CARBON HILL - Sewage from toilets flows in open ditches here, spilling into back yards and even onto the lone baseball diamond where children play after school. | Funding, at a glance | State sewer projects | Illinois EPA: Potential projects (PDF) | EPA fact sheet

The nose-wrinkling stench carries throughout this century-old, one-diner village southwest of Chicago.

It's a wastewater nightmare that the mayor, Mike Cerny, and officials in similarly hard-pressed communities around the country hope they can end by winning some of $4 billion set aside for sewage and water-quality projects in the Obama administration's federal stimulus plan.

"We gotta deal with this," said Cerny, who for months has spent any free time away from his day job as a mechanic filling out applications, lobbying, pleading - even praying - for the money.

"Some kid's gonna get sick," he said recently, desperation in his voice. "Someone's gonna die."

Sewers are among the most popular projects among mayors for stimulus money. Of more than 18,000 projects on a wish-list compiled from more than 700 communities by the U.S. Conference of Mayors, more than 4,000 involved water or wastewater repairs or construction - second only to road projects.

"There's a lot of wacky old infrastructure out there that's decaying and not doing what it's supposed to do," said Alexis Strauss, a water official with the Environmental Protection Agency in California.

More than 700 communities rely on systems that mix sewage with storm water during heavy rains, then spew the overflow into waterways - sickening thousands of people annually with illnesses that include hepatitis and dysentery, according to the EPA. Smaller communities far from big-city treatment plants are among the worst off, though even some large cities suffer problems. Isolated villages like Carbon Hill, 50 miles southwest of Chicago, depend on failure-prone septic tanks that create similar hazards.

'The best chance we've had'

Carbon Hill's mayor estimates the village - with about 400 mostly low-income residents and an annual budget of $50,000 - needs $3 million to lay miles of pipe to safely carry sewage to the closest treatment plant. Cerny said money available under the stimulus law is "the best chance we've had to get this done."

No community in Illinois can receive more than $10 million in federal stimulus funds for sewage works - meaning some villages could land as much money as Chicago, the nation's third-largest city, which says it could use several hundred million dollars for sewers.

Bringing all U.S. wastewater systems into good working order would cost as much as $500 billion, or roughly 100 times more than what's available under the stimulus law, according to the American Public Works Association.

"The stimulus money is a good start, but there is so much more to do," said Julia Anastasio, one of the group's lobbyists.

Competition among cities, towns and villages like Carbon Hill for the stimulus sewer money will be tough. In Illinois alone, about 750 sewer projects that would cost more than $3 billion are competing for the state's share of about $180 million, said Geoff Andres, an EPA official in Illinois overseeing those funds.

"No one has been yelling at me yet, but they will come August and September," Andres said.

But will sewer repairs stimulate the economy?

"It might create some temporary jobs, but once those projects are over so are the jobs," said Eileen Norcross, a public policy researcher at George Mason University. "I don't think these projects, worthy or not, will have that stimulus effect."

Sewer jobs

The Obama administration hasn't estimated how many jobs might be produced by stimulus sewer projects, although it has said the overall stimulus plan should create or save at least 3 million jobs. The Conference of Mayors estimated Carbon Hill's sewer project would create about 70 jobs, although village officials say they're puzzled how it arrived at that number.

Carbon Hill appears to have a good chance of getting stimulus money, according to the state environmental protection agency, partly because applicants will receive money first-come, first-served. The agency expects to start notifying recipients toward the end of May.

But the man who lobbied the hardest won't see a stimulus check, at least not as mayor. Cerny fell victim to the politics of sewage, losing an election last month to an opponent who raised doubts both about Cerny's ability to raise the money and long-term costs.

Upgrades often bring utility rate increases, and Carbon Hill's new sewer could add between $30 and $50 to water and electricity bills that now average more than $100 a month.

"You always have a vocal minority who say, 'It worked for my grandpa and my pa - it can work for us,"' said Andres of lingering resistance to scrapping septic tanks for central systems.

Still, Cerny vowed to work until the last day of his term - which ends Tuesday - to land the federal money. The father of three still lives in Carbon Hill, after all.

"We'll be able to sit in our backyards and enjoy dinner," he said, "and not have to smell the sewer."

On the Net:

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency: http://www.epa.gov

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Sewer works, at a glance

HOW MUCH WILL ILLINOIS GET?: Illinois will receive $180 million of $4 billion set aside for sewage and water-quality projects in the federal stimulus bill. Nationally, the U.S. EPA oversees the money.

WHO APPROVES PROJECTS?: Ultimately, the Illinois EPA does. It also sets many of the spending rules.

WHAT'S THE NEED IN ILLINOIS?: It's huge. A preliminary Illinois EPA list of projects that could potentially qualify for money included around 750 projects worth more than $3 billion.

WHO DECIDES WHO GETS WHAT?: There's no one official or committee making the call. Generally, the money will be disbursed on a first-come, first-serve basis to projects that meet the EPA criteria.

ARE THERE RULES?: One is that projects have to be ready to start almost immediately.

ARE THERE CAPS ON HOW MUCH COMMUNITIES GET?: Yes. The state EPA has decided no single village, town or city in Illinois can get more than $10 million.

IS THE MONEY A GRANT OR LOAN?: Both. Many projects will get about half the money for a project as a grant that wouldn't have to be paid back; they could get the rest as a loan at zero 6percent interest.

Source: Illinois EPA

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Sewer projects

The Illinois EPA has a list of about 750 projects seeking some of the $180 million in federal stimulus money set aside for sewer works in the state. While no Illinois community can receive more than $10 million for such a project, the following are among those that could potentially qualify for a slice of the money:

• Aurora - Nearly $6 million to separate storm and sewage water flow.

• Belleville - $4 million to separate storm and sewage water.

• Bensenville - $18 million to rehab collection system.

• Chicago - $37 million for sewer lining.

• Gilberts - $19 million to expand system.

• Joliet - $50 million for wet weather tunnel to deal with combined sewage overflows.

• Pekin - $35 million to expand a sewage treatment plant in two phases.

• Peoria - Nearly $35 million for combined sewer improvements.

• Springfield - $125 million for improvements to a wastewater treatment plant.

• Streator - Nearly $14 million for combined sewer separation.

• Champaign-Urbana - $42 million for sewage treatment plant upgrade.

Source: Illinois EPA