The Blessing of the Waters, celebrating its 20th year, will be held on Sunday, June 28, at 3 p.m., along the Cal-Sag Channel at the MWRD waterfall, located in Blue Island at Fulton and Chatham streets.

The massive system of tunnels and reservoirs was built to contain Chicago’s flood water. After more than 8 inches of rain over the past 30 days, the system is nearing capacity.

Multiple rounds of heavy rain fell between July 2 and July 4, leading to flash flooding in streets and rising river levels across the greater Chicago region, with some municipalities reporting 8 to 10 inches of rain over the 48-hour period. According to the MWRD, its two largest Deep Tunnel reservoirs are nearly at capacity.

With heavy rain today and more possibly on the way, the Metropolitan water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago is issuing an overflow action alert that encourages residents and business owners to reduce their water usage and help prevent flooding and protect water quality.

Residents of the Chicago area are being asked to limit water use to help prevent flooding and protect water quality as thunderstorms rolled across the region on Friday. The MWRD issued an Overflow Action Day Alert on Friday afternoon as several rounds of strong to severe storms had already started to move in, with a severe thunderstorm watch in effect until 7 p.m. in several counties.

The Metropolitan water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago has captured billions of gallons of stormwater that have fallen across Cook County during multiple waves of storms. According to the National weather Service, the latest storm event had rainfall amounts up to three inches.

Two of the three reservoirs in the Metropolitan water Reclamation District system are at least 94% full and holding billions of gallons of water.

Two of the MWRD's reservoirs are nearly full after four rounds of strong to severe thunderstorms dropped heavy rainfall on the same general areas over Fourth of July weekend.

The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago reported Monday the Thornton Composite Reservoir was at 94% full, with 7.3 billion gallons.

The Thornton and McCook reservoirs, designed to hold billions of gallons of rainwater, are nearly full.
As of Monday, July 6, the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MWRD) had stored over 13 billion gallons of stormwater in its deep tunnels and reservoirs following severe weekend storms that dumped 3.77 inches of rain on the Calumet Water Reclamation Plant alone.