Water woes split Campton Hills neighborhood

Several Campton Hills homeowners scoffed Tuesday at a proposal to fix their subdivision's failing drainage system through a cost-sharing arrangement with Kane County and the village.

There also was plenty of blaming to go around as residents accused county officials of poor land planning and their neighbors of contributing to the predicament.

"We don't want to pay for anybody else's problems," Tim Zubrod said emphatically, echoing comments of numerous neighbors in the Evening Prairie subdivision. "If I had discovered oil on my property, would I be giving any of it to them?"

Some 40 property owners were asked to attend the special board session to discuss what to do about intermittent flooding that has occurred in the neighborhood for more than a decade, although not all homeowners have experienced it directly.

The problem exists largely because there was a lack of oversight regarding drainage issues when the neighborhood between Silver Glen and Burlington roads saw its first houses back in the 1960s, said county water resources director Paul Schuch. While the county did require some improvements as the development was built out over the years, those steps haven't kept the system from deteriorating to the brink of failure, as it is today, he said.

Schuch said that regardless of whose fault it is, the problem is now so severe the entire neighborhood's drain tile system is in danger, which could lead to septic system backups and become a matter of public health.

"It's in a state of potential failure," he said. "It's a community problem."

Engineers hired by the county estimate the cheapest means of resolving the issue is to replace the entire drainage system at a cost of about $233,000. County officials have tentatively agreed to pay half of that cost, while the village would pay $10,000 for work on public property. The homeowners, meanwhile, would be left with the remaining tab, $106,500, to be split among them, which doesn't sit well with some.

"The county has backpedaled this and does not want to take responsibility for this property they approved," argued homeowner Bill Stadelmann. "Why should the homeowners be responsible? That is just totally unfair and unethical."

Other blamed owners of a private pond in the neighborhood for contributing to the problem, although county officials said the problem would exist even if the pond wasn't there. Schuch added that previous cost-sharing proposals to fix the system have been turned down by residents over the years, and the county is "not walking away" from the situation.

The village board and county could act on the proposal as early as this summer, Schuch said.