The inartfully named Metropolitan Water Reclamation District long has been the mystery agency for many voters when they enter the polling station. After wading through state lawmakers, municipal leaders and representatives, county officials and even judges, voters can be forgiven for sighing in exasperation at then having to choose three MWRD commissioners.
Who are these people? Often, voters have no idea.
The district’s profile, though, is rising in the era of climate change.
The MWRD is responsible for managing the centralized sewage system for most of Cook County, handling both wastewater and stormwater. As torrential rains become more frequent, these facilities are growing in importance. Residents and businesses are contending more often with catastrophic flooding events. Last summer was a case in point on Chicago’s West Side, as well as in Chicago’s western, south and southwest suburbs.
The MWRD also plays a critical role in devising and financing infrastructure projects to reduce combined sewer overflows — events in which stormwater and sewage overwhelm the system, resulting in releases of untreated water into Lake Michigan and local waterways. So-called CSOs have been an environmental challenge in the Chicago area for decades.
The MWRD owns and runs seven water reclamation plants, 560 miles of sewers and mains and 23 pumping stations and also oversees the massive Deep Tunnel system. The district, serving a population of more than 5.1 million, has the capacity to treat more than 2 billion gallons of wet stuff daily.
There are four Democrats running for three six-year terms as commissioners. Three of those — Kari Steele, Marcelino Garcia and Daniel “Pogo” Pogorzelski — are incumbents. A fourth, Sharon Waller, also is contending.
Of the four vying for three seats on the nine-member body, Steele, Garcia and Waller impress us with their expertise and ideas for maintaining and improving the performance of the MWRD.
Waller ran two years ago and garnered 150,000 votes but fell just short of winning. A licensed environmental engineer and consultant to water utilities, she advocates for introducing water reuse to Illinois’ management of wastewater and stormwater, as most U.S. states already do. She also wants the MWRD and local municipalities, which are responsible for the local drainage systems that more frequently are becoming inundated and leading to flooding of homes and businesses, to cooperate more in order to improve flood prevention.
Steele currently is president of the district. She has emphasized tight fiscal stewardship — important, since MWRD is a taxing body and is reflected on county property tax bills — noting that the fiscal 2024 budget of $1.4 billion is slightly lower than the 2023 spending plan.
Garcia, a lawyer and also director of community affairs for Cook County Health, says a high priority for the district in coming years will be adapting the water-treatment system to cope with emerging contaminants like phosphorus and polyfluorinated substances (PFAs), which are chemicals used in manufacturing and are harmful at certain levels to human health. State environmental regulators are expected to issue rules on these pollutants, and MWRD already is working on methods to reduce them, she says.
Pogorzelski, who’s been on the commission less than two years, emphasizes green stormwater-control methods like rain barrels and replacing impervious surfaces with drainage-friendly alternative surfaces. Those are likely to play a more important role in future responses to climate change.
We are impressed, though, with the expertise of the other three and appreciate how they bring different skill sets to bear on various duties of the district.
Kari Steele, Sharon Waller and Marcelino Garcia are endorsed.