Sanitary sewage overflows into homeowners’ basements and a local waterway, and Elmhurst’s failure to prevent or report the issues has prompted the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency to tell the city to comply with state and federal laws or face penalties.

The IEPA notice specifies that the city did not report at least 17 discharges that occurred since 2009. One resident, however, who has filed a notice of intent to sue the city for breaking federal and state laws, believes many more have occurred over the last five years and also have gone unreported.

Maggie Carson, a spokeswoman for the IEPA, said the notice was issued in February after the city failed a compliance inspection in July. The check was made by the agency in response to complaints by homeowners who had sanitary backups in their basements after last summer’s heavy rains.

“There were numerous backups over two years and Elmhurst failed to report these,” Carson said. “This was not a one-time situation.”

The discharges also flowed into Salt Creek, which Carson said is a violation of environmental laws protecting Illinois waters.

The city has sent a proposed compliance agreement to the IEPA that sets a deadline of February 2012 for having the design of improvements done and February 2014 for completing the improvements. Water supervisor Gary Smith said he expects to get feedback from the IEPA within a couple of weeks on the proposed schedule.

That suggested schedule is not fast enough for Alex Arezina, an attorney who lives in the 300 block of Geneva Avenue. He has filed a notice of intent to sue the city under the Clean Water Act if it does not start making improvements.

“This is a traumatic thing when your basement floods,” said Arezina who filed the notice of intent to sue in May, which is a procedure necessary to proceed to a suit, and is intended to show the city he is serious about the need to get sanitary and storm sewer improvements in place quickly. He is not asking for monetary damages for himself, but would ask for the city to be fined $250,000 and for it to move forward with improvements expeditiously.

Arezina’s house had sanitary back-ups in 2008 and 2010, for which he filed insurance claims, which he said has caused his rates to rise. To make a permanent fix, he also installed an external lift station on his house at a cost of $8,500.

The city and its consultants, Christopher Burke Engineering and RJN Group, have been studying for months how to proceed with making improvements to the sanitary and storm water systems. A proposed plan is not expected until the fall. The city is paying its consultants $847,000 to come up with a proposal.

Mayor Pete DiCianni said the city is working on coming into compliance as fast as it can.

“We’re concerned about water being clean,” he said. “We’ll do what we can to be in compliance with the IEPA.”

Arezina said making improvements by 2014 is too late because during that time any number of rainfalls may occur and swamp peoples’ houses.

“That’s three more seasons of rain without anything being done,” he said. “The city needs to get more serious, compress the study and implement it.”

DiCianni said the city is doing its due diligence to try to make wise decisions on creating a plan to fix storm water and sanitary sewer problems. He has said any plan that may be proposed will likely cost millions of dollars.

“I think we’re moving fast,” he said.

Arezina said the city could and should move forward with other short-term solutions that he believes can be done relatively quickly including disconnecting roof lines on new and large-addition homes from the storm sewer system and putting in back-flow valves on incoming, underground sewer lines of homes in areas that are known to be flood-prone.

He said the city has already identified 10 streets where the flooding has been especially bad and could start fixing problems in those areas now.

Smith said he thinks the city should wait for the Burke/RJN plan.

“I defer to Christopher Burke and RJN as to the appropriate solutions,” he said.

Under the Clean Water Act, there is a formula for determining a fine of either $32,500 or $37,500 per day for each sanitary sewer overflow.

“I know it’s a harsh thing to ask for a fine, but they’re not doing it (making improvements) on their own,” Arezina said.