About the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District

I believe we have a chance to show that people can live in a sustainable and harmonious way in and around a living wilderness; that we can be caring stewards — not merely users and abusers of these natural resources; that the Chicago region can have both a sound economy and a healthy ecology. But we have to have leaders who can take this message to the public.

The MWRD should be a leader in this effort.

History

The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago is an obscure agency with a vital mission.  Established by the Illinois State Legislature in 1889 as the Chicago Sanitary District, this new agency was charged with protecting the drinking water supply for the burgeoning metropolis of Chicago.  At that time, Chicago residents sent sewage, garbage, and street runoff (full of horse manure) directly into the Chicago River, which flowed into Lake Michigan. Storms often sent this contaminated discharge out toward the intake pipes providing the city’s drinking water — an unsafe and untenable situation.

The sanitary engineers of the time conceived of a plan to reverse the flow of the Chicago River by digging two large canals and building a lock at the mouth of the Chicago, thus conveying sewage-filled river water away from the lake. This massive scheme was completed in 1900. Read more about Chicago's flood and drainage control.

Gradually the Sanitary District build seven wastewater treatment plants around Cook County, including what is regarded as the world’s largest at Stickney, and implemented modern sewage treatment for the city and suburbs. The District’s service area for sewage treatment expanded to include almost all of Cook County — Chicago and 125 suburban communities — serving 5.3 million residents and industry and processing more than 1 billion gallons a day of wastewater. The annual budget now totals more than $1.3 billion. The agency changed its name to the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District at its centennial in 1989.

Another major turning point in the District’s history — and a signal achievement — was the development of a plan to capture billions of gallons of stormwater overflow in a huge underground tunnel to reduce pollution in the Chicago waterways. Called the Tunnel and Reservoir Plan (TARP), but popularly known as Deep Tunnel, this multibillion-dollar project was begun in the late 1960s.  The tunnel portion — 109 miles burrowed in the deep limestone bedrock — was completed in May 2006 and has captured billions of gallons of stormwater,  preventing flooding and reducing flood damages. One reservoir located near O’Hare Airport is already complete. Two others, at Thornton and McCook, are still being excavated. Today the Thornton Transitional Reservoir can hold millions of gallons of stormwater runoff, which is later pumped to the Calumet plant for treatment.

Now, I believe the MWRD is poised on the cusp of a fourth great moment in its history that can define the agency for the rest of the 21st century. This era involves stormwater management. In 2004, the Illinois General Assembly granted authority to the MWRD to manage stormwater for Cook County, with an additional $50 million in tax revenues. This takes the District aboveground, where it must now deal with the freshwater resource of rain falling on our landscape. The challenge we face is this: Will the MWRD see itself as a garbage collector, gathering a waste product (stormwater) and disposing of it by sending it into the sewers where it gets contaminated by mixing with sewage? Or will the MWRD see itself as a bank, collecting deposits of precious liquid assets (rainwater) and investing them wisely in our communities?

Over the next 18–24 months, the District will be developing a Watershed Management Ordinance for Cook County. This will, I hope, promote an array of techniques known as “green infrastructure” designed to capture rainwater where it falls and allow it to recharge our underground water supplies.  Stay tuned!

The Facts…

…About Water and Water Use

• As Midwesterners, we are in charge of a unique and precious resource. The five Great Lakes contain about 90 percent of the U.S. water supply. The lakes hold 5,500 cubic miles, or 6 quadrillion gallons, and span more than 94,000 square miles. Only the polar ice caps contain more fresh water.
• Lake Michigan, the second largest in volume, is the only Great Lake entirely within the United States, making it one of the region’s most magnificent treasures.
• Most people use between 70 and 100 gallons of water a day.
• Flushing a toilet uses between 2 and 7 gallons of water. To reduce the amount of water required to flush, you can add a displacement device (a water-filled plastic bottle or bag) to your tank.
• Washing dishes by hand uses about 5 gallons per person; A dishwasher uses 9–12 gallons per load.
• A shower uses 2–5 gallons a minute; a bath uses about 50 gallons.
• Most people use about 2 gallons to brush their teeth.

…About the MWRD

• The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (MWRD) treats an average of 1.4 billion gallons of wastewater every day and has the capacity to treat over 2.0 billion gallons a day.
• A staff of 2,300 work under the direction of nine elected commissioners to carry out this mission.
• The District serves 5.1 million people — plus the commercial/industrial equivalent of 4.5 million people, and a combined sewer overflow equivalent of .5 million people. That’s the equivalent of 10.1 million people!
• The District serves an area of 872 square miles, which includes the City of Chicago and 124 suburban communities. The District's 547 miles of intercepting sewers (large pipes underground) range in size from 12 inches to 27 feet in diameter, and are fed by approximately 10,000 local sewer system connections.
• The treatment plant in Stickney, one of seven owned and operated by MWRD, is the largest wastewater treatment plant in the world. It serves 2.38 million residents of Cook County.
• The District's Tunnel and Reservoir Plan (TARP, aka “Deep Tunnel”) is one of the country's largest public works projects for pollution and Flood Control. 93.4 miles of tunnels, 9 to 33 feet in diameter and 150 to 300 ft. underground, have already been constructed and are in operation. 8.1 miles of tunnels are under construction at present. The last 7.7 miles of the planned 109 miles are in the final design stage.
• The District controls approximately 76 miles of navigable waterways which are part of a national system connecting the Atlantic Ocean and the Great Lakes with the Gulf of Mexico.
• Sidestream Elevated Pool Aeration (SEPA) Stations add oxygen to the waterways by lifting the water and allowing it to cascade over a series of waterfalls. These "urban waterfalls" increase the dissolved oxygen in the water, thereby improving the quality, aesthetics, and aquatic environment of these waterways.
• The MWRD also runs the Biosolids Disposal and the Prairie Plan. The District's water reclamation processes produce a by-product known as biosolids. Biosolids consist of solids that are removed from the wastewater and are processed by various methods to produce a stabilized, nuisance-free product suitable for disposal.

…About Our Region’s History of Water Reclamation

• From 1833 (when Chicago incorporated as a Village) to 1855, Chicago had no sewers. Waste flowed into streets and ditches.
• During the period 1860–1890, Chicagoans suffered from major epidemics of typhoid fever. In 1889, the Illinois legislature passed an Act establishing the Sanitary District of Chicago. In 1892, ground was broken to construct the main channel of the Sanitary and Ship Canal.
• In 1900, the main channel of the Sanitary and Ship Canal opened, reversing the flow of the Chicago River. Water was diverted from Lake Michigan to dilute sewage. In 1911, the North Shore Channel was built to divert more lake water to aid dilution. Interceptor sewers were completed, and Lake Michigan was largely protected from contamination.
• In 1983, the District received awards from Illinois EPA for wastewater safety at the O’Hare Wastewater Reclamation Plant and the North Side Water Reclamation Plant.
• In 1985, the District’s 31-mile Mainstream tunnel system began operation; it is capable of storing one billion gallons of combined sewage and storm water.
• In 1986, the District's TARP tunnel system (“Deep Tunnel”) received the National Award as "Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement of 1986" from the American Society of Professional Engineers. The District's 9.2-mile Cal-Sag segment of the Calumet Deep Tunnel begins operation.
• In 1989, the District celebrated 100 years of protecting water. As part of the Centennial Celebration, the District changed its name to the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago and built Centennial Fountain on the north bank of the Chicago River at McClurg Court. The District also established a 26-mile Centennial Trail along three historic waterways — the Des Plaines River, the Sanitary and Ship Canal, and the Illinois and Michigan Canal. The American Academy of Environmental Engineers awarded its Grand Prize for Planning to the District for the Urban Waterfalls, which aerate the water in the main and Cal-Sag channels to enhance the aquatic environment, improve and protect fish populations, and reduce odors.
• In 1990, the MWRD awarded a contract for work to begin on an 11.5-mile section of the Calumet Deep Tunnel Project. Ground is broken for the O'Hare Reservoir, the first project in Phase II of TARP. It can store 342 million gallons of floodwater.
• In 1991, the MWRD dedicated the first two streamside elevated pool aeration (SEPA) stations along the Cal-Sag channel.
• In 1996, The Association of Metropolitan Sewage Agencies gave two gold and four silver awards to the MWRD for compliance with the National Pollution Discharge System Permit standards.