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

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).

1.       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.  
2.          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.
   
3.             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. 
4.                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