Stormwater Management                                                                           October 19, 2006
Contact: Peggy Bradley                                                                             For Immediate Release

Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago
Commissions Detailed Watershed Plans

The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (District), announced today that the District will issue purchase orders to three professional engineering firms for studies that will eventually produce a Detailed Watershed Plan (DWP) for three of the watersheds in Cook County, as provided under the District’s Stormwater Management Program. The purpose of each DWP is to identify the stormwater related problems in a watershed and develop alternative solutions to those problems, and then determine those that are most effective in addressing the watershed’s needs. When finalized, a DWP will contain a summary of the watershed’s areas of concern and a listing of proposed regional capital improvement projects to address those concerns.

The firm of Camp, Dresser & McKee will work on the Little Calumet Watershed Plan, CH2M Hill will work on the Calumet Sag Channel Watershed Plan, and MWH Americas will work on the Upper Salt Creek Watershed Plan.

The planning process to produce a watershed plan consists of several steps, including gathering information on current watershed conditions, analyzing the suitability of existing information, obtaining required new data, developing hydraulic and hydrologic models of the watershed, identifying potential projects to address stormwater related issues such as flooding and water quality, quantifying benefits and estimating costs of potential projects. This work is expected to take a year and a half.

Commissioner James C. Harris, Chairman of the District’s Committee on Flood Control, Drainage and Storm Flow, said, “We are pleased to be moving forward with our stormwater management planning process. It is essential to have valid and reliable information before we undertake the capital projects at significant costs that will result in long-term flood relief.”

The District collects and treats wastewater from more than five million people in Cook County and the industrial equivalent of another four million people. The District also operates the Deep Tunnel and manages stormwater for all of Cook County. The District’s web address is www.mwrd.org.

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