An electrical contractor is shown busily upgrading old lighting to new LED lighting.
An MWRD Operating Engineer and Plumber receive a delivery of chlorine at the Stickney plant. The chlorine is used to disinfect the effluent water the plant uses for hosing and cooling water for equipment. This keeps algae from growing inside the pipes and clogging them.
MWRD contractors working in aerated grit tank 3 at Stickney WRP .
A Stickney MLAS (Maintenance Laborer Class A Shift) carefully cleans under the fine screen conveyor belt, located inside the Westside fine screening building. While cleaning, he wears a face shield as a precaution to protect himself from debris or wet screening falling onto the belt that could unexpectedly splash on or near his face.
An Operating Engineer at Stickney WRP loads biosolids into train cars.
A contractor rehabbing an aerated grit tank at the Stickney WRP.
An EITM troubleshoots a centrifuge at the Stickney WRP, one of the largest wastewater treatment facilities in the world.
A contractor working on an aerated grit tank at the Stickney WRP.
A treatment plant operator making plant adjustments at MWRD’s Hanover Park Water Reclamation Plant
A treatment plant operator processing control samples at the MWRD’s Hanover Park Water Reclamation Plant
A treatment plant operator making plant adjustments at MWRD’s Hanover Park Water Reclamation Plant
Pipefitters working to unclog a scum box on a primary tank at MWRD’s Hanover Park Water Reclamation Plant
Laborer disinfecting facilities at the Hanover Park Water Reclamation Plant
An electrical engineer patiently installing conduit in the Grit Building at O’Brien Water Reclamation Plant
Pipefitters busily conducting pipe welding for HVAC improvements at Egan Water Reclamation Plant
Engineers working together to stage material and equipment in an aerated grit tank at Stickney Water Reclamation Plant
Concrete work underway at West Abutment of Addison Creek
A worker backfilling and compacting soil while another helps in the process at West Abutment of Addison Creek
Concrete work underway for an access road and sediment pad at Melvina Ditch Reservoir in Burbank, Ill.
At the Stickney plant, an MLAS (Maintenance Laborer Class A Shift) vigorously rakes the dumpster to even out the debris collected from the coarse screens, in order to make more room, before it gets picked up and sent to a landfill.
A Treatment Plant Operator 1 (TPO1) is sampling the influent, or RAW sample, at the Stickney plant. The sample is then delivered to the lab for analysis.
A TPO1 is recording the dissolved oxygen reading for one of the Stickney plant’s aeration tanks. The aerobic microorganisms in the aeration tanks require oxygen to survive and consume the organic wastes.
Here a TPO1 can be seen adjusting one of the Stickney plant’s Return Activated Sludge gates, which sends the “hungry” microorganisms from the final settling tanks back to the aeration tanks to remove most of the organic wastes.
An MLAS is shown here closing one of the drains for the West Side Grit Dewatering tanks at Stickney WRP. The grit dewatering tanks consist of flights and chains, which collect the grit that settles to the bottom of the tanks.
Two MLAS, at the Stickney plant, can be seen hosing the thick sludge from the bottom of a primary settling tank to prepare the tank for repairs.