In 2009, the City of Champaign began approving a wave of high rises that added more than 2,000 beds to the Campustown area over the next nine years.

By 2018, the city realized it had so overburdened the sewer system that improvements had to be made and a new developer had to help pay for the improvements.

A preliminary engineering study recommended a roughly $5.7 million, three-phase sewer improvement project. The study, conducted by Donohue & Associates for $17,300, said some parts of the system dated back to the early 1900s. 

Most of the study’s recommendations were never implemented. The only sewer project besides minor repairs completed by the city in Campustown was the sewer on Sixth Street approved in 2018 according to Assistant City Engineer Alex Nagy. Nagy said a new study by Donohue & Associates will likely be conducted in early 2025.

“Some of the pipes are right at capacity and others have a little bit to spare, but any significant development will generally put that where we will need to do something different,” Nagy said.

However, the part of the sewer system overseen by the Urbana and Champaign Sanitary District has the capacity to continue supporting the development in the Campustown area, Executive Director Rick Manner said in an interview.

Because of the strain caused by development, Champaign created a cost-share agreement with Campustown developer CORE Spaces in 2018.

Campustown is bounded east by Wright Street, south by Armory Avenue, north by Healey Street and west by First Street. At least 24 apartments were built between 2009 and 2018, including 308 E. Green St., 212 E. Green St. and 707 S. Fourth St.

From 2019 through this year, another 1,344 units in 13 complexes have been built in Campustown according to the Champaign Building Safety Division, with more to come.

The 2018 study specifically recommended Champaign construct two pump stations, which collect and store sewage, on First and Fifth streets. It also recommended pipe bursting sewers on Green, John and First streets, which would expand the old pipes and put a new pipe in its place. This process can replace aged or undersized sewers.

The sewer systems in Champaign are overseen by the city and by the Urbana and Champaign Sanitary District. There are two primary systems: collector and interceptor sewers. Collector sewers are smaller pipes that gather wastewater from individual homes and businesses, while interceptors are main sewer lines receiving wastewater and transporting it to treatment plants.

Collector sewers are operated through the City of Champaign, which the sanitary study called for improvements on. 

Interceptor sewers are maintained through the sanitary district and have been upgraded over the years. 

Sanitary district Director of Engineering Brad Bennett said despite Campustown development, there has actually been a decrease in wastewater flow in the last 20 years. He said he suspects the higher water prices and the effort to conserve water has decreased water usage over the last decade, which have decreased the flow to treatment plants. 

In September 2019, after the cost share between the city and CORE Spaces was approved, a $510,000 sewer was constructed on Sixth Street. CORE Spaces then built The Dean, a 322-unit apartment at 708 S. Sixth St. in 2019 and The HUB Champaign Daniel, a 241-unit apartment at 812 S. Sixth St. in 2020. 

Development in Campustown and the area around it has continued as the number of students admitted to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign increases. This year, a record-high number of 9,008 freshmen were admitted, an almost 20% increase from the freshman class in 2020. 

Bennett said there are three main interceptor sewers in Campustown running relatively close to each other. They were all built in the late 1800s and early-to-mid 1900s. He said parts of these interceptors have been lined, which restores the pipe, and maintenance is done as needed.

The Second Street pump station was installed by the district in 2016, which takes sewage that was originally going to the northeast plant on University Avenue to the southwest plant on Rising Road, freeing up the interceptor sewer’s capacity.

“We have not seen any dry weather issues even with all of the multi-story student housing that went in,” Bennett said. “The only time we really run the Second Street pump station is during wet weather events.”