One Step Closer to a Cleaner Chicago River

Recently, the Illinois Pollution Control Board (IPCB) ruled that the Chicago and Calumet river systems should have better water quality standards to protect the people who recreate on them.

This is big news for the thousands of people who are out on the water—from families in canoes and kayaks to fishermen along our riverbanks and kids who regularly row crew in early morning hours. It means the IPCB recognizes that these “existing recreational uses” must be protected according to federal law.

What remains at issue is whether the IPCB should require the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MWRD), the government agency that manages our sewage, to disinfect the nearly 1.2 billion gallons of treated sewage effluent that flows into our rivers every day from three of its plants. That effluent comprises 70% of the water in the system. While it is free of sewage, it is not free of the diseases sewage carries, such as norovirus, hepatitis, giardia and salmonella. We have known for centuries that sewage harbors sickness—it’s the reason why we reversed the Chicago River in the 1900s.  It’s no wonder that nearly every other major city in the country disinfects its sewage treatment effluent. We should, too.

Already, MWRD has spent over $3.2 billion on the (unfinished) massive sewage infrastructure called TARP, or Deep Tunnel Project, which greatly improved our river system. The proposed new standards recognize that effort and celebrate its impact on the rivers’ potential for recreation. It is an exciting next step in establishing our local waterways as a regional resource that can provide recreation, healthy living, and the benefits of a waterfront economy.

Over the past five years, MWRD has spent over $10 million in tax payer money on lawyers and studies to avoid disinfecting the disease-causing germs in sewage. Now that the IPCB has recognized the rivers’ recreational use status, it is time for the elected officials who run MWRD to change their minds about disinfection and show support before the IPCB or U.S. Environmental Protection Agency forces them to do it.

If they are dragged kicking and screaming into implementing disinfection, MWRD and its long legacy of progressive actions will be tarnished forever. They still have a choice. If the commissioners move to support disinfection, MWRD can restore its image as an agency dedicated to its mission of improving water quality and managing our water as a vital resource.

"Let science lead the way” is a phrase MWRD likes to use—if that were true, disinfection would have been implemented decades ago. Now that the IPCB has shown that the Chicago River is indeed a recreational resource, it’s time for the MWRD Board of Commissioners to “let common sense lead the way” and take the steps necessary to disinfect and protect the people out on the water.

Jerry Adelmann
President & CEO, Openlands

Margaret Frisbie
Executive Director, Friends of the Chicago River