City Council Meeting
July 20, 2022
Referred to Joint Committee on Economic, Capital, & Technology Development and Environmental Protection & Energy
RESOLUTION CALLING ON THE CITY OF CHICAGO DEPARTMENT OF WATER MANAGEMENT TO PROVIDE BRIEFING OF CURRENT EFFORTS TO IMPROVE THE CHICAGO WATER AND SEWER SYSTEMS
WHEREAS, The City of Chicago (City) Department of Water Management (CDWM) is responsible for delivering nearly 1 billion gallons of water daily throughout City and nearby suburbs, and it is their mission to provide quality water while protecting Lake Michigan; and
WHEREAS, The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA) largely funds the City's water and sewer construction projects in addition to newly identified funding from the American Rescue Plan Act and the infrastructure bill; and
WHEREAS, Meaningfully implementing CDWM's mission will take many years to do, but guaranteeing its success requires immediate action, collaboration, and most importantly, consistent evaluation and transparency of such findings in a manner that creates accountability on the City on behalf of all the communities impacted; and
WHEREAS, The CDWM's website does provide some details as to their water and sewer construction project efforts between 2018 and 2020, and such transparency into the CDWM's efforts are completely unavailable following 2020; and
WHEREAS, Additionally, the City does not provide critical details that can assist with understanding how funding is utilized, how much funding is remaining, and other details helpful to activating CDWM towards successful implementation of their mission; and
WHEREAS, The 2022 Budget Overview projected the total of $795.3 and $377.7 million in funding resources for City's Water and Sewer construction projects-unfortunately, it remains unknown how much of that funding was ultimately used; and
WHEREAS, It is clear that the CDWM receives significant funding to support their mission, it is not clear if the current action taken by the Department is best serving such mission and on a path to successfully address and upcoming mandates; and, now, therefore,
GILBERT VILLEGAS
Alderman, 36th Ward
BE IT RESOLVED, that we, the Members of the City Council ofthe City of Chicago, call on the Department of Water Management and any additional significant individuals or Departments responsible for the allocation, status, compliance and other important information concerning all efforts to improve the Chicago water and sewer systems using funding administered by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency and any identified federal funding for a briefing before the City of Chicago Joint Committee of Economic, Capital, & Technology Development and Environmental Protection & Energy.
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