A major focus of the plan is addressing flooding, an issue that is increasingly significant as heavy rainfall events become more frequent. Stormwater management and climate resilience were noted as common concerns across nearly every stakeholder group that the MWRD surveyed to prepare the plan, including its board of commissioners, department heads, employees, non-governmental organizations, assisting agencies, industrial users, municipal governments, emergency management partners, tenants and the public through social media and other outreach efforts.

"Our new five-year mission is outlined by objectives and initiatives that can be tracked through measurable progress," the district states in the draft plan. "This important roadmap incorporates both the results of public surveys and the MWRD's mission in protecting public health and the area water environment."

One of its major projects in recent years, the $3.8-billion Tunnel and Reservoir Plan (TARP), also known as the Deep Tunnel, is substantially complete and is working as intended, but is still being improved, the MWRD reports. 

The $3.8-billion, 110-mile-long system uses deep, large diameter tunnels and reservoirs to reduce flooding. The MWRD continues to build certain aspects such as currently mining and excavating the McCook Reservoir to increase storage, a project that is expected to complete in 2032.  

MWRD spokesperson Allison Fore noted that earlier in July, which received heavy rains, the tunnel collected more than 13 billion gallons of water, including a record amount in its Thornton Reservoir. In addition, McCook Reservoir was completely full for the sixth time this year. 

"For context, the reservoir only filled five times cumulatively in the previous five years," she said. "Without TARP, those 13 billion gallons of polluted water would have gone directly into the waterways, or worse, backed up into basements of homes and businesses." 

But even with TARP, she said some areas still experience flooding at the street and home level, which is attributed to various causes including seepage through foundations, overland flow, riverine flooding, and local sewer systems that weren’t designed to convey the intense storms seen today. 

"This demonstrates a continued need for investment in green and gray stormwater infrastructure, given the unpredictable nature and higher frequency of these intense rains," she said. 

The draft plans calls for exploring innovative approaches that improve flood resilience. As an example of that commitment, and of gray infrastructure, the MWRD and Chicago are investing $15 million in two underground stormwater storage facilities to help mitigate flooding for heavily-hit residents of the city's west side. 

These projects, dubbed wing storage after how jets store engine fuel, are different from cisterns that hold water because they are attached to the sewer system and are expected to capture and temporarily store stormwater during heavy rainfalls. They are planned to reduce street and basement flooding for more than 2,900 homes and business, she said. 

'Projects like these are innovative in that they take an outside-the-box focus on engineering to build more capacity in communities that lack the space and infrastructure to capture excess rainfall," Fore said. 

Besides addressing flooding, district officials say the five-year draft plan is designed to build on the agency's primary mission of protecting public health and the region's water environment while positioning it to meet other emerging challenges including aging infrastructure, climate change, workforce shortages and evolving environmental regulations. 

The draft specifies four pillars the agency plans to tackle: Wastewater and Stormwater Management, Business Resilience, Resource Development and Management and Proactive Evolution. Together, the pillars represent the district's priorities and set goals for each through 2030.   

“Through this process of examination and input that took over a year to navigate, we have built consensus that the foundational infrastructure and core service reliability will require continued investment and attention, and as a result, that has become a central focus of this plan,” says Kari Steele, president of the board, in a letter introducing the plan. 

Survey participants also named water quality, pollution control and contaminant reduction as some of the region's most pressing concerns. In response, the district says it will continue strengthening wastewater treatment practices, improving service reliability, focusing on contaminant source control and increasing efforts to recover phosphorus and other valuable resources from wastewater treatment processes.

The plan also reinforces MWRD's commitment to protecting Lake Michigan, the region's primary source of drinking water, by maintaining compliance with environmental regulations and preventing pollution before it enters waterways. 

Other objectives include reducing energy consumption and enforcing a "polluter pays" principle, which seeks to recover costs from entities responsible for introducing pollutants into the wastewater system.  

 The MWRD also aims to strengthen its financial position and operational resilience even as operating costs continue to rise. The plan calls for making business operations more efficient, preparing for future financial demands and ensuring the agency can continue to provide uninterrupted services during emergencies or extreme weather events. 

Fore said the agency is looking to optimize all of its operations where possible by deploying technology that promotes efficiency and sustainability.

"We are experimenting with artificial intelligence and machine learning in our treatment processes and collection systems and will build on the lessons learned to expand the use to improve our operations," she said.

The plan includes a component focused on expanding collaboration with local communities and seeking greater public participation in infrastructure planning and decision-making, which will contribute to MWRD's successful implementation of the agency's Climate Action Plan, Fore said.