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MWRD
Statement Regarding Disinfection
July 31, 2007
Metropolitan Water Reclamation District Position Statement The District agrees with the Alliance for the Great Lakes’ (AGL) goal to help protect public health and to improve the Chicago Area Waterway System (CAWS). However, the central theme that the District’s water reclamation plants (WRPs) should install disinfection and that the CAWS should be swimmable is not based on the recommended outcome of the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA) Use Attainability Analysis (UAA) Study and is not supported by good science. As an agency with a publicly elected Board of Commissioners, the District has a responsibility to the people it serves to make decisions that carefully take into account environmental, public health, and fiscal considerations. While the AGL cites unspecified “limited anecdotal information,” of negative public health consequences to recreating on CAWS, there are no documented negative public health consequences. The District believes that the people we serve deserve the benefit of more carefully collected and assessed data on which to base this significant investment. The District has conducted several scientific and engineering studies regarding these issues, and is currently funding a $3.75 million epidemiological study of CAWS recreation. The health and safety of people engaged in recreation on and along the CAWS is of utmost importance. Results of the risk assessment and epidemiological research studies will provide necessary scientific evidence on CAWS microbial quality and the possible health risks to the people who enjoy the waterways each year. The AGL report contends that disinfection of all of the District’s major WRPs could be implemented at the “low cost of $8.32 per person per year for the greater Chicago metropolitan area,” but this is deceptively low. More realistically, the estimated cost would be $45.13 on the annual tax bill for a home with a market value of $200,000, an approximate 17% increase over the District’s 2006 tax rate. District Board of Commissioners President Terrence J. O’Brien states, “It is irresponsible to try to trivialize the amount of financial and energy resources that would be required to disinfect the vast amount of effluent discharged by the District.” Vice-President Kathleen Therese Meany adds, “Cost is not the issue. The health and safety of the public is, and the District will make its decision based on the public interest, using good science and sound fiscal policy.” While the AGL report advocates primary recreation on all of the CAWS, a large portion of these waterways have serious safety issues that are never mentioned in the AGL report. Barge traffic; continuous, steep, vertical concrete and sheetpile walls; steep and rocky banks; contaminated sediments; and deep waters make these waterways unsafe for swimming, regardless of water quality. There are inherent biological limitations to manmade channelized urban waterways that the AGL report fails to acknowledge, as well. The AGL report implies that disinfection and CSO control would benefit aquatic life and increase fish populations. In actuality, the major limitation for fish and other aquatic life still will be the lack of adequate physical habitat in these unnatural systems. This clearly is another important issue, but not one that would be addressed by disinfection of effluent. For more information on the District, please visit the website, www.mwrd.org. # # # |