I ran for commissioner of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (MWRD) because water matters. The District, with its mission to treat waste water for five million residents of Cook County and numerous industries, has enormous impact on our quality of life. Through its policies and practices for stormwater management, the District affects flooding, beach closings, and the health of our streams and rivers. As owner of more than 7,000 acres of land, the District protects vital habitat, including several dedicated Illinois nature preserves.
I ran for commissioner because I want to help the District become a leader in education about water. I want to see the District promote innovative policies for water conservation and demonstrate best practices at its facilities and on its lands for water conservation. Why? Because water matters.
The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District is a vitally important — and altogether overlooked — public agency. With an annual budget of more than $800 million and as owner of more than 7,000 acres in the region, it deserves more scrutiny. Its responsibility to treat wastewater and to manage storm water for the five million residents and many industries in Cook County makes it an essential contributor to our quality of life.
Yet few people know what the agency does and it has virtually no benchmarks with which to measure performance. I intend to bring environmental accountability and leadership into the MWRD. I believe we cannot be merely users and abusers of natural resources but must become caring stewards.
I believe that water will become "the" salient issue in years to come. It already is in many parts of our country and even in the fast-growing parts of our region. But most of us don't know this yet. We live next to nearly 20 percent of the world's freshwater in the Great Lakes and, as a nation, we constitute nearly six percent of the world's population. In the next 20 years or so we will find substitutes for fossil fuels, especially oil, but there are no substitutes for freshwater. It is vitally important that we protect our precious water resources for the safety of ourselves, our friends and our loved ones.