The village of Crestwood and residents who sued it over its use of a tainted well reached a preliminary settlement over years of water bills paid by residents who believed they were getting only Lake Michigan water.
The agreement pertains only to bills paid by current and former residents and business owners. Personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits in the matter still are pending.
For the village's part, the settlement attempts to stem its rising legal costs in the water scandal revealed last year.
"It's not that the village felt that they were legally liable, but it's very expensive litigating these class-action cases," village attorney David Sosin said.
One of the main stipulations in the agreement requires Crestwood to establish a $500,000 fund for residents and businesses to claim a refund of a portion of the water bills paid between Jan. 1, 1985, and Sept. 1, 2007. It reflects the years the village was found to have tapped the contaminated well for part of its water supply.
Village Clerk Nancy Benedetto said notice of the agreement should hit residents' mailboxes early this week.
"We wanted to bring resolution to Crestwood and the people out there, the citizens," said Larry Drury, one of several attorneys representing current and former Crestwood residents.
The village was found to have engaged in a cover-up of the well's use, informing residents and Illinois Environmental Protection Agency regulators it used only lake water after the agency had discovered in 1985 the well was tainted with the carcinogen vinyl chloride.
But Crestwood officials were tapping the well from 1985 until 2007, despite a pledge to the IEPA not to. Over that span of time, regulators said, the village relied on the well for as much as 20 percent of daily water needs.
Crestwood officials maintain it never amounted to a health risk because the water was diluted with lake water, a position reiterated by the IEPA.
Vinyl chloride is known to cause cancer as well as damage to the liver and the nervous system, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. An arm of that agency has said there is no safe exposure level to the chemical.
Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan also filed a lawsuit against Crestwood last summer.
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