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Combined Sewer
Overflow
Public Notification Plan
Revised January
2006
Stickney Water Reclamation Plant
NPDES Permit No. IL0028053
North Side Water Reclamation Plant
NPDES Permit No. IL0028088
In
accordance with Special Condition (SC) 10.12 of the above referenced permits
effective March 1, 2002, the following plan is submitted for actively informing
the public of combined sewer overflow (CSO) occurrences and impacts.
Identifying the Affected
Public
The District has solicited comments
and feedback from the affected public in the development of the CSO Public
Notification Plan. The
District considers the affected public to include governmental
organizations, civic groups, recreational groups or any
public citizen with an interest in or
responsibility for the condition of the Chicago Area Waterway System (CAWS). Currently, the District identified the
following organizations to be among the
affected public: the USEPA; the IEPA;
the City of Chicago; all municipalities
located adjacent to the CAWS; the Friends of the Chicago River; NeighborSpace;
the Openlands Project; the Sierra Club; the Civic Federation; the Prairie
Rivers Network; the Lake Michigan Federation; and other
environmentally based organizations. Other groups which are to be specifically
identified include the recreational and commercial users of the CAWS such as canoe or kayak clubs, high
school or collegiate rowing teams and owners of marinas. Interested parties of the Use Attainability
Analysis that is currently underway for the CAWS will also be identified and
included in the District’s efforts to include the public in
the development of the CSO public
notification plan.
The identified affected public was invited
to the public meeting held on January 20, 2004. Comments and feedback were
solicited at that time. Advisories about
the planned public meeting were available on the District’s
webpage, through news media alerts to all local print and
electronic media, and direct notification when possible.
MWRDGC Coordination with
the City of
The District intends to coordinate the CSO Public
Notification Plan with the City of
In
addition, the District will allow the City of
Web Address Book
The District is developing an electronic
“Address Book” containing a list of email addresses
of interested parties, i.e. the previously identified stakeholders. The Address
Book will be updated on an as-needed basis as
other members of the affected public are identified and members of
the public will be able to sign up to receive e-mail notification of CSO events
by accessing the District’s website (www.mwrd.org). These parties will be sent an email
alert in the event of a known CSO or diversion to
Signage at District
CSO Locations
As noted above, the District intends to install
signage at our CSO outfall locations.
These signs will be two-sided and weatherproof, and will
identify the outfall number.
The District will install signs in public areas
adjacent to the river on District property only.
Notification of Potable Water Supply Agencies
The District will continue to notify suppliers
of potable water of CSOs that result in a
reversal of the waterways into Lake Michigan at
Wilmette harbor, the
Web Page
The
District has created a web page on the MWRDGC website to inform the general
public of the occurrences of CSOs on the
The
waterways represented on the map includes the following: North Shore Channel, North Branch of the
Chicago River (NBCR), Chicago River, Weller Creek, Salt Creek, Addison Creek, Des
Plaines River, South Branch of the Chicago River (SBCR), South Fork of SBCR
(Bubbly Creek), Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal (CSSC), Calumet-Sag Channel,
Little Calumet River, Calumet River, and the Grand Calumet River. CSO notification will be conducted on a
segment-wide basis. The waterway will be
divided into 23 segments as follows:
1.
2.
3.
NBCR:
confluence with the North Shore Channel to
4.
NBCR:
5.
Chicago
River:
6.
South
Branch of Chicago River:
7.
South
Fork of SBCR (Bubbly Creek)
8.
CSSC:
9.
CSSC:
Stickney WRP to the confluence with the Calumet-Sag Channel
10. CSSC: from the confluence with the
Calumet-Sag Channel to the Lemont WRP
11. CSSC: Lemont WRP to
12. Weller Creek
13.
14.
15.
16. Salt Creek: from Addison Creek to
the confluence with the
17.
18.
19. Little
20. Little
21. Calumet-Sag Channel
22.
23. Addison Creek
Upon
occurrence of a CSO in a given waterway segment, the color of the segment shown
on the map will be changed from blue to red.
The color of several waterway segments downstream of the segment on
which a confirmed CSO has occurred will, by default, also be changed to red,
indicating that the water quality of that segment may be affected as well. Floodwater discharges to
The
on-line map of CSOs will be updated as the information becomes available and
will be certified the following day, typically around 8:00 a.m. It will provide the public with a rolling
seven-day record of CSO/floodwater discharge events in the
In
addition to the graphic map display, limited general information regarding CSOs
and floodwater discharges to
Questions
& Answers
·
What is a combined sewer overflow (CSO)?
A CSO is a discharge from a combined sewer system directly into a
waterway. A combined sewer system is
designed to collect a mixture of rainfall runoff, domestic and industrial
wastewater in the same pipe for conveyance to a wastewater treatment
plant. A CSO may occur during heavy
rainfalls when the inflow of combined wastewater exceeds the capacity of the
combined sewer system and the wastewater treatment plant. The CSO outfalls to the waterway act as
relief points for the excess flow in the sewers, thereby reducing the frequency
and severity of sewer backups and flooding.
·
What are the impacts of CSOs? Although CSOs may
contain highly diluted sewage that could include bacteria which may cause
illness, they may also cause temporary water quality degradation in the
waterways. Regardless of CSO activity,
the Chicago Area Waterways may contain disease-containing bacteria at any
time. Therefore, swimming, canoeing, or
other activities where immersion in water is possible should be avoided and is
not recommended, particularly during and immediately following rainfall.
·
Why does the
·
Where do CSOs occur? When CSOs occur,
they impact every major waterway in the Chicago area including the following:
North Shore Channel, North Branch of the Chicago River, the Chicago River,
South Branch of the Chicago River, the South Fork of the South Branch of the
Chicago River (Bubbly Creek), the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, the Calumet
River, the Grand Calumet River, the Little Calumet River, the Calumet-Sag
Channel, the Des Plaines River, Salt Creek and Weller Creek. Due to the heavy urbanization in the
·
What is being done to reduce the occurrence of CSOs?
The MWRDGC’s ongoing Tunnel and Reservoir Plan (TARP) Project was
implemented to alleviate the polluting effects of CSOs and to provide relief
from local flooding by providing holding capacity for 18 billion gallons of
combined sewage in its tunnels and reservoirs until it can to be pumped to the water
reclamation plant for full treatment.
Although the reservoir portion of TARP is scheduled for completion in
stages between 2013 and 2023, significant benefits have already been
realized. It is estimated that since the
first of the tunnels went online in 1985 until 2003, more than 741 billion
gallons of CSOs have been captured and conveyed to the water reclamation plants
for full treatment. Since TARP went
online, the waterways have seen an increase in both the fish population and
number of species present; basement and street flooding have been reduced; and
there are fewer floodwater discharges to
· Why do floodwater discharges to
· How can the
public reduce CSOs? During periods
of high flow, every gallon of wastewater and stormwater kept out of the sewer
system is a gallon that will not add to a CSO discharge. Examples of ways to reduce the wastewater
load include avoiding unnecessary water usage, toilet flushing, dishwashing,
clothes washing, and showering.
Additionally, individuals and businesses could install rain
barrels/cisterns to collect rainwater runoff from their roofs. This water would be used for garden/lawn
watering and similar uses, thereby reducing both the impact of heavy rain
events and the use for potable water for non-potable uses.