Greens for MWRD

Starting early Saturday morning, Sept. 14 and continuing through Monday, the MWRD has been forced to open its locks and let storm water mixed with raw sewage flow into Lake Michigan. The extreme rainfall of Friday, Saturday and Sunday forced them to do this. The Deep Tunnel and the partially built reservoirs are not adequate. This action poses a danger to human health and introduces pollutants into Lake Michigan.

We need a whole new system for managing storm water runoff. In the first place we need a lot more places for the storm water to collect and gradually soak into the ground. We need to keep a lot more of the rain water in place and not running into sewers. This means a whole range of measures which we Greens have called for in our program. It includes simple things like rain barrels to collect runoff from roofs. It includes green roofs on buildings. (The MWRD and the city of Chicago are already doing some work to promote these.) It means replacing impereable paving with permeable paving. It means building bioswales. It means constructing wetlands next to the rivers.

Secondly we need to replace the outmoded combined sewer system that is in place in almost all of Cook County. Storm water runoff and sewage should not run in the same pipes to get the same treatment at the water treatment plants. We admit that replacing all the sewers in Cook County is a huge task, but the current system is outmoded and causes periodic hazards to human health such as we see this last weekend. We need a plan for how we can transition to a modern system.

For fuller information on our proposals for change at the MWRD go to the issues section of this website.