Cahokia Heights residents have found E. coli in their drinking water through community-organized testing of samples from kitchen taps. The results raise new questions about infrastructure in a community plagued by sewage spills and flooding.
The findings contradict test results from the city’s two water providers — private company Illinois American Water and the city of Cahokia Heights — whose own sampling outside homes has not detected E. coli in treated drinking water, according to public records from the past 15 years.
The difference between what residents are finding at their faucets and what utilities are reporting has intensified longstanding worries about water quality, public health and whether state and federal regulators are doing enough to protect the community…