But while the City and residents have embraced the river, the
governmental agency responsible for the waterway continues to turn
its back to the river and consider it an open sewer. I am talking
about the interestingly named
Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MWRD). It is an
independent government authority, with taxing authority, an
elected board, and the responsibility of overseeing waste water
issues in Cook County, Illinois. It is clearly the biggest
roadblock to fulfilling the vision of the City of Chicago to
transform this once blighted river into a highly valued part of
the urban environment, contributing to the quality of life of the
City and its region.
You see, the
MWRD
is polluting the river with human waste. And putting all those
on its waters in harms way.
The MWRD owns and operates sewage treatment facilities along
the Chicago River that dump un-disinfected sewage into the river
waters. Both the City of Chicago and State of Illinois have
urgently called upon the District to stop dumping of this polluted
sewage into the river and the state has proposed regulations
prohibiting it. Civic advocates, including NRDC, have pressed hard
for adoption of the regulations by the Illinois Pollution Control
Board. Yet the MWRD continues to release harmful viruses and
bacteria associated with un-disinfected sewage into the river that
flows past homes, parks, businesses, boats and swimmers. Instead
of complying with the regulations proposed by the Illinois EPA,
MWRD is pouring millions of taxpayer dollars into fighting them.
Certainly, disinfecting billions of gallons of effluent will
come with costs. But they are significantly
less
than one would expect---dwarfed, in fact, by the continued
real estate