[remote or in-person] Metropolitan Water Reclamation District

Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago

Utilities

Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025
10:30 a.m. — 12:30 p.m. CST

100 East Erie Street Chicago 60611 (Directions)

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Reporting

Edited and summarized by the Chicago - IL Documenters Team

Note-taking by Bailey Hosfelt

Members of the Board of Commissioners debated and deferred an agenda item to authorize a $80,000 payment to continue another year of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District and the Cook County Sheriff’s Office prescription drug take-back program.

View notes

Live reporting by Morley Musick

Morley Musick

Hi all, today I'll be live tweeting the @MWRDGC (Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago) meeting. Everyone just settling in.

10:34 AM Feb 6, 2025 CST

Morley Musick @MorleyMusick 2/35

The agenda mostly consists of approving contracts for various services and engineering projects undertaken by third party firms. Among these a few things stick out, screenshotted below.

Morley Musick @MorleyMusick 3/35

No public comments today. Here is the agenda link: s3.amazonaws.com/s3.documentclo…

s3.amazonaws.com/s3.documentclo…

Morley Musick @MorleyMusick 4/35

Commissioners being asked if they'd like any items to be pulled for discussion. Mostly no requests for discussion, though a few.

Morley Musick @MorleyMusick 5/35

Item #2 is approved - file:///Users/morleymusick/Downloads/Ordinance%20O25-002%20BTL%202025-02-06.pdf This item is to reduce the tax levy on constituents for MWRD budget. It's approved.

Morley Musick @MorleyMusick 6/35

Now they're approving a resolution sponsored by the Board of Commissioners recognizing February as American Heart Mont. Approved.

Morley Musick @MorleyMusick 7/35

Per item #7 (file:///Users/morleymusick/Downloads/Legislation%20Text-1.pdf), Commissioner Cameron Davis is asking when will MWRD be generating Renewable Energy Credits (RECS) - to generate income? John Murray (sp?) replies we are generating RECS.

Morley Musick @MorleyMusick 8/35

Murray explaining that MWRD energy generating project will likely generate $800k in Renewable Energy Credits. Interesting! To be clear Item 7 was actually to approve MWRD buying 500k in RECS. I wonder why they need to?

Morley Musick @MorleyMusick 9/35

Now they are discussing Item #24. Commissioner Cameron Davis is explaining why MWRD is supporting, with $80k, a CC Sherrif program to buy back pharmaceutical drugs. MWRD supports in order to keep pharma out of water supply. mwrd.org/community-acti…

mwrd.org/community-acti…

Morley Musick @MorleyMusick 10/35

Commissioner Cameron Davis is explaining history of how MWRD is looking to get pharma companies to pay the costs of running drug buyback. Davis is saying vast majority of expenses go towards administering the program, rather than the cost of putting bins out.

Morley Musick @MorleyMusick 11/35

Davis: "It's time to pass this cost (80k) back to big pharma."

Morley Musick @MorleyMusick 12/35

MWRD President Kari K. Steele celebrating drug buyback partnership btw Sheriff's dept and MWRD and its importance for keeping water pharmaceuticals.

Morley Musick @MorleyMusick 13/35

MWRD Commissioner Sharon Waller wants the program expanded, advertised on billboards. Waller emphasizes that she wants program expanded and no break in coverage. Emphasizes that wastewater management does not eliminate pharmaceuticals from water.

Morley Musick @MorleyMusick 14/35

MWRD Comm. Precious Brady-Davis asks Comm. Cameron Davis if there is a legal responsibility for pharma companies to pay for drug buyback program?

Morley Musick @MorleyMusick 15/35

Based off of slightly veiled exchange btw Cameron Davis and Pres Kari K Steele, it appears that Steele is concerned that Mr. Davis is in favor of cutting the program if taxpayers, rather than pharma companies, have to pay for it. ** I AM FULLY READING BTW THE LINES HERE **

Morley Musick @MorleyMusick 16/35

Comm Cameron Davis is emphasizing he wants continuity of program but really wants pharma companies to pay for it, and wants them to start paying for it in < year. Suggests a pro-rata system where MWRD approve program for another 3 months, but does not want it to take full year

Morley Musick @MorleyMusick 17/35

to move to getting pharma companies paying for it. Cam Davis says that 80k is too much just to have a partnership with sheriff's dept. Pres Kari Steele saying she wants the numbers on pounds of pharmaceuticals kept out of water distributed to MWRD.

Morley Musick @MorleyMusick 18/35

Commissioner Waller suggests producing an invoice and mailing it to a pharmaceutical's association, and getting them to pay for it.

Morley Musick @MorleyMusick 19/35

Pres Steele asks whether items to discuss in exec session. No.

Morley Musick @MorleyMusick 20/35

Moving to Motions, Ordinances, and Resolutions. Item #2 being read - description below. Approved: An Ordinance directing the County Clerk to reduce the levy of taxes on Capital Improvement Bonds for the levy year 2024

Morley Musick @MorleyMusick 21/35

Now Director of Finance Jacqueline Torres doing rapid fire reading of remainder of agenda items, attached below. 2 resolutions for month designations. A report and 3 authorizations.

Morley Musick @MorleyMusick 22/35

Items 10-14 read rapid fire.

Morley Musick @MorleyMusick 23/35

15-19 read rapid fire.

Morley Musick @MorleyMusick 24/35

20-24 read rapid fire. Construction, consulting, and engineering services payment authorizations.

Morley Musick @MorleyMusick 25/35

25-26 read. Approval to settle an eminent domain lawsuit. Approval of Report on Green Infrastructure, Detention, and Compensatory Storage Volumes Required by the Watershed Management Ordinance.

Morley Musick @MorleyMusick 26/35

All approved unanimously. Interesting projects to dig in to here. MWRD is hosting a Black History Month Event on Feb 20 at 445 pm highlight contributions of Black labor to building.

Morley Musick @MorleyMusick 27/35

Streeterville Assc. of Active Residents awarded MWRD an award for repairing the Nicholas J. Melas Centennial Fountain (the one with the water canon that shoots across the river).

Morley Musick @MorleyMusick 28/35

Pres. Kari Steele asking Comm.s if there's any new business. Comm. Waller does. Waller wants to identify opportunities to increase transparency to public by including hotlinks to the agenda.

Morley Musick @MorleyMusick 29/35

Waller is congratulating MWRD on expeditiously approving permits. Avg working time in '23 and '24 on each permit respectively was 47, 48 days.

Morley Musick @MorleyMusick 30/35

Meeting adjourned. That's all folks. With this little extra time I'm just gonna mention some agenda items that seemed interesting.

Morley Musick @MorleyMusick 31/35

The MWRD appears to be both buying and selling Renewable Energy Credits. Buying, I would imagine (but don't know), to meet CO2 reduction goals - selling, to generate revenue. RECS are notoriously unreliable, wild west markets. Wd be interesting to understand MWRDs role in them.

Morley Musick @MorleyMusick 32/35

MWRD is paying more than $7m for "Truck Hauling of Processed Solids for LASMA and CALSMA". Big money for hauling around poop - which makes sense. LASMA = Lawndale Avenue Solids Management Area. CALSMA = Calumet Solids Management Area

Morley Musick @MorleyMusick 33/35

The largest money item on the agenda is a reduction in contract size for IHC construction companies on a project entitled: "McCook Reservoir Rock Wall Stabilization and Geotechnical Instrumentation." From $22,418,508.43, to an amount not to exceed $21,862,160.93.

Morley Musick @MorleyMusick 34/35

This would appear to be a huge maintenence project for the McCook Reservoir, enabling MWRD to better monitor the strengths and vulnerabilities of its walls using digital sensors. gza.com/projects/mccoo…

gza.com/projects/mccoo…

Morley Musick @MorleyMusick 35/35

Oh, and crikey, this was on behalf of @CHIdocumenters !

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Attachments

4 attachments

MWRDGC Feb 6 Meeting

By Morley Musick ⋅ February 6th, 2025

Routine approval of engineering projects apart from brief debate concerning who will …

Agenda

February 6th, 2025

Video

February 6th, 2025

Minutes

February 6th, 2025

Agency Information

Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago

mwrd.org

(312) 751-6633

public.affairs@mwrd.org

@MWRDGC

See Documenters reporting

Created in 1889 as the Sanitary District of Chicago, the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (MWRD) today is a special-purpose district responsible for treating wastewater and providing stormwater management for residents and businesses in its service area, which encompasses 882.1 square miles and includes Chicago and 128 suburban communities throughout Cook County.

The MWRD serves approximately 10.35 million people each day, including 5.25 million residents of Chicago and 128 suburban communities. To learn more about the agency’s management structure and departments, click here.