ABC7-Chicago: STICKNEY, Ill. (WLS) -- It's one of the largest treatment centers in the world: A water treatment plant in Stickney really does it all.

Millions of homes across Cook County have their sewage flooding right through it. Some of the foods and oils can be seen sifted across several steps.

But, the recent storms have stressed the system much more.

With multiple storms in the span of a few days, the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District is collecting record totals in its deep tunnel systems.

"We've captured more than 7 billion gallons of water in our deep tunnel system," said John Murray, executive director of the MWRD.

The McCook Reservoir is one of the largest across the state, collecting water from millions of homes in the county, as well as the rain that falls down the sewer on the streets during storms.

Some of that sewage and rainwater comes together through sewer interceptors that flow directly into treatment plants like the one in Stickney.

"When it rains, a lot of water comes in, and we call that the first flush," MWRD engineer Brian Levy said.

Much of the operation in handling the significant amount of rainfall comes with preemptive measures, like lowering the Chicago waterway system and pumping down the sewers ahead of a storm.

With recent rainfall, the McCook Reservoir nearly reached capacity, and that's when they will open up gates at other nearby dams to make sure that sewage goes where it needs to.

All of it eventually leads to water treatment. All the debris that flows down the street or in homes will end up in the tanks.

"On a dry weather day, we'll get about 3-to-4-cubic-yard dumpsters of just garbage. However, during a rain storm like we had, just that storm itself, you can go get close to 15-cubic-yard dumpsters coming into the plant," Levy said.

The other part of the operation comes in control rooms, monitoring rainfall and the gauges of specific systems.

The No. 1 thing that can be done to ease the stress on that system comes from people limiting water usage in their own homes during storms.

"Delay running the dishwasher. Delay washing clothes. Maybe take a shorter shower, anything you can do to free up space," said Kari Steele, president of the MWRD Board of Commissioners.

It's certainly a vigorous treatment plan, and there are six other centers like Stickney across the county.

Many people wonder about the odor that comes from these plants, but a trough helps mitigate that smell. Obviously, what comes in doesn't smell or look great, but they do the best they can to keep it clean going out.

View Article