The Downers Grove Sanitary District is responsible for providing sanitary sewer service for much of the Village of Downers Grove, the portion of the Village of Westmont west of Cass Avenue, and portions of Woodridge, Lisle, Oak Brook, and Darien, Illinois. We are a separate unit of local government, independent of the municipalities where we provide service. We are not part of the Village of Downers Grove.
We collect sanitary wastewater through over 250 miles of sanitary sewers that we operate and maintain. We also operate and maintain nine wastewater pumping stations located throughout our service area. Sanitary wastewater is collected and treated at our Wastewater Treatment Center, located at 5003 Walnut Avenue in Downers Grove. Our treated wastewater (effluent) is discharged to the East Branch of the DuPage River or St. Joseph’s Creek, as permitted by the State of Illinois with authority from the United States Environmental Protection Agency.
We provide service to 20,000 customers, including wastewater generated by more than 60,000 people, and a number of commercial, industrial, and institutional customers. We have the capacity to treat an average of 11 million gallons per day of sanitary wastewater.
Our facility and staff has had a long legacy of award-winning performance. Some of our past achievements have been tabulated.
The sanitary sewer collection system consists of gravity sewers, pump stations, and forcemains. Gravity sewers ranging from 6-inch diameter up to 42-inch diameter transport flows to the Wastewater Treatment Center, or to a nearby pumping station. Pumping stations pump flows from low-lying areas through forcemains to a downstream portion of the sewer system where gravity sewers can carry the flow to the Wastewater Treatment Center. It can take up to 8 hours for flows entering the collection system in distant portions of the collection system to reach the Wastewater Treatment Center.
We are responsible for ensuring that the sewers carry sanitary flow at all times. We routinely inspect, clean, repair, rehabilitate, and/or replace sewers in our system. In addition, we are always working to remove sources of rain and groundwater from entering the sanitary sewer system. These sources of flow consume valuable capacity that is needed to handle sanitary flows, especially during intense rainfall events.
In order to better serve our customers, we are very interested in hearing about any sewer backups or any unusual activity related to the sanitary sewers. If you experience a sanitary sewer backup problem at any time, you should call the District Office at (630)969-0664. We have several programs to assist our customers experiencing sewer backups. These programs include repairs to building service laterals, the installation of overhead plumbing to prevent basement backups, providing a reimbursement for backups caused by a blockage of the public sanitary sewer, and a program to seal the sewers from rain and groundwater.
While we do what we can to keep excessive flows from the sewer mains, we are always seeking a commitment from our customers to help us by eliminating rain and groundwater sources that are on private property. By keeping these excessive flows out of the sanitary sewers, you are helping your neighbors by playing your part in preventing backups, keeping down the cost to run the Sanitary District, and protecting the water environment from pollution.
We provide treatment of sanitary wastewater at our Wastewater Treatment Center located at 5003 Walnut Avenue, in Downers Grove. We employ widely-used technology to provide a high degree of purification prior to discharging to nearby surface waters.
We provide primary settling, followed by secondary treatment and ammonia removal using activated sludge, tertiary sand filtration, and seasonal disinfection for most sanitary wastewater. In large storm events we use dedicated primary settling and disinfection facilities to treat flows that are beyond the capacity of the main plant.
Most treated effluent is discharged into the East Branch of the DuPage River near the Burlington Railroad Bridge. During large storm events, some flow is also discharged into St. Joseph’s Creek near Walnut Avenue. All discharges are consistently monitored, sampled, and analyzed in our laboratory. Results and operating records are routinely reported to the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency as a requirement of our National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Permit.
Our plant separates and stabilizes residual solids from the sanitary wastewater. Our process prepares these biosolids for easy use as a valuable soil supplement, providing essential plant nutrients in a natural substrate. We make this product available for use, free of charge, at our pick-up station located at 2650 Curtiss Street, (just opposite Katrine Avenue, about ½ mile west of Belmont Road) in Downers Grove. We are also willing to deliver bulk quantities of biosolids to interested users, including our customers, nearby landscapers, park districts, and other users with landscaping needs.
A recreational vehicle dumping station is available at the District office, at 2710 Curtiss Street in Downers Grove. The station is open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays, excluding holidays.
2710 Curtiss Street
Downers Grove, Illinois 60515-0703
Phone: (630) 969-0664
Fax: (630) 969-0827
Monday-Friday: 8 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Saturday and Sunday: Closed
