Commissioner Cynthia Santos of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago recently stated “As part of the plaintiffs” overall focus on the hypoxia issue in the Gulf of Mexico the MWRD has been called to defend against allegations that treated effluent from the MWRD’s water treatment plants contains nutrients that are causing or will cause unnatural plant and algal growth in the Chicago Area Waterways System.” Santos concluded by saying, “Illinois Rivers generally do not have the environmental conditions that cause unnatural algal blooms.” The MWRD operates its water reclamation plants under state-approved NPDES permits, and there are no numeric water quality standards for such nutrients in Illinois. MWRD Commissioner Kari Steele stated, “Even though there are no legal requirements in Illinois for the water reclamation plants in question to remove phosphorus, the MWRD accepted limits in its new permits. The MWRD is actively engaged in helping Illinois develop plans to achieve 45 percent reduction goals for nutrients in the Illinois and Mississippi River basins. We are working on several fronts to achieve reductions including actively implementing removal facilities within the plants in question.”

Pictured is Metropolitan Water Reclamation District Commissioner Cynthia Santos.