Politics & Government

Insurance Co. Sues Will County & 12 Towns, Alleges Failure to Avert 'Sewer Water Invasion'

The Illinois Farmers Insurance Company is suing Will County, Joliet, Naperville, Bolingbrook, Plainfield, New Lenox, Shorewood, Manhattan, University Park, Homer Glen, Frankfort, Channahon and Lockport.

An insurance company is suing Will County and a dozen towns for allegedly failing to make adequate preparations for last spring's torrential rainfall.

The county and towns "failed to safely operate retention basins, detention basins, tributary enclosed sewers and tributary open sewers/drains for the purpose of safely conveying stormwater," according to the lawsuit brought by the Illinois Farmers Insurance Company.

This resulted in "sewer water invasions" at numerous locations, with many "so rapid that geysers of water shot out from floor drains, toilets showers and other basement floor openings," the suit said.

Joliet, Naperville, Bolingbrook, Plainfield, New Lenox, Shorewood, Manhattan, University Park, Homer Glen, Frankfort, Channahon and Lockport were named as defendants in the lawsuit.

The insurance company's suit blamed "climate change" for the heavy rain and said the county and towns should have been aware of the its effects.

"During the past 40 years, climate change in Will County has caused rains to be of greater volume, greater intensity and greater duration than pre-1970 rainfall history evidenced, rendering the rainfall frequency return tables ... inaccurate and obsolete," the suit said.

The April 2013 storm cited in the lawsuit dropped more than six inches of rain on the area. Plainfield was hit with 4.65 inches in 24 hours — the record for Will County.

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