Other residents shared posts over the years on social media sites complaining about the smell in the area. Robinson said he’s not familiar with any reported sewage overflows or issues in the area near the Messamores’ property.
Rob Thompson, 70, lives near the current treatment plant. There are bad smells sometimes, he said, but that’s to be expected when you buy a house close to a sewage facility. He also knows the city needs to replace the plant and has needed to for years.
“You keep adding people to the population,” Thompson said. “The population keeps growing, and [the sewage treatment plant] only has so much capacity. You can’t keep having people moving in and hooking on.”
According to a public notice posted on the Illinois EPA website in fall 2023, “the City of Carterville has received direction from the Attorney General’s office mandating that corrective action be taken by the city to improve discharge from the existing treatment facility. As the life expectancy of the existing plant has been exceeded, and the future discharge limits will be increased, the city will not be able to simply do nothing.”
Records requested from the Illinois EPA and the Illinois Attorney General’s office confirm a draft consent order was discussed between an attorney representing Carterville and an assistant attorney general in 2022, but nothing has been filed in court as of July this year.
Carterville has committed to constructing a new sewage treatment plant, which “will address the compliance issues presented in the Illinois EPA referral,” said a spokeswoman for the Attorney General’s office.
According to Robinson, bids for the construction of the new wastewater treatment facility were signed in April — and the lowest bid came in at $12 million over the originally estimated cost of $31 million.
“We just don’t have a lot of revenue”
Construction on the plant was supposed to be done next year, according to a 2023 email sent from an attorney representing Carterville to assistant Attorney General Natalie Long, but the city and the Illinois EPA are still working out details on financing the project, according to Robinson.
Even the lowest bid for the project was discouraging, the mayor said.
“I’m sick to my stomach,” he said.
“Carterville has been approved for funding,” said Illinois EPA spokeswoman Kim Biggs. Biggs said because the enforcement from the Attorney General’s office is ongoing she could not comment further.
The city can’t begin tapping into the money until a rate ordinance is adopted and submitted to the agency.
Robinson said the necessary rate ordinances will likely be approved sometime this year. He fears passing them may mean this will be his last term as mayor. By 2028, he said, Carterville residents’ bills could increase from $11 a month to as much as $46.50.
“It’s going to be extremely difficult for the residents of Carterville,” he said.
Those future rates could possibly be lowered by payments for wastewater treatment services from three other communities hooking up to the plant. Those communities, Robinson said, will likely have to borrow to pay for infrastructure needed to send untreated sewage to the new plant.
But if the city keeps using the current plant, the Illinois EPA will limit the number of new taps, he said. That would mean no more new homes or businesses.
“I really wish that this did not cost what it costs but every small community is a victim of kicking the can down the road, and I’m not using it as an excuse, because I’ve been mayor for 12 years,” Robinson said, acknowledging that it took him five years to realize the plant needed replacing.
It’s taken an additional seven years to get the loan approved and open bids.
“We haven’t broken ground yet,” he said. “but the wheels of government move slowly.”
Applying for the loan from the Illinois EPA meant a lengthy and expensive process for Carterville.
Despite the city’s population growth over the years, Robinson said people often shop and spend outside of Carterville, in larger nearby communities like Marion and Carbondale, meaning the city is missing out on the revenue gains that usually come with an increase in population.
“We just don’t have a lot of revenue,” Robinson said.
Carterville’s proposed new wastewater treatment plant will also provide services to three surrounding communities: Cambria, Colp and Crainville.
The Illinois EPA offers discounts on loan rates for certain communities smaller than 25,000, and some financing programs allow for reimbursement. But the discounts do not address some of the bigger issues that small communities like Carterville face when seeking funding and resources to make repairs.
Sam Jones, the village president in Crainville, said hooking up to Carterville’s new plant will be expensive for his village, but there isn’t a better option.
To remedy sanitary sewer overflow violations, supplemental environmental projects associated with those communities can be a part of the consent decree settlement. These projects go beyond what’s legally required for compliance, and provide additional environmental or public health benefits, according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency.
The Illinois EPA would not confirm or deny that Carterville’s inclusion of three other communities in its plan is part of a supplemental environmental project or any settlement agreement.
Ron Modglin, Cambria village president, said the choice for him was between building a new $6 million facility or investing $2 million in equipment to connect to Carterville’s proposed plant.
“You get up to the bigger towns like Springfield and places like that, and it’s not a big deal,” Modglin said. “They got revenue. But these little towns don’t have that kind of revenue, and it’s just hard to get the money to do this stuff.”
The $2 million to hook up to Carterville’s proposed plant is still more than Cambria can afford, he said, but “it just made sense for us to go this route.”
“If I can’t sell this land…it’ll ruin me”
Jones relocated from Carterville to nearby Marion four years ago. Unable to sell the land and with no way forward, he filed a civil suit two years ago against the City of Carterville and Mayor Robinson alleging nuisance and trespass of property related to the overflows. The suit now seeks damages in excess of $350,000.
After Carterville’s representation filed a third motion to dismiss, Jones sought help from Chicago-based environmental attorney Shell Bleiweiss. He is assisting Jones under limited scope representation.
Limited representation attorneys can provide limited legal advice, draft and review documents, gather and prepare evidence, and make limited appearances in court for a portion of a case.
Bleiweiss, who has decades of experience with environmental cases, said he is shocked the issues at Jones’ property have persisted for so long.
“It’s not just smelly liquid,” Bleiweiss said in an interview. “It’s really gross. And it’s been going on for years, and they’ve known about it for years.” Thirty years ago, a property owner downstream created a pond, which dammed up the ditch and exacerbated the problem, according to the most recent complaint filed by Jones.
“[The sewage] at one time flowed through Aaron’s property,” Bleiweiss said. “Now it not only flows on to [it] but it stays there.” The problem is at its worst during heavy rain, but “occurs at other times as well, with increasing frequency,” according to the complaint.
Jones filed an amended complaint, this time with Bleiweiss, on June 27 last year. Then Jones’ story gained an additional wrinkle. In October, he found out he is facing two counts of felony forgery after an incident that happened on cemetery grounds on June 29, according to court records.
The charging documents, signed by then-Carterville Police Chief Mike Flaningam, allege Jones signed the name of a Williamson County Sheriff Deputy on a trespassing notice. At the end of December, Flaningam was hired as a Williamson County Sheriff’s Office detective.
Flaningam said he can’t comment on ongoing investigations.
Jones believes the felony charges are a misunderstanding. The two felony charges carry a maximum penalty of two to five years in the Illinois Department of Corrections and a maximum fine of $25,000 each.
“That ruins me for life,” Jones said. “I have to sell my home now because I could be put in jail.”
At a January hearing for the case involving his land next to the cemetery, Jones told Williamson County Presiding Circuit Judge Stephen Green that the situation would be different if he knew when “the dumping” would stop.
But it’s still happening, Bleiweiss said.
An attorney from Evans and Dixon LLC, a St. Louis-based law firm representing Carterville, declined to comment after the Jan. 3 hearing on the city’s fourth motion to dismiss the suit. Judge Green dismissed the case based on a technicality on Feb. 7, with leave to refile.
Green’s Feb. 7 order noted that cities should refrain from dumping sewage on private land and can be “held liable in court” for trespass and nuisance claims. Jones and Bleiweiss refiled the suit on March 4 and dropped Robinson from the case to resolve the technical issue.
Before taking the city to court, Jones said he offered the mayor an opportunity to buy the land for the amount left on the mortgage, $140,000, and never heard anything back about the idea.
Officials considered purchasing Jones’ land for the city’s new wastewater treatment plant. Because of the land’s elevation and the bodies of water on it, it wasn’t a viable place for the plant, Robinson said.
With all of the uncertainty surrounding the condition of the ditch on Jones’ land, and wondering if the water will become smelly and murky again, Jones decided to put his land into a revocable trust, which allows him to appoint someone else to make decisions about the land in the event that the felony charges against him land him in jail.
“It’s costing a lot of money, and I don’t know what is going to happen,” Jones said. “I’m trying to protect myself from losing everything.”
