Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MWRD) Board Meeting –
March 5, 2026

 

Agenda Items Of Interest
All Consent agenda items approved 9/0 after three roll call votes for the following: 
26-0149 Funds for MWRD picnic (9/0), 
26-0159 Change MBE/WBE/VBE De-watering facility (8/0, 1 Abstain Coral-Sepulveda)

• Comm. Waller concerned about cost, right-of-way under railroad tracks, improved public information and quantifying ROI in dollars.
• Comm. Coral-Sepulveda questioned the Memo of Understanding (MOU) with CTA which had included the MWRD DEI commitments, but which CTA cannot accept due to federal source of grant.  Waller supports accepting the CTA grant. 
• Comm. Garcia appreciates that managing MWRD DEI while complying with federal mandates for grant funds will be more challenging for next three years at least.
• Comm. Brady-Davis suggested a name for the de-watering facility. Pres. Steele recommends that percentage of $82 M contributed by each Agency be taken into consideration before naming.

26-0132 Lease Assignment for Village of Crestwood Board votes “No” (7-No, 2 Abstain Brown and Flynn) on partial assignment of lease from the Village of Crestwood to permit sale of alcohol and video gaming.  

• Village of Crestwood Mayor, Ken Klein, returned to ask for approval citing Village’s need for funding. Lease assignment for alcohol and video gaming is appropriate use of property and within the authority of the Village under the current lease agreement, per Village’s attorney, Burt Odelson. 
• Tessa Murray, Friend of the Chicago River is opposed and considers this development a risk to the ecosystem adjacent to the waterway; but if approved, offered to work with the Village to make highest and best use of the land. 
• Michael Voltentesda (Crestwood resident since 1990) is opposed.  Cited drop in property value, increased loitering, littering and crime.  Crestwood already has video gaming and alcohol.  Better use of this land is green space, walking paths, veterans’ memorial.  Development should reflect sustainable uses and strengthen family accessibility. 

​New Business and also in items 1-6. 
Recognition of Women’s History Month and events, contributions of Irish Americans, Shannon Rovers 100 years.  MWRD marches in two St. Patrick’s Day parades: Countryside on March 7, and Chicago on 14 March. Approve funds for MWRD picnic. Government Finance Officers Award for 2025 Budget (42nd yr).

Commissioner Requests

• 26-0147 Comm. Waller asks MWRD staff to consider lessons learned from last reverse auction which did not beat the market and doesn’t end until Aug 2026
• 26-0138 Sharon Waller requested consideration to allow staff to use MWRD charging stations.  C. Davis requested the projected timeline to meet the 2030 electric vehicle goal and asked for options to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, if goals are not met due to lack of available e-vehicles.  M. Garcia and ED Director Murray agreed that it is time to revisit the biogas issue in a Study Session.

Observer:   Victoria L Cerinich                        Commissioner(s) Absent: None    Executive Session (No)

Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MWRD) Board Meeting  
February 19, 2026

This Board meeting began and ended with Commissioners recognizing the contributions of the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr. to the City and its people, with Commissioners Brady-Davis and Steele giving especially moving accounts of the Rev. Jackson’s impact on their lives and careers.

Finance: The MWRD had cash disbursements of $70 million in January.

Projects: 

• Item #13 26-0120 After approving $27 million in electrical upgrades for the DesPlaines-based Kirie Water Treatment Plant at the February 5th Board Meeting, Commissioners approved without discussion at this meeting a $10 million contract with John Burns Construction Company, LLC for rehabilitation of portions of a service tunnel at the Kirie plant.  

Industrial Waste:

• Item #21 26-0134. Authority to settle lawsuit in Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago v. Electronic Plating Co., Case No. 2025L006657, seeking an injunction to keep sewer plugged and to impose additional civil penalties for violations of a final Board order entered in prior Show Cause proceedings, and to collect other amounts owed by Electronic Plating pursuant to the District’s ordinances
• This item was flagged by Commissioner Davis. In extensive discussion it was noted that Electronic Plating Company had been a serial industrial polluter since at least 2019 and various fines, other civil penalties and court orders had not stopped discharges exceeding MWRD clean water standards. MWRD attorneys confirmed the Company had violated a final Board order and said the company’s sewers were plugged on June 6, 2025.  It was noted the company had essentially ceased doing business.   
• After an initial deferral and discussion, Commission Davis agreed to return this item to the agenda, where the settlement agreement was approved.

Recreation and Community:

• Item #25  26-0132. President Steele deferred this item without discussion.
• Village of Crestwood Mayor Ken Klein made an impassioned plea to the Board in public comments, saying the Village was depending on revenue from gaming to pull the community out of a money-losing situation at the Crestwood Golf Course on it’s MWRD leasehold south of the Cal-Sag Channel and west of Cicero Ave.   He was distressed the item had been pulled from the meeting agenda on short notice, despite prior conversations with staff and two commissioners.  The Mayor said MWRD staff had agreed to a partial assignment of lease from the Village of Crestwood, to the Village of Crestwood and 4Crestwood LLC as co-tenants. The partial lease assignment would all allow the sale and consumption of alcohol and video gaming.  

Meeting Length: 55 minutes   Executive Session:  None  

Observer: Laurie Morse

Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MWRD) Board Meeting
December 2, 2021

Board Action:

• Of the 40 agenda items, six were pulled for discussion:  Among them was a request to advertise for contract farming at the Hanover Park plant.  The purpose of the farming is to allow for continued disposal of MWRD created biosolids on the land.  By planting corn, the nutrients from the biosolids are absorbed, thereby allowing for continued disposal. Cost of contract to the MWRD is estimated at $628.4 thousand. Commissioner Spyropoulos requested a deferral and asked for a report to include the history of the property, how the growing process came about, and what other options including planting tree samplings can be grown.  Commissioners’ Garcia and Morita respectively asked for a status report of the biosolid project and a list of other options for this land including cost.  (Agenda Item #11 21-1114)
• Another land use issue was the request to advertise for bids on a 5-year lease on 3.78+ acres of vacant district property in Forest View.  Initial rental bid set at $155,000.  This is the 2nd time this request has been on the agenda; and after initially deferring at this meeting, Commissioner McGowan lifted the deferral.  The property would be paved over for truck parking because, according to staff, it is not suitable for recreation due to its location.  Commissioner Davis said that the Land Use Policies need to be looked at and applied to this type of property.  Commissioner Garcia, Chair of the Land Use Committee, noted that 80% of MWRD land is already in conservancy and that the adjacent canal was created for business. He said that the committee and staff are working on a draft of two polities on Land Use and expects there will be a Study Session in January 2022.   (Agenda Item #14  21-1135)
• After receiving a report of the significant violations of pretreatment standards or other requirements by industrial users, Commissioner Spyropoulos asked if there is a public list of non-compliant businesses and was told that the staff would provide a list.  She noted that in 2019 there were 61 on the list and in 2020, 66.  The 2021 data should be available by mid-year 2022.  The EPA has said that the MWRD needs to be tougher on industrial users who are non-compliant.  (Agenda Item #36  21-1106)

Stormwater Management

• The Board approved an intergovernmental agreement with and to make payment to the city of Prospect Heights to acquire flood-prone property in an amount not to exceed $376,000.  (Agenda Item #40 21-1142)

New Business

• Commissioner Davis noted that the last Inspector General’s report noted significant cost overruns.  Davis said that the board regularly receives change orders with more than 5% cost overruns and 20% delays. He said he will be monitoring future requests.
• The Board approved a motion to authorize Juneteenth as a District Holiday.
  
• The Board also authorized the extension of the sunset provision of the Affirmative Action Ordinance to be moved from December 31, 2021 to June 30, 2022 to accommodate the yet to be received new Disparity Study.

Board Requests

• Commissioner DuBuclet requested a list of Media vendors used by the District to advertise.  
• Commissioner Spyropoulos requested staff provide a memo on the District’s process and violators for the last five years and also include what other agencies are doing in this regard.  

After Meeting Public Hearing on the 2022 Budget

• Commissioner Davis said that the Budget is a statement of values and asked that a dashboard on budget progress towards climate change goals be created and an Environmental Justice Office be created within the agency.   He also asked that the Space to Grow Project be expanded to include the suburbs of which there are 120+ in Cook County.  His third request for future budgets is the hiring of an attorney reporting directly to the board.
• There was only one public Speaker, Mr. Michael Archie.  He said that the board, based on its current trajectory, cannot reach its goal of energy neutrality by 2023.  He said the technology is out there to meet it by 2030-35, but the District has to embrace the technology.

Observer:  Diane Edmundson

Metropolitan Water Reclamation District  
Public Hearing on 2021 Tentative Budget
December 2, 2020

7 Commissioners present, with Comm. Garcia absent. 

There were 3 comments.  
Both Ryan Wilson of the Metropolitan Planning Council and John Legg of the Nature Conservancy separately urged that the MWRD appoint one person to head-up and be the point person for the MWRD’s Stormwater Trading Pilot that was adopted earlier this year.  While the failure of any developer to take advantage of this program may be due to COVID, both entities feel that having one dedicated person to head this pilot is crucial for its success.  Both also pointed to the Washington, D.C. project as an example of all that needs to be done to successfully launch the program.  The duties of this point person would include conveying consistent messaging to municipalities and developers and identifying barriers to getting the program launched, including any legislative barriers.  

• The Executive Director and Dr. Katherine O’Connor, the head of Stormwater Management, believe that they have sufficient people to implement the program and were reluctant to place a single person as a point person, though they were still willing to talk about this.  Comm. Morita suggested that even if a single person would not be working on this full-time, maybe a single person could be identified for communications with municipalities and developers.

Chelsey Grassfield of the Friends of the Chicago River urged that the MWRD reassess its real estate holdings of 6,000 some acres for use as stormwater management, as opposed to being looked upon as development opportunities.  Comm. Morita said that the MWRD has begun a land-use audit to look at best use for the land:  lease-out vs. leaving vacant for stormwater management.  Ms. Grassfield also stated that Friends had observed some instances at meeting where the attorneys representing the MWRD stated things that appeared to be inconsistent with MWRD policy.  The Commissioners and Executive Director wanted more details, which Ms. Grassfield said she would provide.

Observer:  Priscilla Mims                                         Length of meeting:  1 hour, 10 minutes