Committee on Environmental Protection and Energy
City Council July 21, 2021
A RESOLUTION CALLING UPON PRESIDENT BIDEN AND THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS TO PASS AN INFRASTRUCTURE BILL TO HELP COMBAT CLIMATE CHANGE
WHEREAS, The City is in a declared state of emergency due to climate change, which continues to represent an existential threat to human existence; and
WHEREAS, Carbon sinks from the Earth's natural environments and ecosystems are overburdened and cannot mitigate climate change alone; and
WHEREAS, Some ofthe Earth's largest carbon sinks have been deeply affected, including the ocean, which is now +/-0.62 to +/- 0.14 degrees warmer on average and is developing new dead zones, and the Amazon Rain Forest has been exploited to the point where it is emitting carbon dioxide rather than sequestering it; and
WHEREAS, While Earth's natural environments are resilient and capable of healing if human activity becomes carbon negative, we are past the tipping point and must enact human-made innovations to forge resilient systems and mitigate the effects of climate change; and
WHEREAS, The City, once considered a haven from the effects of climate change due to its access to freshwater and moderate climate, now regularly faces extreme weather events caused by climate change; such events cause Lake Michigan's water levels to rise and fall, the lakefront to erode, and can overburden Chicago's existing infrastructure; and
WHEREAS, Extreme weather events also cause Combined Sewer Overflows (CSO), which occur when stormwater, wastewater, and runoff from snowmeltor rain enter the City's stormwater and wastewater systems at a rate that exceeds the system's capacity and processing abilities; CSOs are a danger to the City's drinking water supply, cause basement flooding, and endanger City residents; and
WHEREAS, The increased frequency of extreme weather events and, in turn, CSOs, requires attention including potentially overhauling the current system and incorporating green infrastructure; and
WHEREAS, Additionally, Chicago boasts some ofthe best filtered drinking water in the country , and notably contains the most remaining and active lead service lines of any U.S. city - 400,000 lead service lines that would cost an estimated $10 billion to replace; and
WHEREAS, President Biden has proposed a federal infrastructure bill that would earmark $2.1 billion for climate change mitigation and other purposes, such as constructing infrastructure to make cities more resilient across sectors, including dean energy and transportation, drinking and wastewater, broadband, private-public partnerships and recycling as well as an expansion of tax benefits, education, health care, and childcare programs; and
WHEREAS, The infrastructure bill will help the City come into the modern age and build resilient systems immediately; now, therefore
BE IT RESOLVED, That we, the members of the City Council of the City of Chicago, gathered here this twenty-first day of July, 2021, do hereby call upon President Biden and the United
Committee on Environmental Protection and Energy
City Council July 21, 2021
States Congress to pass the infrastructure bill and help save Chicago from a climate disaster; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, We the members ofthe City Council ofthe City of Chicago call upon relevant departments, including the Department of Water Management, Department of Transportation, Department of Housing, Department of Public Health to identify programmatic solutions - including rule changes and revised application procedures - to identify solutions to flooding; and
GEORGE CARDENAS
Alderman, 12th Ward
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, We the members ofthe City Council ofthe City of Chicago call upon the Commissioner of the Department of Water Management to publish a report detailing the known causes for persistent and repetitive flooding across Chicago's 77 community areas, with recommended solutions based on the unique circumstances of existing infrastructure, land cover and land uses in those community areas.