Starting November 30, visitors to the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago’s (MWRD’s) website will find a new user-friendly design, improved search engine, interactive tools, and video content.

The new website, mwrd.org, reflects the MWRD’s commitment to transparency and accessibility and provides an enhanced user experience for residents, businesses, industry professionals, vendors, educators and local municipal and governmental partners.

The website offers insight into the MWRD’s work to clean wastewater and reduce flooding and places an emphasis on community engagement. Residents are provided with tools and information they can use to take action to help reduce flooding and protect water quality. Partnership opportunities on an array of stormwater management and resource recovery programs are frequently posted and business opportunities are updated weekly. Future employees can apply for jobs, and a multitude of educational resources are available for students and other learners.

“The new website reflects our goals of accessibility for improved community engagement, raising our profile and connecting with various audiences,” said MWRD President Kari K. Steele. “We thank our staff who have worked diligently on the new website, incorporating the best of our previous site and enhancing it with many innovative features that make it more user-friendly and informative.”

The redesign incorporates the latest web technologies and follows best practices in website development, ensuring a seamless and informative digital environment that is available in languages most commonly spoken in Cook County (English, Spanish, Polish, simplified Chinese, Tagalog, Arabic, Korean, Russian, and Urdu). The website offers an intuitive and visually appealing design and layout, facilitating easy navigation and accessibility for users connecting on various devices, from desktops to tablets to smartphones.

The revamped site fits the goals of the MWRD’s Stra¬tegic Plan to implement a modern web content man¬agement system that provides a valuable educational resource that can help visitors better understand the role, responsibility and opportunities offered by the MWRD. Nearly halfway into an ambitious five-year Strategic Plan, the MWRD is working to meet new goals and among them is a desire to enhance our community engagement. Under this strategy, the MWRD is looking to raise public awareness of the value of the MWRD’s work and encourage public involvement, while also expanding partnerships, outreach and engagement to new audiences. One success measure is increasing the number of page views to the MWRD website.

“We are excited to launch this new and refreshed website that promotes the many essential services we provide at the MWRD,” said Commissioner Daniel Pogorzelski. “We encourage users to check out our pages and stay in touch to learn more about our many programs and projects and how we can collaborate in protecting our water resources.”

Now in its 135th year, the MWRD remains a stalwart leader in protecting public health and the region’s prized water resources for 5.19 million people living in Chicago and 128 surrounding municipalities. Since its first assignment to reverse the flows of the Chicago and Calumet rivers, to today managing water impacted by the effects of climate change, the MWRD finds no challenge too large. Each day on average, the MWRD treats about 1.2 billion gallons of wastewater, transforming it into clean water and returning it to the environment, while managing stormwater, mitigating flooding and keeping 76 miles of waterways healthy and navigable. But the MWRD cannot achieve this all alone. Working with partners and educating the communities it serves through vehicles like the new website will make a lasting difference in meeting 21st century challenges in protecting water.