Category: MWRD

MWRD Board Explores Rise in Number of Industrial Users Violating their Pollution Rules

11/9/2020

Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MWRD) Board Meeting
November 5, 2020
All Commissioners in attendance

Approved General Agenda Items

Agenda Item (1) 20-0968 The MWRD’s annual meeting of December 1, 2020 was rescheduled for December 8, 2020.
Agenda Item (57) 20-0958 Commissioners approved the 2019 annual report naming 71 significant industrial users in violation of pretreatment standards or other MWRD pollution-abatement requirements. The 5-page list, which includes names of some of the District’s largest industrial customers, reflects a big increase from previous years (in 2017 and 2018, for example, there were 17 industrial violators).

The big jump in violators inspired spirited questioning by Commissioners Shore, Avila, and Spyropoulos. Staff described the year-long process the MWRD engages in to bring industrial users into compliance once problems have been identified. Every effort is made to return the customer to good standing and keep the company’s name off the public list.
One reason for the increase in 2019 numbers was the U.S. EPA’s 2018 audit of the MWRD’s Industrial Waste Division. EPA encouraged the District to pursue companies polluting at lower levels, but which are, over long periods, continuously out of compliance.
In 2019 the MWRD’s Industrial Waste Division was re-organized, so each company now has a specific staff person to communicate with. Users in non-compliance are invited to meetings; compliance milestones are established, and if those milestones are not met within the following year (2020), continuous violators receive a letter in August notifying them that their names will be published by year-end.
Commissioner Spyropoulos asked the department’s staff about new trends for 2020. Staff said some businesses have shut down, and the District is definitely seeing lower flows, which will reduce industrial user fees. The Stickney plant’s flows are down by one-third this year.

Agenda Item (20) 20-0894 This item gives the District authority to advertise a $2.7 million contract for heavy equipment with operators.
Agenda Item (11) 20-0957 Commissioners approved investment inventories and returns for the third quarter and for August and September. At the end of September, the District’s 2020 interest income was $6 million less than in the same period in 2019.
Agenda Item (69) 20-0942 This item was deferred by Commissioner Garcia at the October 15 meeting, but was approved today. This ordinance allows the MWRD to enter an agreement with the Village of Niles for an amount not to exceed $2 million, most of which will be paid by the Illinois EPA and is for the design, construction, operation, and maintenance of the Greenwood Stormwater Park. Commissioner Garcia had deferred this item based on questions about participation goals. He thanked staff for providing the data he requested.

Deferred Items

Agenda Item (2) 020-014 At the request of Commissioner Shore, this item, which amends the MWRD’s user charge ordinance, was deferred. The changes include rate increases, allows more commercial customers to submit real estate tax bills for rate abatement, includes a new definition for “facility” and revises the District’s definition of a tax exempt user. All of these changes may result in more revenue for the district.
Agenda Item (23) 20-0913 Commissioners Garcia and Spyropolous deferred this item, which is a 3-year contract for legal services related to Worker’s Compensation in an amount of $500,000. Commissioner Spryropolous questioned whether this amount would be adequate, and asked for data on how many claims could be expected over 3 years. Commissioner Garcia also asked for more information.
Agenda Items (38 & 39) 20-0888 and 20-0892 Commissioner Garcia deferred these items –approval of a street sweeping contract, and a contract to rebuild a piece of heavy equipment, until he receives data on participation goals.

New Business

Vice President Barbara McGowan was congratulated for her induction into the Civil Rights Hall of Fame.
The Alliance for the Great Lakes was congratulated on its 50th Anniversary. The organization was founded by Environmentalist Leila (Lee) Botts as the Lake Michigan Federation, changing its name in 2005. Commissioner Davis was the organization’s Executive Director from 1998-2009.

Future Items

New Commissioner Eira Corral Sepulveda, Village Clerk of Hanover Park, will be seated in December, after being elected as a Board member this month. Commissioners Cameron Davis and Kimberly Neely Dubuclet were both re-elected to full terms.

Observer: Laurie Morse Length of Meeting: 2.5 hours

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MWRD Board Ramps Up Oversight Responsibilities

10/22/2020

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Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MWRD) Board Meeting
October 15, 2020

By deleting one high profile item and deferring two others, Commissioners are increasingly expressing their desire to receive information 2-4 weeks before board meetings on large contracts, ordinance and policy changes, and even some legal settlements. Comm. Davis suggested that committees be used to vet these requests before bringing them to the board. [See “Deleted/Deferred section].

Approved General Agenda Items

20-0876: The staff rejected bids from Odor Control Systems at two Tarp Shafts and the decommissioning of the Thornton Transitional Reservoir because of low bids. This is second time bids were rejected as too low. Staff is worried about the safety risks involved if there is a lot of rain. The staff estimated the costs should be $14.5 to $17.6 million dollars. Commissioner Spyropoulos said she would have more questions before the contract goes out for bid for the third time.
20-0870: The Board approved the District executing an Intergovernmental Agreement to receive $212,000 in Federal Covid-19 funds from the Cook County Bureau of Finance. Commissioners thanked County Government for sharing these relief funds.
20-0845: The Board authorized staff request to advertise for Legal Advisory Services related to the District Financing Program for a period of 5 years at a cost of $235,100. In approving this request, staff noted that a goal of 30% minority and female participation was set and it will hire five legal firms for each bond sale which increases opportunity for minority and female participation. Per Commissioners requests, Staff will include participation goals in the RFP for this and other bond sales.

Deleted/Deferred Items

Deleted: 20-0773 After two previous deferrals, Comm. Garcia asked for the $300,000 contract with Next Generation Technology, Inc. to enhance the District’s new website be rejected. His concern is with the platform Word Press which is not the platform the District is currently using and is not highly regarded by several of the Commissioners. In previous deferrals, Comm. Shore said that she was underwhelmed with New Generation’s presentation. Comm. Garcia wants the new RFP to be tightened to state specifically what the District needs. Staff indicated New Generation’s does have experience with the District’s platform; and in public comments at the end of the meeting, the Director of Business Development for New Generation confirmed that it did and also stated that Word Press is actually newer than the platform currently in use by the District.
Deferred: #41 20-0880 The Legal Department brought to the board a settlement proposal with Peoples Power and Light and Coke Company which included a 50-year easement for continued operation and maintenance of a natural gas pipeline and remediation of District property in Chicago under an IEPA consent decree. The concern is the 50 year easement, and would Peoples stretch out the remediation. Ans: There is no drop dead settlement date for remediation but the company has agreed to clean up the site to Residential vs Commercial level. The District set the rent for 28 acres which is 22.5 more acres than Peoples actually needs at a cost of $500,000 per year. The Legal Staff urged the board to approve this settlement as it has a court date the next week and wanted to bring the settlement to the judge. During the 2nd comment period, the lawyer for Peoples called in and tried to assure the board by saying that if good weather prevails, the remediation will be done by mid-2021. However Comm. Spyropoulos did not withdraw the deferral.
Deferred: #42-20854 [Stormwater Management]. The District requested approval to enter into an Intergovernmental Agreement with the Village of Niles. The agreement is in the amount not to exceed $2M most of which will be paid by the Illinois EPA and is for the design, construction, operation, and maintenance of the Greenwood Stormwater Park. Comm. Garcia asked for the deferral based on questions about participation goals.

New Business

Comm. Morita requested a comprehensive update regarding the District’s role and goal in collaborations with cities or the state for studies on COVID-19 and wastewater. Comm. Shore requested a memo or briefing to the Board on updates in regards to COVID-19 and fiscal impacts, savings, unexpected costs and employees returning to work.
Comm. Davis thanked President Steele for considering the League of Women Voters of Cook County’s recommendations on modifying its practice on meeting roll-call votes. Effective with this board meeting, individual roll-call votes were only taken on agenda items that were removed for discussion. All non-discussed items were bundled together for a single roll call vote.

Future Items

Comm. Shore gave a brief update on the District’s Strategic Planning Team’s efforts to date including internal and external surveys, wide and comprehensive outreach, and a Stakeholder’s Workshop on October 22. Comm. Garcia is co-chairing the planning team with Comm. Shore.
The 2021 Board Meeting Schedule has been set and posted on the website.

Observer: Diane Edmundson Length of Meeting: 2.5 hours

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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 Board Requests More Background Information on Several Agenda Items

3/18/2020

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Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MWRD) Board Meeting
March 5, 2020

Approved Items with Discussion:

#9, 20-0181: Discussion took place about the transfer of the $20,000,000.00 of Accumulated Investment Interest Income to the MWRD Retirement Fund. Questions were asked about the use of minority owned investment firms and in what way these funds will be allocated for investments. The outside investment manager is Marquette Investment; Commissioners asked what they charge for their services.
#23, 20-0207: Authority to lease 14.02 acres of improved District real estate at 6400 South Archer Avenue in Bedford Park, Illinois; Main Channel parcel 33.01. Currently, there is a tenant on the property. The Board requested more information.
#33, 20-0209 Discussion about the authority to amend the easement agreement dated March 24, 1949 between the District and Cornerstone Properties (successor in interest to ComEd) to use and maintain District owned portions in Stickney and Forest View. Commissioners questioned Com Ed’s obligation to alert the District about any problems occurring and would like this to be included in the new agreement.

Deferred or Deleted Items:

#13, 20-0177 Deferred by Commissioner Davis - more information was requested regarding why this money is sent to a law firm instead of directly to the Coalition and who the Coalition members are.
#14, 20-0205 Deferred by Commissioner Garcia - Much discussion took place about the relationship of this engineering project to the future Lincoln Yards Project. The Commissioners were assured that the project would have taken place because of TARP’s inadequate connections and are looking for others that need correction. The Commissioners requested more information.
#15, 20-0184 Ex. Director deleted a request to advertise for Scavenger Services estimated cost of $3,883,400.
#31, 20-0217 Deferred by Commissioner Garcia - More information was requested before the reappointment of Jose Lopez as Commissioner on MWRD’s Ethics

Commissioner Requests

Mr. Garcia requested a list of minority investment participation
Ms. Shore requested new leases include additional notices to the District
Mr. Davis requested the Diversity Department provide the Board message ready notices for district events.

All Commissioners were present

Observed by: Pat Lind Meeting Length: 1 hr. 45 min.

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Boundary Issues for Voting and Services Discussed at MWRD Board Meeting

2/28/2020

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Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MWRD) Board Meeting
February 20, 2020

Board Action:

Agenda Item 38. 20-0053 A. At the February 6 Board Meeting, the board asked to split this agenda item, the MWRD Legislative Initiative for Springfield, into 2 sections and deferred the resolution. In this meeting, the board approved Initiative #1 that would amend the District’s enabling ordinance to allow the Board to transfer excess revenue from any source legally available to the pension fund. Initiative #2 - to request amending the enabling ordinance to allow all Cook County voters to vote for MWRD commissioners regardless of whether they reside within the MWRD area - was deleted.
Agenda Item 29. 20-0169. The authority to issue a three month permit to Commonwealth Edison Co. to use 10,000 sq. ft. portions of land parcels in Bedford Park as helicopter landing zones for delivery and access to its transmission line. Further consideration of tree removal along with reclamation and remediation for the parcels will be built into the permit. This was approved with consideration that there be a $5,000.00 annual fee
Deleted Agenda Item: - Item 10. 20-0149 Authority to Furnish and deliver Sodium Bisulfite. No venders met the criteria for compliance. Commissioner McGowan asked if minority firms were contacted.
Deferred Agenda Item: Item 24. 20-0097 was deferred for a second time. The authority to award contracts to furnish, deliver and install an upgraded operator for TARP Gate 1 at the O’Brien Water Reclamation Plant.
Nine Resolutions were presented honoring February’s Black History Month and several individuals.

Public Comments:

Sally Stone and Rob Sulski spoke on behalf of land parcels 34A and 34C in Glenview and Northbrook regarding the lack of care and management of parcel 34B. Invasive plant specie’s seeds are flowing downstream and creating contamination problems in the other two parcels. Those two communities have volunteers that maintain those parcels. They suggested mowing earlier and often. The Board agreed to follow up with answers by the end of the week and agreed to consider community help.

Commissioner Request:

Commissioner Cameron Davis requested that in the future, proposed Ordinance resolutions be published at least 30 days in advance of board review or vote for public notice and comment.

All commissioners except Garcia were present. He arrived for the 1:00 p.m. Study Session covering the Affirmative Action Disparity Study Report.

Observed by: Pat Lind Length of Meeting - 2 hrs.

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MWRD Board Explores Rise in Number of Industrial Users Violating their Pollution Rules

MWRD Board Ramps Up Oversight Responsibilities

MWRD Board Approves Funds for Disparity Study

Skokie Sports Park Allowed to Sell and Consume Alcohol on Premises

MWRD Board Requests More Background Information on Several Agenda Items

Boundary Issues for Voting and Services Discussed at MWRD Board Meeting

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