What would your summer look like if you couldn’t water your garden, wash your car, or let your kids run through the sprinkler, and nobody could tell you when it would end? I can’t even fill up a small inflatable pool on a hot July afternoon? For families in Sullivan, that conversation is happening right now, and it’s not a “one-summer” problem.
Water restrictions are back in Sullivan, and this time city officials are saying they’re staying in place not just through the summer, but possibly into the fall as well. The reason? The aquifer that Sullivan utilizes for its entire water supply is currently sitting 15 feet below normal levels. Not a little low. Fifteen feet below. This is quite concerning because unlike communities that have backup water sources or regional supply agreements to lean on, Sullivan has one aquifer at their disposal. That aquifer is roughly 100 years old, requires several wells, and lacks the same depth or size of similar communities here in Central Illinois.
For residents who have been through this before, there’s a weariness that comes with hearing these announcements year after year. You do your part. You take shorter showers. You let the lawn go brown. You watch your neighbors in other towns post pictures of their backyard pools on social media while you’re figuring out how to keep your garden alive without running the hose. It’s frustrating in a way that’s hard to put into words, especially when it’s not clear how much longer this will go on or what it would actually take for the situation to improve. These frustrations were laid out in numbers following the City of Sullivan’s Facebook page’s post on this issue earlier today.
The restrictions themselves are relatively stringent. No lawn watering or irrigation of any kind. No filling pools, hot tubs, or ponds with city water. And, if you want water for those, you’ll need to hire a private hauling company to bring it in from outside of town, which costs money that not every family has. No washing vehicles or equipment. Restaurants can’t even put a glass of water on the table unless you ask for it. And if you have a leak on your property, you have 72 hours to fix it or risk having your water shut off entirely.
That last point is worth sitting with for a moment. The city’s water meters will automatically detect leaks and flag them, which means there’s very little wiggle room for anyone dealing with aging pipes or plumbing issues they may not even know about yet. For renters especially, that kind of pressure can feel completely out of their control.
Beyond the mandatory rules, the city is asking residents to go even further on their own. Ensure you have full dishwasher and laundry loads only, shorter showers, turning the water off while brushing teeth, skipping the driveway wash, planting drought-resistant landscaping, collecting rainwater in barrels for outdoor use down the road, etc..
The questions are worth asking and aren’t just about water usage. They’re also about infrastructure, long-term planning, and what it actually looks like when a smaller, Illinois town, runs low on the most essential need to live.
Sullivan residents have been asked to do their part. Many of them have been doing it for a while now. The bigger question still looms… what happens if it’s still not enough?
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