MWRD Board approves $27 million contract to upgrade Kirie Water Treatment Plant

Metropolitan Water Reclamation Board (MWRD)
Board of Commissioners Meeting 
February 5, 2026

Board Action:

• Item 13: #26-0074. Authority to award Sollitt/Broadway Joint Venture a contract for electric power distribution and phosphorus removal improvements at Kirie Water Reclamation Plant (KWRP), for a total amount not to exceed $27 million. Commissioner Sharon Waller pulled this item from the agenda for discussion. She asked Executive Director Murray what the public might expect to receive for this $27 million. The KWRP, located in Desplaines, is one of the newer (built 1980) and smaller of the District’s seven treatment plants. Executive Director Murray responded that the KWRP needed extensive electrical upgrades; and biological processes at the plant need to be amended to meet new phosphorous removal requirements. The item was returned to the agenda and approved.
  
• Industrial Waste: Item 2. #IW26-001A. The Board approved without discussion amendments to sections of the MWRD’s Sewage and Waste Control Ordinance that address industrial polluters. The amendments included new regulations requiring certain industrial companies not currently licensed to discharge into the MWRD’s systems to certify annually that they have not done so.The hearing process for industrial polluters was also streamlined, making the Director of Monitoring and Research primary hearing authority, rather than the District’s Executive Director.
• Tax abatement:Item 3. Ordinance #O26-00. The Board approved without discussion an Ordinance directing the County Clerk to reduce 2025 property taxes by $10 million for payments on capital improvement bonds that were alternately funded through the District’s Bond and Interest fund, making taxpayer funding redundant.
• Projects: Item 16. #26-0073. The Board received a year-end 2025 engineering report on the Addison Creek Channel improvement project. The project, which was scheduled to be complete in August 2026, has experienced delays and cost overruns. The work is now expected to be complete in June of 2027 and was about $1.5 million over budget as of December.
• Recreation and Community: Item 17. #26-0075. Commissioners gave permission for Friends of the Chicago River to access District real estate at 25 locations along the North Branch of the Chicago River, North Shore Channel, Main Channel, and Cal-Sag Channel for its annual Chicago River Day cleanup event on May 9, 2026. Annette Anderson, Friends of the Chicago River Program Manager, spoke in support of the permit at the start of the Board meeting.

Information request: Commissioner Sharon Waller asked Executive Director Murray to investigate monetizing phosphorus savings associated with the use of treated wastewater for irrigation at MWRD facilities. 

Observer: Laurie Morse                      Meeting Length: 53 minutes Executive Session: None