Below find a letter to the trustees of the Urbana Champaign Sanitary District outlining our position on water sales by the district. This letter was precipitated by UCSD’s consideration of water sales to two different proposed facilities – the Cronus fertilizer plant near Tuscola, IL and Sunrise Coal’s “Bulldog” coal mine in Vermilion County, IL. PRN believes that it is necessary for UCSD to adopt a formal policy to help guide considerations of water sales.

For background information on the water sales currently being considered, go here. The UCSD draft policy statement, to which this letter is a response, can be found here.

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Dear Trustees Lenik, Lyke and Putman:

Thank you for presenting the District’s draft policy on effluent sales for public review and comment.  The sale of effluent by the District is a new and serious consideration with long term implications for the Champaign Urbana community. As I stated at the public meeting on May 8th, it appears that the contemplated sale to Cronus is being made without due consideration of the potential ramifications and long term consequences. Likewise, the policy reads as if it has been hastily drafted to facilitate the sale. We hope you will use the invitation from Cronus as an opportunity to develop a policy for the future, rather than feel compelled to act quickly, according to a timeline set by Cronus. We need a policy that helps protect our water supply and promotes the health of local, cherished streams. The comments we heard on May 8 demonstrated overwhelming interest in protecting these streams and in planning for the future.

To that end, we offer the following comments on the draft policy. The numbered paragraphs correspond to those in the draft.

Paragraph 1.     The meaning of “financially beneficial” is unknown, as is the meaning of “influences.” Although policy statements tend to be more general in nature, if the document is too vague or overbroad how is the public, or the board for that matter, to determine whether a contemplated sale is consistent with the policy?  Please provide some clarification as to the meaning of these terms. The policy should require the sale price to be commensurate with market value in a comparable market, and reflect the opportunity cost of foreclosing the option to meet unforeseen local needs.

Paragraph 2.     Likewise, there is no indication what a “substantial contract” is. Is the potential Cronus contract substantial? What about the Bulldog Mine proposal?  We suggest that the policy clarify which proposals will be subject to public input and that the policy require the Board to seek public input and to strongly encourage and facilitate such input.  A public meeting and public comment period should be required elements of sale proposal considerations. Moreover, public comments should be sought after the public has been provided with a credible analysis of the impacts of the choices to be presented to the board for decision. {Continue Reading »}

UCSD considering water sale to fertilizer plant & coal mine

The Urbana Champaign Sanitary District (UCSD) is considering selling large amounts of water from its Urbana and Champaign sewage treatment plants to Cronus Chemical, a company proposing a fertilizer plant near Tuscola in Douglas County, IL. UCSD has also received a request to sell water to Hallador Energy’s Sunrise Coal, the company that is trying to develop the “Bulldog” coal mine southeast of Homer in Vermilion County, IL.

UCSD’s water discharges, commonly referred to as “effluent,” now flow from the Urbana sewage treatment plant to the Saline Branch and then the Salt Fork of the Vermilion River, and from the Champaign plant to Copper Slough and eventually, to the Kaskaskia River. The water sales could significantly change the flows in these streams and may commit the District to selling water that would one day be needed in Champaign County.

Please join us at the UCSD public meeting on May 8^th @ 6:30 pm at the Urbana sewage treatment plant, 1100 East University Avenue, Urbana.  {Continue Reading »}

Please join us at the public meeting on May 8^th at 6:30 pm at the UCSD Urbana plant, 1100 E. University Ave.

The Urbana Champaign Sanitary District (UCSD) is considering selling large amounts of water from its Urbana and Savoy sewage treatment plants to Cronus Chemical, a company proposing a $1.2 billion fertilizer plant in Tuscola, IL. UCSD is also exploring a water sale to Hallador Energy’s Sunrise Coal, the company that is trying to develop a new coal mine near Homer, IL.

UCSD’s water discharges, commonly referred to as “effluent,” now flow from the Urbana sewage treatment plant to the Salt Fork of the Vermilion River, and from the Savoy plant to Copper Slough and eventually, the Kaskaskia River.  The water sales would change the flows in these streams significantly.

Much is at stake in this contemplated water sale including the health of our streams, the sustainability of our community water supply, and the health of our local economies.  We do not believe the UCSD Board has considered the full ramifications of these sales. The District should not be rushing into contracts that promise our water to outside, water-intensive industries.  The District is holding a public meeting on May 8th at the Urbana treatment plant. Please join us for a full, open and informed discussion.

Please spread the word to your friends and colleagues.

{Continue Reading »}

Yesterday, eight members of a powerful board in Chicago promised to change business as usual and vote to disinfect billions of gallons of sewage that’s dumped into Chicago waters every day. After more than a decade of resisting public demands, eight of nine commissioners of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (MWRD) publicly stated that on June 16^th, they will stand up and vote for a cleaner and safer river.

We applaud the commissioners for reading the writing on the wall, though it would have been hard to miss given the array of powerful interests lining up in support of disinfection. US EPA, Senator Dick Durbin, Congressman Mike Quigley, Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, Chicago aldermen, even the Illinois Pollution Control Board, have recognized that it is time for Chicago to lose the unhappy distinction of being the only major U.S. city not disinfecting its wastewater.

We also applaud you and our steadfast clean water allies in Chicago for joining with Prairie Rivers Network in the fight to make Chicago’s waters healthy and accessible to all.

What will the June 16^th vote mean? If everything goes as planned, MWRD will be required to disinfect at its Calumet and North Side sewage treatment plants. These plants dump wastewater into the Chicago River and the Calumet Sag Channel. Disinfection will kill the pathogens, or germs, that can make people who swim, fish or boat in the water sick.

But what will it cost us? It was surprising to learn that MWRD is one of the lowest cost providers of sewage treatment in the U.S. As such, Chicago’s sewer bills are now lower than many other cities. Even with disinfection, total annual sewer bills will remain lower than other cities in the region. US EPA has estimated a cost increase of $38.53/ year or $3.21/month for a home valued at $267,000, the average home value in Cook County.

A growing number of river enthusiasts, Prairie Rivers Network members among them, are using Chicago’s waters for fishing, paddling, swimming and general rollicking. Now we can safely say, “Come join us.”

This story was covered on June 15, 2011 in the Medill Reports of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism.

Photo credit: NASA

American Rivers, a national river conservation organization, named both the Chicago and Mississippi Rivers in its 2011 “America’s Most Endangered Rivers” report issued earlier this week. The list “…is a call to action for rivers at a crossroads, whose fates will be determined in the coming year.”

For the Chicago River, the report highlights the 1.2 billion gallons of sewage effluent released daily into the Chicago River that has not been disinfected. This polluted water creates threats to public health that could be alleviated if Chicago’s Metropolitan Water Reclamation District fully treated its sewage. In positive news, federal officials have stated that the current situation will not be allowed to continue.

The Mississippi River’s current record water levels and resulting unprecedented flooding caused American Rivers to give it the unusual designation of a “Special Mention” in its report. The economic damage from the flooding, the displacement of people and wildlife, and the impacts on water quality from sewage, excess nutrients and other pollution in the  flood waters underscore the need to rethink, recreate and adapt our flood prevention strategies and restoration efforts to work with, not against, the river. Read more about this issue.

New pollution standards will mean Chicago sewage gets disinfected

On May 11th, the USEPA told Illinois EPA that if they don’t insist on tougher pollution standards for the Chicago River, the Cal-Sag Channel and the Little Calumet River “promptly,” then USEPA will do it for them. This news was greeted with agreement from various environmental groups who have long argued for the river to be made cleaner, as was covered on Chicago’s ABC- TV station, WLS. Read the letter from USEPA here.

This is great news for the growing numbers of people who are using these waters for boating, fishing, and swimming.  Right now, the treated sewage that makes up a large amount of the water in the Chicago River, the Cal-Sag Channel and the Little Calumet River is not disinfected. This puts people at risk of contracting illnesses when they are in and on the water. Chicago is the only major city in America (and the industrialized world) that does not disinfect its sewage (yuck!). In fact, this daily discharge of 1.2 billion gallons of undisinfected sewage into the Chicago River system has earned the river a place on the annual list of America’s Most Endangered Rivers. People are talking, as no city (especially with a new mayor!), would want to be in the headlines for such a designation.

With new standards in place, the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District, which operates Cook County’s sewage treatment plants, will likely have to disinfect sewage at the massive Calumet and Northside Wastewater Treatment Plants that dump to the Chicago River, the Cal-Sag Channel and the Little Calumet River.

The Chicago waterways were little more than an open sewer for nearly a hundred years. The 1972 Clean Water Act slowly resulted in cleaner water, so that we now have the opportunity for much more – for an asset and amenity running through the heart of the city to complement the gem that is Lake Michigan. USEPA’s action is yet another development, like the Asian carp crisis and our lawsuit against the Water District for illegal pollution, that point towards the need to re-think how we live with the waterways. Now is the time to re-invent the Chicago River and canals to provide upgraded wastewater and transportation infrastructure, world-class recreational and tourism opportunities, and healthy waters and people.

This post was updated on May 19, 2011 to reflect new press coverage.