MWRD Board Quickly Deals with Agenda

Metropolitan Water Reclamation District Board Meeting
June 26, 2025

In 30 minutes, the Board dealt with the 29 agenda items with some limited discussion. 
Absent:  Commissioners Precious Brady-Davis and Yumeka Brown.

Items deleted (no reason stated) from the agenda by Acting Executive Director Murphy:

• A proposal to enter into a Collaborative Research Project with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagne pursuant to a Master Agreement on the Environmental Benefits and Use of Biosolids for Production of Industrial Hemp with an estimated cost of $90,261.  File 25-0473, Agenda # 15. 
• A proposed purchase order for Laboratory Analysis of Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances and Adsorbable Organic Fluorine in Wastewater Samples to Enthalpy Analytical for up to $63,500.  File 25-0495, Agenda #20.

Items deferred:

• Comm. Waller deferred the Authority to advertise a furnishing and delivering contract for ferric chloride with an estimated cost of $22.5 M. She is looking for a comparison report to be provided. President Steele confirmed with Mr. Murphy that this deferral would not delay any testing.  File 25-0485, Agenda #11.
• Commissioner Garcia deferred the item to increase a contract with Michels Trenchless for 39th Street Conduit Rehabilitation by an amount of $1.25 M.  File 25-0490, Agenda # 25.

The remaining 25 items were approved, with 2 discussed:

• Comm. Waller asked about the recent history of compliance with the Environmental Protection Act (EPA) by Tradebe Environmental Services which is to provide hazardous waste disposal from various MWRD locations under a new contract. Assurances were given that while there had been some violations, these were relatively minor and the vendor had fully cooperated with the EPA.  File 25-0488, Agenda # 22.
• Comm. Davis asked for a sense of when, after negotiations, the intergovernmental agreements would be signed and projects commenced for the stormwater partnership projects submitted by municipalities that made the list of possible projects.  Mr. Murphy said the next step will be to come to the Board for approval to negotiate agreements and hopefully some of these will move toward construction within a year.  File 25-0491, Agenda # 28.

New Business:

• Vice President Flynn promoted “Plastic-free July” at the MWRD.
• President Steele announced that Comm. Brady-Davis would be attending a Harvard Executive Program in July.

There was no Executive Session.

Observer:  Priscilla Mims