Environmental Justice
In accordance with the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District Act and to advance our Strategic Plan, the MWRD established the Environmental Justice Section in the 2022 Budget. This policy was issued on January 19, 2023.
The MWRD is committed to incorporating diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice (DEIJ) principles in all decision making, planning, policy making, programs and activities, and in the execution of administrative processes. A commitment to DEIJ principles means valuing and celebrating our differences and seeking ways to create a welcoming environment that respects and embraces the experiences and contributions of every community and individual. DEIJ requires continuous introspection, commitment, and the development and implementation of policies that lead to effective actions yielding measurable results.
Environmental Justice at the MWRD
The MWRD is passionate about creating and sustaining an inclusive and equitable working environment, understanding that our differences strengthen our community. We understand that to serve effectively, we must strive for equity by providing access to opportunity for our employees, constituents, and community partners. This includes, but is not limited to, race, ethnicity, language, gender identity and expression, veteran status, national origin, sexual orientation, age, socioeconomic status, religion, and physical and mental abilities.
The MWRD’s commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice supports our core values of Excellence, Respect, Innovation, Safety, Equity, Diversity, and Accountability.
Representatives from municipalities within the MWRD are encouraged to contact our Environmental Justice section to determine if we can assist with future projects. envjustice@mwrd.org
EJ Presents at M&R Monthly Seminar
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice Defined
The MWRD’s commitment to these principles means valuing and celebrating our differences and seeking ways to create a welcoming environment that respects and embraces the experiences and contributions of every community and individual. DEIJ requires continuous introspection, commitment, and the development and implementation of policies that lead to effective actions yielding measurable results.
- Diversity: The representation of different and unique identities, backgrounds, characteristics, experiences, and perspectives.
- Equity: Providing everyone with the tools they need to succeed by ensuring access, resources, and opportunities for all; especially for those who are underrepresented and have been historically underserved and disadvantaged.
- Inclusion: Inclusion is the practice of ensuring that people feel a sense of belonging and support from the organization and are provided an opportunity to contribute their talents to fulfilment of the MWRD’s mission. This is achieved by creating an ethical, tolerant, and respectful environment and culture in which differences are acknowledged and celebrated.
- Justice: The ethical, philosophical idea that people are to be treated impartially, fairly, properly, and reasonably to ensure that no harm befalls another, and that where harm is alleged, action is taken to remedy the injustice.
EJ In Action
Community Partnership Councils
In support of our Strategic Plan, Community Partnership Councils were developed to encourage public involvement. On August 7, 2025, members of the Stickney Community Partnership Council Rebecca Fiala and Rich Leschina and Robert Clarke, Executive Director, Continuing Education and Customized Training Economic and Workforce Innovation Academic and Student Affairs City Colleges of Chicago joined staff from Public Affairs, Environmental Justice and M&R on a tour of some of the Chicago Area Waterway System. Patrol Boat Captain John Jacob piloted PC-100 on a trip through the Sanitary & Ship Canal, South and Main Branches of the Chicago River and ultimately out into Lake Michigan.
We were amazed at the wildlife we saw amongst the industrial settings of the Sanitary & Ship Canal and completely fascinated with the Canal Street Railroad Bridge, now used by Amtrak, which had to be raised to accommodate our small boat. Once we got into the River proper amongst the tour boats and rental kayaks, we were reminded that it is a working waterway when we had to make room for a barge. Most of us ate our lunch while waiting at the Chicago Harbor Lock and then it was out into the Lake.
Watershed Planning Council Meetings
MWRD EJ staff attends quarterly watershed planning council meetings for Little Calumet River, Calumet Sag Channel, North Branch of Chicago River, Lower Des Plaines, and Poplar Creek & Upper Salt Creek.
Green Infrastructure
The 17th annual Water Environment Federation Community Service Project, led by the Students and Young Professionals Community, brought more than 100 volunteers to Aldridge Elementary School on September 27, 2025 to kick off the WEF Technical Exhibition and Conference.
The added rain gardens, bioswales, and outdoor classroom featuring hundreds of native plants, will help manage stormwater, create functional green spaces and serve as hands-on learning tools for students and also provide lasting environmental benefits for the school and its community.
Partnership with Chicago Urban League
Environmental Justice kicked off their partnership with the Chicago Urban League in December 2024 with a visit from Lolita to Gary Comer College Prep Middle School. She spoke to the first cohort of 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students about environmental justice and the roll of pollution prevention in maintaining clean waters for humans and aquatic life.
Our next meeting with the students was October 17, 2025, when Ed and Jennie joined the group at Stickney WRP for a tour led by Principal Engineer Brian Levy. The students were very engaged and asked many good questions about the wastewater treatment process. They were not so impressed with the natural odorous side effects that accompanies the process!
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Lolita and Jennie were back at Gary Comer Middle School on November 21, 2025. Building on the students' experience at Stickney, they showed the students how the wastewater treatment process works, on a small and imprecise scale of course! They created their own dirty water and then used three distinct steps to remove the impurities using plastic cups and different methods of filtering to simulate the MWRD's process.
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Preparing the dirty water 
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Looking pretty dirty 
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First filter 
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Watching the final filter 
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EJ's final visit with this cohort was on December 5, 2025 when we once again traveled to Gary Comer Middle School to discuss careers and our individual career paths. We then played a game where the kids tried to guess the salaries of positions available at MWRD.
We’ve had a great time with this group and appreciate their engagement and willingness to learn. EJ is looking forward to our continued partnership with the Chicago Urban League and a new group of kids in the spring!
City Colleges of Chicago-Wastewater Technology Certificate Program
The Environmental Justice section has spent the last two years creating a Wastewater Technology Certificate Program with the City Colleges of Chicago. The inaugural six-week program was held at Olive Harvey College from September 23-October 30, 2025, culminating with a tour of the Stickney WRP on November 1 where students saw how their new skills could be used at a wastewater treatment facility. Treatment Plant Operator (TPO) II Mike Salerno led the tour and was thrilled to showcase some of the specialized TPO work areas. The Wastewater Technology Certificate Program curriculum was developed and taught by former MWRD Senior Environmental Microbiologist Toni Glymph to encourage people of color to consider careers in the wastewater field. We were so excited to welcome her back!
The Coarse Screens were down for maintenance, but we all still had to look over the edge! |
Another seldom visited place, the Primary Settling Tanks, that would become very familiar to a new TPO. 
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Another place TPOs visit often are sampling stations, like this one under the secondary tanks. 
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Mike then took us under the Aerated Grit Tanks to show us a broken pump and explain how it was discovered. Quite the experience! |
OAI
On October 14, 2025, participants and staff from OAI, a workforce development group, toured the Stickney WRP. Ed Coleman and Jennie Harrell from the EJ Section joined both the plant and lab tours, which were led by Treatment Plant Operator III Mike Salerno, Theresa Johnston, Principal Environmental Scientist, and Idalis Olszewski, Laboratory Technician. After the tour, Ed and Jennie discussed careers and the MWRD hiring process over lunch. The enthusiastic group asked great questions and many immediately signed up for exam alerts.
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OAI focuses on safety- and health-based job training to develop necessary job skills to assist under- or unemployed individuals, including those who have been incarcerated or homeless, and workers who lack the skills to perform jobs safely. We hope to host them again in the future with a new cohort!
Water Palooza 2025
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On Friday, September 26, 2025, Lolita Thompson and Jennie Harrell from EJ teamed up with Terri Albano and Rebeca Fernandez from Public Affairs to staff two tables at the biennial Chicago Water Palooza event, organized by the Water Environment Federation’s Students and Young Professionals Community. Water Palooza is an educational fair that shines a spotlight on the importance of the water sector while giving back to the Water Environment Federation Technical Exhibit and Conference’s host city. During Water Palooza, students rotate through interactive stations from various organizations that bring science and sustainability to life in hands-on activities that highlight the value of water, water quality, and environmental stewardship. Lolita and Terri showed the children what not to flush while Rebeca and Jennie used a floodplain model to demonstrate how MWRD stormwater projects help people.
Small Business Summit
On September 9, 2025, MWRD’s Diversity Section hosted the 2025 Small Business Summit at Malcolm X College. This event was a full day of networking, expert panels and resource-rich sessions designed to connect diverse businesses with opportunities at MWRD and beyond. Attendees were able to connect with over 50 exhibitors from the public and private sectors, including assist agencies, sister agencies, prime firms as well as MWRD departments. Here's Ed and Lolita representing the Environmental Justice section.
Stickney Open House
Saturday, August 3, 2025, EJ continued their commitment to Community Outreach by participating in the Stickney Open House. We had a fun day meeting our community, with Ed at the Careers table, Lolita assisting IT with Bit Beads, and Jennie helping at the Arts & Crafts table.
Stickney-Forest View Public Library
On Thursday, July 22, 2025, the EJ Team produced their first solo event thanks to the efforts of our intern Nathalia Fatu Granger. In pursuance of our community engagement mandate, and to give our interns an idea of what we do, Nathalia Fatu was tasked with seeking out events and organizations located in municipalities southwest of Chicago—considering our connection with the Stickney Community Partnership Council. She partnered with the Stickney-Forest View Public Library’s Head of Youth Services, Stuart Kerr, to organize an open event for children of all ages. Due to the possible wide age range in attendance, the EJ Team consulted with Rebeca Fernandez, Public Affairs Specialist-Bilingual, who maintains the activities used in school visits and open houses. We decided to use the infiltration demonstration, where different media are used to simulate rainwater falling on cement, sand, vegetation, etc.; BitBeads, an activity developed by our IT Department demonstrating how binary code works using colored beads; and Pollinators, an activity that involves coloring cut-outs of butterflies, bees, stick bugs, and bats that are then turned into a bracelet with pipe cleaners. The kids who braved the hot and humid weather learned a lot and had a great time. We hope to return sometime soon!
Cook County Sheriff's Leadership Academy
On Tuesday, July 15, 2025 Environmental Justice joined Public Affairs in welcoming the return of Cook County Sheriff’s Leadership Academy for a tour of Stickney WRP. The Sheriff’s Juvenile Justice and Advocacy Unit provides youth summer camps where participants benefit from spending time with positive adult role models while participating in educational and recreational activities. The campers visited several labs, the greenhouse, and took a bus tour of the plant.
Essam El-Naggar, Environmental Soil Scientist, and Bryan Allen, Senior Environmental Research Technician explain the purpose of the greenhouse: to test our final solids product in various mixes of concentrations and soil types on common indoor and outdoor plants.
Laboratory Technician Brandon Reynolds explains microscopes in the Microbiology Lab.
Treatment Plant Operator II Mike Salerno lead the bus tour which included a stop where the final effluent is discharged into the Sanitary and Ship Canal.
Beaubien Woods Outdoor Youth Ambassadors
On Wednesday, July 2, 2025, EJ joined Commissioner Corral Sepúlveda, Vice President Flynn, and their staff in welcoming the Beaubien Woods Youth Outdoor Ambassadors for a tour of Calumet WRP led by Treatment Plant Operator II, Don Rohe. The Youth Outdoor Ambassador program is a paid internship provided by the Forest Preserves of Cook County that brings together youth throughout the county to become the next generation of advocates, stewards and conservationists. After the tour, EJ Staff Ed Coleman and Lolita Thompson spoke to the group about careers at MWRD.
Cub Scout Impact Day
On May 10, 2025, in conjunction with the Calumet Open House, the Environmental Justice Section and Public Affairs hosted the Cub Scout Impact Day. Almost 200 Scouts, their pack leaders, and parents toured the Calumet Water Reclamation Plant and enjoyed educational activities about how we protect water and process wastewater. This event would not have been possible without the hard work of the 2024 Environmental Justice Intern, Quinn Ruiz. She made all the calls and collected contact information for packs from all over the District’s service area which allowed us to gauge interest for an impact day event. The huge turnout indicates there was lots of interest in learning more about MWRD and the critical work we do in wastewater and stormwater management. We also want to thank all of the MWRD employees for their efforts that day, including our in-house Scouting liaison, Jonathan Grabowy, Managing Engineer for Wastewater Capital Planning, for lending his time and expertise to help make this a successful event.
Aldridge Middle School Project Greenway Presentation
On May 28, 2025, Principal Civil Engineer Lolita Thompson from our Environmental Justice section attended Aldridge Middle School’s Eighth Grade presentation on their Project Greenway, a project that will create a new, fully ADA accessible forested path that will allow residents of Altgeld Gardens to access Beaubien Woods Forest Preserve. In attendance was Deloris Lucas, from Calumet Community Partnership Council, along with People For Community Recovery Executive Director Cheryl Johnson and her Health Equity Director Adella Bass-Lawson. MWRD’s Stormwater Team did a workshop with the students to assist them in their project development. The students also completed shoebox dioramas based on Hazel Johnson’s quote “I’d rather live in my own shoebox than someone else’s mansion.”
Chicago Women in the Trades
On Monday, April 14, 2025, student apprentices from Chicago Women in the Trades (CWIT) visited the Stickney WRP for a job shadow day. These women are about to graduate from CWIT’s program and choose the trade with which they will apprentice. Engineer of Treatment Plant Operations Lisa Kursell was joined by Master Mechanic Pam Taylor, Assistant Master Mechanic Liz DelAngel, and Structural Ironworker Leadman Sarah Mahoney on a tour of the plant and a visit to the trades on the shop floor. Thanks to Ed Coleman, Human Resources Manager in the Environmental Justice section, for his hard work coordinating this event. Ed can been seen here in the red hard hat.
Berwyn Lions Club
On April 21, 2025 EJ’s Lolita Thompson spoke to the Berwyn Lions Club at an event held at the Berwyn Public Library. She discussed why flooding happens, how it relates to our sewers across the region, and how homeowners can help prevent flooding. The Berwyn Roots, a community garden movement, also spoke at the event. Shown below is Julie Roth from The Berwyn Roots, Karin Nangreave from the Berwyn Lions Club, and Lolita Thompson.
Earth Day 2025
EJ was excited to partner again with Aldridge Elementary School during their Peace Week events. On Earth Day, April 22, 2025, Lolita Thompson spoke to students about the vital connection between environmental justice and healthy communities, emphasizing how actions like local cleanups contribute to a more equitable and sustainable future for all. She then walked the talk by getting out in the school’s garden with the students for a clean-up.
History & Hope/Pullman Partnership
MWRD EJ participated in History & Hope, an 8-week environmental justice program for teenagers facilitated and led by Pullman National Historical Park. The program educated youth from Chicago's most challenged communities on best practices to adapt and build resilience to climate change.
Peace Week Celebrations at Aldridge
In conjunction with Earth Day 2024, our EJ Team was invited to participate in a ceremony promoting peace in the community. Both students and guests wished for positive things they wanted to see while pouring a cup of water on Aldridge's Peace Tree.
MSI's Jr. Science Café
Lolita Thompson lead one of these small, focused sessions that offer young people the opportunity to interact directly with STEM professionals with the aim to change the perception of a "traditional" STEM professional by engaging professionals of all ages, backgrounds, interests, and career paths, conveying that anyone can pursue a career in STEM.
National Society of Black Engineers
Principal Civil Engineer Lolita Thompson was joined this year by Rebeca Fernandez, Public Affairs Specialist-Bilingual, presenting at the National Society of Black Engineers – Chicago Professionals’ Engineers Week Expo on February 22, 2025 at the University of Illinois Chicago This annual event exposes students to STEM in a fun, stimulating, and impactful way. Lolita and Rebeca demonstrated portions of our treatment process and students from Holy Family School in Chicago perform an experiment.
City Colleges of Chicago Visit
The EJ section hosted a visit of representatives from the City Colleges of Chicago to the Stickney WRP. EJ is partnering with the City Colleges to with hopes of developing apprentice programs for TPOs and curriculum paths related to Wastewater Treatment Labs.
CMAP FLIP
On July 18, 2024 the MWRD hosted youth from the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning’s (CMAP) Future Leaders in Planning (FLIP) summer program. Through FLIP, high school students from northeastern Illinois explore the field of urban planning and learn about career paths and opportunities to get involved in urban planning, urban design, sustainability, public policy, government, transportation, environmental planning, water supply, community development, and public engagement. As part of their visit, they heard presentations from our EJ Team.
10th Ward Interns Visit
On July 24, 2024 members of the EJ Team joined the tour of Calumet WRP by the summer interns of Chicago’s 10th Ward Alderman Peter Chico. CWRP is located within the 10th Ward, giving the interns an excellent opportunity to learn about an important resource in their own backyard.
Polished Pebbles
On July 27, 2024, Lolita Thompson joined Board of Commissioners’ President Kari Steele in hosting young women from Polished Pebbles for a tour of Stickney WRP. Polished Pebbles helps girls from the greater Chicagoland area become great communicators at home, school, and the future workplace and learn skills that allow them to develop confidence and the ability to speak up in class, join groups and leadership positions, communicate effectively and respectfully, and prepare for future careers.