MWRD’s long history of water treatment

CUBA, Ill. — The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago, owner of a 13,500-acre research site in Fulton County, has a long history of land reclamation and wastewater treatment.

MWRD, originally known as the Sanitary District of Chicago, is a special-purpose district chartered to operate in Cook County in 1889 and manage water supply and wastewater issues.

It is not part of Chicago’s local government and was created by the state government and governed by a nine-member board of commissioners.

The district’s territory includes Chicago and 125 suburban Cook County municipalities.

First Venture

Two early projects included the reversal of the Chicago River to carry wastewater away from Lake Michigan — the city’s drinking water source — and construction of the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal in 1900. The North Shore Channel was complete in 1910 and the Cal-Sag Channel in 1922.

The first treatment plant was completed by the district in 1922, and six additional water reclamation plants were built soon thereafter, one of which is the world’s largest, the Stickney Water Reclamation Plant. The MWRD also constructed 22 pumping stations.

A water reclamation facility typically contains two treatment plants. One is for processing wastewater while the other is for treating the solids captured during the first process.

Ahead of the federal government’s Clean Water Act in 1972, which implemented pollution control programs and wastewater standards for industry, the MWRD trustees adopted the Sewage and Waste Control Ordinance on Sept. 18, 1969.

The ordinance, which has since been amended, sought to protect the public health and safety by abating and preventing pollution through the regulation and control of the quantity and quality of sewage, industrial wastes and other wastes discharged into the sewage systems, MWRD water reclamation plants and waters under the jurisdiction of the MWRD.

Advancements

MWRD’s work has evolved over the years. Sewage is no longer a waste product, but instead a collection of resources to be recovered and reused.

The MWRD is implementing several innovations in renewable energy, while also recovering and developing reuse opportunities for water, biosolids, algae, phosphorus and other nutrients collected during the water treatment process.

Biosolids are an environmentally friendly product of the water treatment process that supplies organic matter and improves soil structure and porosity to allow plants to more effectively utilize nutrients.

Under the Illinois Environmental Protection Act, signed into law in 2015, biosolids were formally recognized as a safe, beneficial and renewable resource.

Biosolids from MWRD’s facilities were shipped to the Fulton County site and applied to convert it to productive agricultural land on the abandoned strip mine property.