Category: Bio Solids

Expanding Participation in Stormwater Projects

7/24/2021

Metropolitan Water reclamation District (MWRD) Board Meeting
July 15, 2021
The meeting was held by videoconference. The next board meeting, August 5, will be held in-person in the first floor Board Room at district headquarters.

Agenda Items
The following two agenda items, deferred from the 6/17/21 board meeting were approved:

#9 21-0508 Authorization to amend the scope of work per Diversity Administration review and re-advertise the contract 15-266-4H5 Decommissioning of the Thornton Transitional reservoir. The Thornton Quarry contains this temporary reservoir.
#12 21-0515 Authority to advertise Contract 21-416-11 regarding services to the main office building complex after review by Diversity Administration.

Several items were pulled from the Agenda for discussion and approved.

#11 21-21-0635 Authorization to pay annual membership dues to the U.S. Water Alliance, a nonprofit organization that advances policies and programs that build a sustainable water future for all by bringing together diverse stakeholders to find common ground solutions to the nation's most pressing water challenges.
#42 21-0569 Decrease Contract 98-RFP-10 in the amount of $2,291,737.50. The original contract was for production of 50,000 dry tons/day of biosolids (nutrient rich organic materials resulting from treatment of domestic sewage sold as natural fertilizer) at the Stickney Water Reclamation Plant. Over the past years the pelletizer units' average production using indirect drying technology has been in the range of 40,000 dry tons/day of pellets. It was suggested to schedule a study session once the "Master Plan for Biosolids" is complete.
#51 21-0612 Authority to commence statutory procedures to lease 9.3+ acres of District real estate located south of the Main Channel and west of Central Ave in Forest View, IL. Lakeshore Recycling Systems has expressed interest in leasing this land, although there will be a public open competitive bidding process. Throughout the process there will be public engagement in hearings. In the public comment, the Forest View Village Administrator supported Lakeshore Recycling Systems interest.

Stormwater agenda items approved:

#53 21-0575 Intergovernmental agreement (IGA) with Oak Park for the Lemoyne Parkway Relief Sewer
#54 21-0623 Negotiate IGAs for acquisition of flood-prone properties in Lyons, Northlake, Willow Springs, and Winnetka.
#55 21-0627 Negotiate with the Village of Flossmoor for Berry Lane Stormwater Improvements.
#56 21-0628 Authority to assist various municipalities with Local Stormwater Partnership Projects. At this time the topic of Disproportionately Impacted Areas (DIAs) came up on how MWRD could generate greater interest in DIAs partnering with MWRD for stormwater projects. MWRD's goal is making Cook County flood resilient but realizes some areas of Chicago and South Suburbs have flooding issues needing stormwater projects. Suggestions were to better understand barriers that DIAs have in applying to MWRD for partnerships and providing assistance to them such as cost sharing, technical assistance, attention to equity for those most in need and engagement of commissioners for community outreach. MWRD does have ongoing public outreach programs through Stormwater Management- this past year they have been virtual.

Deleted Items

Agenda Item #13 21-0560, the purpose of which is to qualify electricity suppliers so that they could participate in a reverse auction (after a request to buy electricity, suppliers place bids for the price they are willing to sell their electricity, the lowest price gets the contract: i.e. reverse). This item was deleted to remove the contract extension wording before consideration.

New business:

MWRD has received certification for its first Monarch butterfly waystation at the Stickney Water Reclamation Plant and are looking at adding more waystations. MWRD is partnered with the IL Monarch Project. Native plants such as Milkweed have extensive root systems that can help reduce flooding as well as providing food and habitat for Monarch butterflies. Almost 3,000 people have taken the Save the Monarch pledge on MWRD's website and MWRD has distributed over 6,000 complimentary milkweed seed packets.

Observed by Michele Niccolai Meeting length: 2.5 hours

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MWRD Board Approves 2021 Budget and Focuses on Stormwater Intergovernmental Agreements

12/22/2020

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Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MWRD) Board Meeting
December 17, 2020
All Board members in attendance at various times

After amending the budget passed on December 10 to include a small salary increase for non-union employees, the Board approved a $1.2 billion budget for 2021 - an increase of $52,812 million over 2020. FTE’s are budgeted at 1,941 which is a decrease of 12 employees.

All agenda items were passed.

Items of Interest:

Agenda Item #23 20-1141 Granted authority to advertise for bids for the McCook and Thornton Reservoirs Rock Wall Stabilization and Geotechnical instrumentation. Estimated cost between $8.4 and $10,250 million. No discussion.
#43 20-1143 Agreed to a sublease between Skokie Motor Sales and Amazon.com Services for an initial consideration of $5,000 per year. No discussion of how Amazon will use. Parcel could have been considered for green space which is of interest to the Skokie Park District.
#45 20-1158 Granted authority to amend a long-term lease dating back to 1996 with the Village of Worth to allow for video gaming on the golf course which occupies the leased land. Apparently, the golf course has never turned a profit and is hoping the video games will help. In addition, the rent was reduced from $25,000 to $5,000 per year. In return, the District wants 25% of any gaming gross revenues. It was mentioned that the new Strategic Plan for the District should look at large parcels of land such as this property for its highest and best purpose.
#49 20-1144 Granted an Intergovernmental Agreement with and payment to the CC Forest Preserve in the amount of $257,124 for a Flood Control Project from Roosevelt to Cermac Roads.

Green Alley Projects - Intergovernmental Agreements:

#47 20-1142 Granted authority for an Intergovernmental Agreement [IGA] with and payment to the City of Chicago, via its Department of Transportation, for the construction, operation, and maintenance of the South Laflin Green Alley Project in the amount of $101.5 million.
#48 20-111143 Granted authority for another Intergovernmental Agreement with the City of Chicago via its Department of Transportation for the construction, operation, and maintenance of the Addison Green Alley Project in the amount of $150 million.
Discussion covering both agreements centered on cost sharing and confirmation that the City is responsible for the inspection and maintenance of the two green alley projects. In addition the District annually inspects to ensure compliance. When asked about these locations versus others with large condo buildings that incur alley flooding, the Director of Engineering said that the District prioritizes home flooding over highrises. Commissioner Spyropoulos requested a copy of the “standards of review” that were and are used for these projects and how they are prioritized. [Several Commissioners have stated that they want to go beyond “shovel ready” projects and look at the disparity that exists for communities that do not have the resources to participate] Davis requested social media be used to promote the projects, and he asked the Public Affairs Department to provide the board with a consistent message to use on social media.

Intergovernmental Agreement with Chicago

#50 20-1172 Granted an extension to an Intergovernmental Agreement with Chicago to share in the cost of a research pilot study in the Chatham Neighborhood to gain insights into the effectiveness of various technologies aimed at reducing basement backups and flooding – In other words “what would it take to arm a house against flooding”.
This Agreement was to run from June 2017 to June 2019 but will now be extended to the end of 2022. Sixty properties are to be identified in a desktop evaluation to then be reduced to forty at which point the Center for Neighborhood Technologies [CNT] will attempt to visit the homes to identify specific problems and possible solutions. The District is not allowed to work on private properties which is why the CNT was hired. The District’s share of the cost is $400,000 – the City’s is $210,000.
Commissioner made the following requests:

Spyropoulos requested a chronology of the project progress, and Davis asked staff to include the reason for the delay.
Morita and Spyropoulos asked that the IGA be extended to include full access to the data in the agreement.
Steele requested the updated criteria list that was used to select the homes and also a list of 311 calls.
Garcia requested the amount the Center for Neighborhood Technology is charging.
Spyropoulos requested the board receive the green handbook that has been developed out of the experience with recent Stormwater IGA’s.
Sepulveda requested information on CNT’s role in providing opportunities within the agreement to hire locally.

New Business

Executive Director Perkovich announced that the MWRD is one of the water treatment utilities that was selected for a study sponsored by the U.S. Health and Human Services to determine if wastewater can detect COVID-19 prior to a mass outbreak. Five of the seven plants were selected to participate in the study. Lamont and Hanover Park are excluded. Perkovich said that the details of the study are still fluid.

Biosolids Request

After hearing that MWRD biosolids were used by the Worth golf course during its construction, Commissioner Garcia asked for a report on the volume used and an historical list and analysis of projects that have used the District’s biosolids.

Observer: Diane Edmundson Length of Meeting 3 hrs.

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MWRD Board Approves Funds for Disparity Study

10/2/2020

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Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MWRD) Board Meeting
September 17, 2020

Approved General Agenda Items

20-0708 A purchase order with Colette Holt & Associations to conduct the District’s Affirmative Action Ordinance Disparity Study that had previously been deferred was approved for an amount not to exceed $341,765. Comm. Garcia said that he was pleased the study will have an expanded scope.
20-0742 Request to decrease the 20-year contract amount with Metropolitan Biosolids Management to design, build, own, finance, operate and maintain a 150 dry tons per day biosolids processing facility at the Stickney plant and to beneficially use the final product for a period of twenty years. The District isn’t producing the volume expected. The contract calls for $10 million per year for 20 years starting from 2010 to Metropolitan Biosolids to produce the final product.

Approved Stormwater Management Items

20-0762 The board approved an Intergovernmental Agreement with the Village of Lyons in the amount not to exceed $500,000 for a Green Alleys permeable paver project. Comm. Garcia asked if the Districts biosolids were used in this type of project. Answer: No for alleys and Yes for landscape. It was noted that Chicago has refused to use biosolids but with a new city person, the District is trying to educate him/her on its value.
20-0763 The District is entering into agreements with municipalities for the use of the District’s GPS units to complete sewer system mapping to help find blockages.
20-0749 The District is entering into an agreement for a Stormwater Master Plan for Avalon Park, Englewood, Greater Grand Crossing, and South Shore communities.

Deleted Agenda Items

20-0622 The Executive Director requested that this item be deleted without discussion. It had already been deferred at the September 3rd and August 6th board meetings. The item asked for authorization to advertise a professional services contract to market EQ Biosolids from the District’s Harlem and Calumet plants. The September 3rd observer reported that it has been difficult to find sub-contractors that are qualified to sell the biosolids.
20-0659 Authority to rescind a contract for native landscape areas maintenance was deleted at the September 3rd meeting and was not on the September 17 agenda

Deferred Agenda Items

020-007 Request to Amend the Resources Recover Ordinance to reduce the tipping fee and increase Breweries’ willingness to sell and haul their waste to the Calumet Plant. Previously the waste was taken to Stickney, but Calumet is in need of the Carbon and Stickney isn’t. Comm. Morita deferred. Comm. Davis said he is in favor but would vote “no” because he had previously asked for a 30 day notice for ordinance changes.
20-0731 Comm. McGowan asked for deferral to advertise for bids for contracts, legal notices for original entrance and promotional civil service examinations, and other legal notices for a one-year period. No reason was given.
20-0738 Request to advertise for a Management Services Contract to perform real time energy reverse auctions and advisory services. Comm. Shore deferred as she wants to know how this fits in with the Districts “climate action plan”.
20-0744 Request to enter into agreement with AECOM Technical Services for civil consulting support services in an amount not to exceed $1.5 million. Deferred by Comm. McGowan without discussion.
20-0773 Purchase order with Next Generation Technology, Inc. for enhancements to the District’s new website in the amount of $300,000 was deferred by Comm. Garcia. Comm. Shore said that she found their initial presentation to be “underwhelming”. This contract with a different vendor was previously deleted by the Executive Director.

Future Items:

There will be a Study Session scheduled for October 1 at 1:00 to discuss concerns expressed by non-profits regarding how implementation of the District’s new Ethics Ordinance is impacting the non-profit community. Three speakers using audio technology addressed the virtual board meeting. Friends of the Chicago River represented two of the three speakers and asked for a moratorium on implementation of the Ordinance until concerns are heard and hopefully resolved. The Inspector General will attend the study session.
Comm. McGowan asked for a report covering Intergovernmental Agreements over the last three years. Report would contain the following information: 1) Total amount paid by MWRD and total amount of the Project; 2) Names of the partners in the agreements; and 3) List participation goals both for the MWRD and the IG partners. No time frame was given.

Diane Edmundson, Observer Meeting Length - 2 hours

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Skokie Sports Park Allowed to Sell and Consume Alcohol on Premises

9/13/2020

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Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MWRD) Board Meeting
September 3, 2020

Agenda Items

All agenda items approved except for three items that are listed below. Resolution honored Robert Johnson for his work with STEM and Future Cities engineering programs. You can see him on YouTube.
Resolution honored the 19th Amendment Passage, 100 years ago.
Resolution honoring Sister Jean on her 101st birthday. Older than the amendment!
Item #23 -It was emphasized that the seal coating for roads and patching, contains no coal tar.
Item #49 - 87% of the levy has been collected. The Assessor will put in a Covid equalizer for the 2021 budget process.
Item #53 - The Skokie Sports Park will be able to sell and consume alcohol on the premises. MWRD gets 25% of sales.

Stormwater Management

Items #56 and #57 extended the Green Alley Program in River Grove and Skokie. It was emphasized that the Villages maintain the local projects but if maintenance is found to be lacking, MWRD will step in to fix it. The Village would then have to reimburse MWRD for the cost of this maintenance.

Deferred or Deleted Agenda Items

Item #15 (rescinding of contract for native landscape areas maintenance) was deleted before the meeting.
Items #18 (affirmative action questions on contract advertising for marketing of biosolids) was deferred. It has been difficult to find subs that are qualified to sell the biosolids.
Item #32 (more discussion needed on purchase order with firm that was to do the Affirmative Action Ordinance Disparity Study) was deferred.

Observer - Peggy Kell Meeting Length: 2 hours 15 minutes

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MWRD Receives Positive Retirement Funds Report for 2019

8/9/2020

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Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MWRD) Board Meeting
August 6, 2020

Retirement Fund Report:

Item 48, 20-0636: Had a 18.3% return on investments last year, putting it well above average. Fund is at the highest valuation ever. However, payments out exceeded contributions by existing employees. Given that employees being hired now pay in lower contributions (and in turn will receive lower payouts) than those who are now retiring, expect that payouts will continue to be higher than contributions in the foreseeable future. Why returns on investment are so important. Good that the Board has been authorizing additional payments, such as the extra $20 million in March this year, to help shore the Fund up. For 2020, reported that at the end of the 1st quarter, the Fund was down by 17%, but has recovered much of the loss during the 2nd quarter. Now at minus 3.6%.

Some Items Passed with Discussion:

Item 49, 20-0590: Added Juneteenth to the list of days that an employee can select from to use as an “Additional Holiday.”
Item 51, 20-0521: Authority to commence statutory procedures to lease 5,097+ sq.ft. of District land located on southeastern bank of Collateral Channel at 3152 S. California, Chicago. Deferred from July 16 mtg to allow neighborhood groups to weigh in. Richard Golf from Lakeshore Recycling System reported during the Public Comment Period that the company had met with neighborhood group and had meeting scheduled with Friends of the River. Ald. George Cardenes (12th ward) spoke in support. Comm. Davis asked that contract include a provision that lessee will comply with all state and federal requirements, including those regarding emergency planning; that emergency contact information be posted at the site in both Spanish and English; and that the lessee have a Spanish-speaking person available.
Item 54, 20-0648: Authorization to declare as surplus and not required for MWRD use and sell to the Illinois Department of Transportation 0.15 acres located south of the Cal-Sag Channel in Alsip, Illinois. During Public Comments, Friends of the River said that it wants to make sure that this sale would not adversely impact the long-term goal of connecting 2 channels of water. Comm. Garcia pointed out that if MWRD doesn’t sell, IDOT can instead use eminent domain to acquire.
Item 57, 20-0623: Intergovernmental agreement with Cook County Forest Preserve for a green infrastructure retrofit of a parking lot in unincorporated Proviso Township. The permeable pavers and bioretention areas to be constructed are expected to mitigate flooding in the area. MWRD contributing a little less than half ($203,107) to the total expected cost of $486,215. Comm. Garcia asked about participation goals by the Forest Preserve, which are actually higher than the MWRD’s with respect to MBE/WBE. Comm. Garcia wants to have a separate discussion in the future on the MWRD requiring other entities to use the MWRD goals, if the other entity’s goals are not higher, for the entire project, not just for the amount contributed by the MWRD, as currently provided.

Items to Watch for at Future Meetings:
Items Deferred:

Item 18, 20-0622: Authority to advertise for professional services to market EQ (Exceptional Quality) Biosolids. Comm. Garcia continues to be troubled that the District doesn’t have a single person/department overseeing a comprehensive strategy for dealing with bio-solids. Also troubled by the lack of participation goals and would like an estimated return on investment. Other Commissioners wanted to move forward because MWRD does not have marketing expertise and needs help, particularly given the elimination of trade shows due to COVID. Comm. Morita also asked for staff memo to be prepared on where the District is with regard to the bio-solid program.
Item 30, 20-0602: Authority to award contract to furnish janitorial supplies. Comm. Garcia deferred and wants to know how many MBE/WBE, etc. entities participated and whether other government entities have goals for this kind of contract. President Steele pointed out that this is a “furnish and deliver” contract which, under current Board rules, does not need participation goals. However, this is part of the ongoing discussion regarding a possible modification of the Affirmative Action Ordinance.

Items Deleted:

Item 11, 20-0591: Authority to advertise for professional services to conduct facility needs studies for Hanover Park and Lemont Water Reclamation Plants. Comm. Shore concerned that it has only been 10 years since the last Master Plan and Executive Director agreed that normally would expect a Master Plan to have a useful life of at least 20/30/40 years. But main issue is the Comm. Shore wanted the scope to be expanded to include study of inflows during rain events. Deleted, rather than deferred item so that scope could be expanded (which may also impact cost).
Item 27, 20-0631: Authority to issue purchase order for creation of Stormwater Master Plan for Avalon Park, Englewood, Greater Grand Crossing, and South Shore Study Area. (Deleted by Exec. Director, no discussion.)

Potential Amendment to the Ethics Ordinance:

Comm. Davis said at the end of the meeting that he has heard from a number of non-profit groups that do not lobby for themselves, but for the public good, that they are being hurt by being treated as “lobbyists” and required to pay fees under the current Ethics Ordinance. He would like to fine-tune the ordinance, but wants to have a Study Session at least 30 days after any proposed amendment to allow time for public comment.

Length of Meeting: 4.5 hours (including 70 minute Executive Session before last hour of meeting)

Observer - Priscilla Mims

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Non-Profit Groups Urge MWRD Board to Modify Proposed Ethics Ordinance

1/16/2020

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Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MWRD) Board Meeting
January 9, 2020

The League of Women Voters of Cook County and Friends of the River both spoke in favor of modifying the proposed ethics rules the MWRD is in the process of trying to strengthen. The Ethics Ordinance had been pulled from the agenda due to letters sent by the League and other groups to commissioners, according to Commissioner Cam Davis, so that better language could be used to distinguish commercial interests from public advocacy interests.

The board recognized the plight of Puerto Ricans without drinking water and electricity after earthquakes. Commissioner Garcia had been in touch with his mother in Puerto Rico.

Board Items Discussed and Approved:

A software expenditure was discussed by Commissioner Shore as being very important for the security of a public infrastructure entity like MWRD especially with regard to current events with Iran. Mimecast is a security software that is used to protect public computer systems. She noted it was a small amount of money to pay for computer security. (Agenda Item 19)
Commissioner Garcia asked why MWRD would charge a small farm for use of MWRD land and bio-solids in Blue Island. Due to an ordinance, when a farm wants to sell its produce the MWRD is required to charge the entity rent. (Agenda Item 32)

Agenda Items Deferred or Deleted

Commissioner Davis asked that Bio-Solids Farming contract bids be made smaller so that smaller and minority companies would be able to bid on the contracts. He noted that many small non-profit farms are unable to bid on large contracts due to lack of scale. His argument was noted and future contracts will be smaller. (Agenda Item 13)
An item regarding the furnishing and delivery of liquid carbon dioxide to the Stickney Plant was deleted by the Executive Director. There was no discussion of this item. (Agenda Item 28)

Observed by Amy Little [by video] Meeting length - approximately 50 minutes

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Expanding Participation in Stormwater Projects

MWRD Board Approves 2021 Budget and Focuses on Stormwater Intergovernmental Agreements

MWRD Board Approves Funds for Disparity Study

Skokie Sports Park Allowed to Sell and Consume Alcohol on Premises

MWRD Receives Positive Retirement Funds Report for 2019

Non-Profit Groups Urge MWRD Board to Modify Proposed Ethics Ordinance

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