Collaboration helped bring about water ordinance

Recently the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago’s Board of Commissioners unanimously approved the Cook County Watershed Management Ordinance (WMO). It was adopted with an effective date of May 1, 2014.

The district held five public meetings this summer throughout the district, offering the public the opportunity to voice their opinions regarding the proposed WMO. We listened to the public and incorporated many of the suggestion received into our final draft.

The purpose of the WMO is to establish uniform stormwater management regulations for Cook County, in order to prevent future commercial, municipal and residential development and redevelopment projects from exacerbating flooding. Paved roads, parking lots, walkways and buildings make the city and the suburbs livable, but they also reduce the amount of land that rainwater can properly and efficiently be absorbed. This leads to increased flooding without sufficient regulation. The WMO ensures that commercial and residential development will continue, but in a responsible manner that will help curb residential flooding.

Thank you to our staff, the technical committee, and to members of the community who worked so very hard to bring the WMO to our board for approval. The WMO was truly the result of the collaboration of many different ideas and best practices we aim to deliver to the citizens of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago.

Kathleen Therese Meany

President

Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago