Good morning.
The Committee on Environmental Protection
and Energy will now come to order.
Um, today there are two items on the agenda.
And first, we're gonna begin with a roll call
to establish quorum, I believe.
All right. All right.
Chair Hadden is present.
Vice Chair Knutson Alder.
Lata, Alder Ramirez, Alder Lopez,
Alder Tavarez, Alder.
Scho Lopez, Alder Cruz Alder Rodriguez Sanchez,
Alder, Conway Alder, Riley Alder Lawson
Alder, clay Alder.
Martin Alder. Mana Howorth. Fantastic.
There being 10 members present, we have a quorum.
Great way to start off the New Year Committee. Thank you.
Um, all right.
Uh, joining us virtually, I believe we have Alders, Ramirez,
EZ Scho, Lopez, and Martin.
Anybody else on? Nope. Cool.
Um, per rule 59, could I have a motion
to approve their remote participation?
All right. Um, Alder Cruz.
So moves all those in favor, say aye.
All those opposed say nay in the opinion of the chair.
The ayes have it in Alders Ramirez, Tabba, scho, Lopez,
and Martin will be marked as present for today's meeting.
Um, let me check to make sure.
Um, Alder Martin present.
Alder Alders Cho
Lopez,
Alder Ramirez.
I, I'm sorry. Present. Alder.
Alders Cho Lopez Present.
Great. Fantastic. All right.
And do we have any non-members present? I don't think so.
All right. So at this time,
we're gonna begin our public comment period.
Public comment is limited to 30 minutes,
and out of respect for everybody's time,
each speaker is limited to three minutes.
Um, all right.
Our, I think we only have one person currently signed up.
Um, Mr. Blakemore, did you wanna sign up
for public comment today as well?
Yes, sir. Um, I still, I have one person before you,
but I was just asking, do you want,
Say environmental, Environmental
protection and, and energy? Yes. Thank
You. Okay.
All right. Our first public commenter is Matt Leski.
Oh, yes, absolutely. All right.
Matt, Matt Leski, please go ahead. Start the clock.
Uh, Left up. There you go. Check, check.
Oh, there we go. Okay. Um, yeah, I just wanna say thank you.
I'm Matt Leski from the Chicago Bird Alliance Executive
Director, and I just wanted to thank the committee
for recognizing the, the pilot program that we're,
uh, currently doing.
And, uh, Lincoln Park with the rat contraceptive, uh,
to see if we can maybe move away from using rodenticides in
the city, which we know are, are harmful to wildlife and,
and, you know, probably people as well.
So, just wanted to thank you guys
for recognizing our, our program.
Fantastic. Thank you, Matt. All right.
Our next public commenter is Mr. George Blake Moore.
Good morning. The environmental, uh, environment
is very important, man relation
with his environment.
It can be a toxic environment when you're around a lot
of corrupt people, but that's my environment.
Coming down here, coming to these meetings,
seeing what's wrong down here.
It's, it's a toxic environment,
and it's not good for me mentally.
Well, when people live in a toxic environment, most
of the time it is always in the poor areas.
When Sterling Bay
and that a steel company, they decided to move
out of that Lincoln Park area over
to the south side over there with, uh,
Michelle Harris Ward.
So, uh, the toxic environment is always placed in
the poor neighborhoods, poor people.
That's why it's very important for me
to come to these meetings.
It's toxic down here.
I'm in a environment of,
everyone down here are in a political party,
and it's all blue, the Democrats,
and they give, uh, the black community the blues.
But what about the reds? The, the Trump?
The big problem is, is racism.
What? Racism, the environment around racist,
and the ones who are in power are these big kid white
men and women.
And racism is an issue in the
United States of America.
Racism, a environment when you grow up in an environment
around people that hate you, that don't want
to see you succeed, that don't want you to be successful.
Now it's black history month. Black history month.
College G was, uh, uh, uh, Washington. What did he say?
A Booker t Washington, our leaders.
He said that this is racism is our problem.
That's the problem here in America,
bringing illegal immigrants over here to get
what these ex-slaves are still slave mentality people.
That's not getting here. That's the issue.
Another group is coming
and they're getting full housing, education,
hospitalization, and,
and the native blacks who were born here enslaved here,
they're now receiving this and that, that create racism.
Thank you, Mr. Blake Moore. All right.
The public comment period has concluded there being, uh,
no other speakers.
So I would like to note
that our committee received one written public comment.
This has been sent to all committee members via email.
I'd like to also recognize, um, Alder Hopkins,
um, as a non-member.
Thank you for being here today. All right.
Our first rule of, uh, first order of business is Rule 45,
report from September, 2025, which was sent out
to the committee via email.
Could I have a motion to approve the Rule 45 report?
All right, so moved by Al Rodriguez Sanchez.
Uh, all those in favor say aye. All those opposed say nay.
And the opinion of the chair, the ayes have it.
Our first item before the committee is SR 2025 dash
0 0 1 8 6 5 8, an expression of continued support
for the Chicago area Waterway system,
or cause reclamation study.
Members of the committee were sent a copy
of the substitute language ahead of today's committee.
We've also provided physical copies
of the substitute resolution to members today.
No major substance of changes were made to the resolution.
A couple of minor typo corrections, uh,
and a minor update to the resolved language clause.
Um, that being said, could I have a motion
to accept the substitute resolution?
All right. So moved by Alder Riley.
Um, all in favor say aye. All right.
And the opinion of the chair of the ayes have it.
Joining us today to discuss this study
and answer any questions is Commissioner Cam Davis from the
Metropolitan Water Reclamation District.
Um, we also have the resolution's lead sponsor Chair Hopkins
with us today to provide opening remarks.
With that being said, I'd like
to turn it over to Chair Hopkins.
Yeah, thank you. Uh, chairman Hadden, uh,
I just wanna begin by asking everyone to, uh,
to reflect a little bit
and even, uh, celebrate how far we've come in this region,
cleaning up our waterways.
Uh, it's, it's really remarkable progress
that's been made over the, uh, recent decades.
Uh, in, in many ways, some of them have been small,
incremental baby steps.
Some of them have been, uh, massive leaps forward.
Uh, disinfection, of course, comes to mind immediately, uh,
a decades long fight, uh, to do the right thing
that finally resulted, uh, in, in, uh, retrofitting the, um,
water reclamation plants to disinfect the, uh, effluent, uh,
adding the, uh, the sidestream waterfalls, um, uh,
in the canal system, particularly the Cal Sag to add oxygen
that is in large part, responsible
for the statistic you see in the resolution.
Uh, the, the increase in of identified fish species from 10
to 77, uh, just a, a huge increase.
And frankly, there's probably more than 77 that, uh,
we don't always, uh, uh, identify the species
that have returned quite as readily.
Um, so it, it really just has been, uh, a a lot of progress
that has been made in cleaning up our waterways.
Um, but there's more work to be done.
And the resolution speaks directly to,
to one of the bigger hurdles.
One of the bigger challenges that has existed, um,
over the years is the, uh, persistent legacy
of Chicago's industrial past, uh,
where we have treated our waterways as sewers, uh,
for industrial waste.
And that waste settles into the sediment and remains there.
Uh, it's, it's throughout the system.
Um, and the cleanup of that is an extraordinary challenge.
Uh, it's expensive, it's burdensome,
and it creates new problems.
What do you do with the dredging?
Uh, which in many cases, uh, you know, are,
are highly contaminated.
Um, so all of this requires not only further study,
which the MWRD has been undertaking for a while
and is ready to move forward into the next level of study.
Um, but it's gonna require a multi-agency commitment.
Uh, all governments in this area have a stake in this.
All governments need to have a voice,
and that voice needs to be loud.
It needs to be clear,
and it needs to be United Clean Water is a right for all
of us, and it is a responsibility
for those of us in government.
We have to put our money where our mouths are,
and we have to do everything possible
to get additional funds.
And that's really what this resolution is about, is, uh, is
to help us garner additional federal resources, um,
when the federal government, uh, no matter who happens
to be in charge at the moment, uh, one thing that remains
constant throughout the federal government is they look
for local cohesion
before they allocate resources to something like this,
especially a region-wide problem.
So, um, again, this is, uh, designed to send that message,
uh, to Washington, dc um, that we are united as a region.
We are committed to continuing the progress
of cleaning up the Chicago Area Waterway System.
Uh, we stand behind the Metropolitan
Water Reclamation District.
Um, and, and that includes, by the way,
I should make this point, uh,
the mayor's office is fully behind this.
Even though we, in the substitute,
we did take out the reference to the Mayor's office, uh,
that is really more of a formatting issue.
Um, the, the mayor's, you know, executive branch speaks
through proclamations.
We, as a legislative branch, speak through resolution.
So you have to be careful how you put, uh, a, a commitment
for the Mayor's office in resolution language.
That's all that was. It doesn't reflect, uh, you know,
any lack of commitment from their office.
They're behind, uh, the effort to, uh,
to get funding for the Waterway study.
Uh, 100%. So I just wanted to make that clear
that the substitute was a, a technical formatting issue.
Um, and, uh, we are, we are pleased, uh,
to be able to move forward with this.
Um, for the, the technical questions, uh,
we have the commissioner here
and his team, uh, so I will yield to them,
but, uh, I would urge and I vote at the appropriate time on
the substitute resolution. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, chair Hopkins.
Um, with that, I'm gonna turn it over
to Commissioner Cam Davis.
Um, if you wanna introduce yourself for the record,
and also, of course, if you wanna shout out your team.
Sounds good. Thank you so much. Chair Hadden. Yeah. Oh,
And one quick note. Sorry,
uh, Alderwoman Clay, we've got you for quorum.
Um, and I just wanna note that's 100% attendance committee,
so pat yourself on the back.
Uh, it's all, it's all for you, cam.
All right, well, thank you so much, chair Hadden.
And yes, I do want to introduce my team.
We have Dawn Walker here, who's my Chief of staff,
and Karina Escobar Perez, who helps us on communications.
'cause we all know that unless we're educating people about
the kinds of things that Alder Hopkins just mentioned,
we can't get much done.
Uh, my name is Commissioner Cam Davis from the Metropolitan
Water Reclamation District.
I also chair the Committee on Public Health
and Welfare on our Board of Commissioners.
Uh, several months ago, we authored in my office and,
and our board unanimously passed the resolution
that I believe you have in your packets, um,
because we wanted to make sure that we were doing our part
to coordinate with our sister government, uh,
governmental bodies on the cleanup
of the Chicago River system.
And so I'm here today to really support you all in, uh,
your efforts on your resolution called the Chicago Area
Waterway System, ecological Health Resolution.
And I know Alder Hopkins, WAPAC Nugent, Riley Martin Conway,
and so many others have already
expressed an interest in this.
Uh, and we're really grateful, uh, to you, not to do it
for our sake at MWRD,
but to, to move ahead for the sake of the, of the city.
Um, for far too long for generations, really
toxins have sat in pockets of contaminated sediment
around the Chicago area waterway system,
or the cause as, as we call it.
And when that contamination settles to the bottom of
that sediment, it can often move up the food chain.
So from bottom dwelling organisms up to fish, from fish
to human beings, and to wildlife.
And as we know these days, uh, subsistence anglers
are hit particularly hard, that's because more
and more people are looking for an inexpensive source
of protein, uh, of food to feed their families
that can be healthy, especially if they don't have access
to affordable, uh, food at, say, a higher end grocery store.
For too long, we, in the Chicago region
have justified our inattention to this insidious aspect
of the problem side by side with all of the progress
that we've made because we couldn't afford it.
And now with funding opportunities from the core
of engineers and from the U-S-E-P-A on the federal side,
we can't use that as an excuse.
And for far too long, we've known that the cleanup
of the Chicago River is not just a win-win,
it's a win times six, it's a win for public health.
It's a win for environmental health.
It's a win for equitable access to our waterways.
It's a win financially, especially as we follow the lead
of our federal agencies who have a process
to be able to make progress.
That's alluded us for far too long.
It's a win for local economic revitalization, especially
as we turn toward the river, as a recreational,
economic, and quality of life.
Amenity not as much an artery for wastewater
or for waterborne traffic.
It's a win because we have a chance working with federal,
state, municipal, and private partners to step in
and to step up to help neglect it.
And abuse places like Bubbly Creek,
the collateral channel channel around Goose Island, places
that are along the north branch of the Chicago River,
the main stem, the south branch, the, the, uh,
Chicago Sanitarian Ship Canal, the Cal Sag River.
If you represent wards on
or near any of these waterways, you benefit
and your constituents benefit.
And beautifully, that means support for this resolution
brings people together across the city
and the county together in a common pursuit.
And that is to leave the next generation one
of the greatest gifts we can leave by our generation.
And that's the gift of clean water. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you so much, commissioner.
Um, I'll now open the floor to questions.
I see, uh, Alder O'Reilly had his
hand, and then Alder Lopez,
You Madam Chair.
Uh, and thank you for being here today, commissioner.
I appreciate your advocacy.
Um, in your remarks, uh, you brought up Army Corps
of Engineer, uh, grants as well as EPA grants.
Um, and we should certainly do everything
we can to leverage those.
Are those any of those monies at risk?
Because the Trump administration, sadly,
has been targeting our city and our county and our region
because we are blue.
Uh, thanks for the question, Alder,
and I can just speak to my understanding since I
don't represent the core.
Um, the funding opportunities here aren't
so much in the form of grants.
That's a minor point.
It really is the core of engineers getting the funding
for them to be able to do the study that then maps out
where the cleanups need to take place.
Is it at risk? That's the bigger part of your question.
Um, I think with some of these
important federal agencies on our side, um,
we stand a good chance of getting that,
that funding in the door for the core of engineers.
They have a process that they follow.
They're part of the Department of Defense, um, and, uh, and,
and they know what they're doing.
So they have requested, I believe, $3 million
for fiscal year 27.
So that budget request is going in as we speak.
Well, and I, and I certainly hope it's granted, you know,
we saw just a few weeks ago, uh,
the Trump administration threatening to hold back
critical monies for our lock system, uh, which is
very important, not just for our waterways,
but especially for the movement of commerce.
And, um, my hope is
that the Army Corps can, can withstand that.
Um, so, uh, Godspeed, uh, certainly I know that the members
of this body, uh, support your efforts
and, um, thank you for all you do.
Appreciate it. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Um, Alder Lopez,
Thank you chairman, and good, uh, chairwoman
and good morning members of the committee.
Good morning, commissioner. It's good to see you.
Um, and I have to just state as well as my,
in my other role as committeeman.
I know we've said that we'd love to see you out more.
So I'm glad that you are out more here with us today.
Um, many of you may not know, one
of my first internships ever was at the Water Reclamation
district, the Stickney plant.
Um, I was the solid separator.
So if any of you have any idea of what goes in,
you know exactly what solid I was separating.
Um, but I can say that when I worked there,
that it was a remarkable learning experience, um,
how much water through gravity
and design gets cleaned, how it goes from sewage
to something that is practically drinkable at the,
at the other end of the operation.
Um, and having a sense of appreciation
for what it takes to do that.
Um, and the kind of government operation that you
and your fellow commissioners manage in one
of the most remarkable and financially healthy ways is truly
a testament to everything that, uh,
the water reclamation does on a daily basis
that oftentimes does not get the acknowledgement it does.
So I wanna just take a a moment
to acknowledge that great work.
Um, our waterways have,
as alder as Chairman Hopkins has said, have gone
through a remarkable transformation, um, 2025 historic year,
where people actually were swimming in the Chicago River
right here, downtown, uh, for the first time in decades.
Um, and I know that I've done the, uh,
dragon boat races in Chinatown, um, in what
otherwise would've I, 20 years ago, I would've come up
with a nice rainbow sheen on me
if I had jumped in that water.
Um, now we're able to do races in it.
So all of those things add to our city.
The question that I have for you as it relates to this,
is along the same lines when it comes to money,
because we know that 150 years of
being the center of the nation for all kinds of things,
particularly when it came towards the stockyards,
which I represent still, what
financial investments would be needed to fully rectify
and bring us to a place where we can see, uh, I think
that they said that the pollutants in the river, uh,
are 70% gone, if I'm not mistaken.
How do we make that a, a un, how do we raise that up to
where everything could be healthy, acceptable in ways
that match the lake?
Mm-hmm. Yeah. What would that cost?
Thank you for that question, and I'm thanking you
because it's a, it's a good question,
and nobody knows the answer to that right now.
The resolution that you're considering,
and that we, uh, the very similar one
that we passed unanimously on the MWRD board is intended
to start the process so that that study can be done,
and those estimates can be provided, um, as you said,
and I agree with 150 years of neglect.
Um, that's a long time.
And as a result, I don't think any agency has a good handle
on what complete cleanup looks like, let alone
how much it would cost just yet.
But we do know, unless we support the work of the core
and EPA to study where these contaminants are,
we'll never be able to get to that estimate.
Do you think that is something that, I mean,
obviously we know that it would require federal help
as well, but in the meantime, um,
because we do know that this administration
has its issues with all of our local leaders, so we have
to be somewhat self-reliant for the moment,
does the water reclamation have the
financial authority
or bonding authority to start that process in motion now
while waiting to see at
what point the federal government finally
joins the conversation?
Um, I think we're here
because without that federal leadership,
no one entity, whether it's the city, whether it's MWRD,
whether it's the county or even the state for that matter,
it would be very difficult for them to, um, to afford to do
what the federal agencies can do.
So that's why we really need their help.
That's why this resolution is important.
Thank you for your questions.
Nope, I appreciate, bless you.
I, I appreciate what the co, uh, what the board did
and look forward to supporting this.
Thank you chairman.
Thank you. Al Lopez. Ra
You want me to take this one?
I'll take this one. Sorry to impose, um, commissioner Davis,
thank you so much for being with us today.
I really appreciate the, the resolution, its intention.
I feel like you're over the past seven years now
that some of us have been in office.
I know, right? Um, we're getting to work
with our colleagues at MWRD to understand the restoration
of both the, the water
and the riverfront of our Chicago waterways has been really
encouraging and gratifying for me.
I had one question, and it's a bit open-ended,
but I hoping that you define on it
sometimes feels like some of the, the interests in the river
that you named, the, the economic, the ecological,
the recreational can feel like they're at cross
purposes with each other.
Um, particularly curious if you could share from your
perspective, how do we balance those interests to make sure
that the riverways, the waterways of Chicago
can have recreational and ecologic ecological
and economic benefits without any one of those interests
overcrowding the other one.
Does this make sense as a question?
Sure. And, um, yeah.
Uh, it's, it's the kind of philosophical question that,
you know, I think, uh, for, for 40 years
as a public interest environmental attorney, I've, you know,
I've wrestled with myself, um, I've come
alder LaSpada to not think of some so much of a balance
as if when one does better, the other does poorly.
Yeah. It's not like there's a fulcrum in the middle.
Um, I come, I've come to realize that economic,
recreational, uh, public health, all
of these things are mutually reinforcing.
So for, let me just give you an example.
If, as, as I mentioned in the resol
or in the testimony,
if we are making our Chicago area waterway system healthier
so that people can eat the fish
and it can be a source of affordable food,
then we're helping to, uh,
make people more financially stable.
There's the economic, we're helping ultimately
to bring down medical costs, that's economic, that's quality
of life, all of that.
So, uh, I don't believe it is necessarily one side
of the teeter-totter competing against the other.
As much as it is, all
of these things really support each other.
And that's why this I think,
is such an important, uh, initiative.
I really appreciate the thoughtfulness and the response.
I wanna take more time to reflect on it later,
but I'll, I'll reach out
to hopefully have a broader conversation.
Thank you, sir. Please, thank you, chair.
Fantastic. Thanks. Alder.
Luta, Alder Conway, and then Alder Lawson.
Um, Alder Conway. They're, they're just, there
We go. All right. Yeah, no,
I, I won't, uh, I won't belabor,
but as someone who's, uh, ward is in the north branch
of the river, I, heck,
I live on the north branch of the river.
And, and, uh, a lot of the south branch you discussed is,
uh, is in my ward as well.
I just, I merely wanted to thank you for your leadership
and for bringing your expertise to public service generally,
but specifically to, to, uh,
this extremely important initiative.
I won't belabor it, commissioner Davis,
but I wanted to make sure to thank you personally, who's
as the representative of the award that you know,
along myself and Riley's is probably
most affected by a lot of this work. So thank you.
Yeah, thank you very much. Alder Conway.
Absolutely. Um, Alder Lawson,
Thank you, chair. Uh, it's
good to see you, commissioner.
Thank you for being here and sharing your expertise with us.
Um, let's have you back, right?
Let's give, let's, let's make you a regular.
Um, I gave the tour on the river, uh, in the summer
of 1998.
And, uh, that was the best summer job I ever had.
But the, uh, the line in the tour was
that there are now 52 species
of fish in the river up from the 10 in 1974.
So, um, 25 more species in the last years,
uh, means that this progress is cumulative, right?
And that the, the work continues
and you continue to see benefits from it.
Um, and it will probably never end what,
what you talked about, um, as a lakefront alderman,
I think you all, you river people are trying
to make us jealous because, um, there are a lot
of really exciting things happening all over the river,
and there's a lot of opportunity that, uh,
people didn't have in the past.
And, uh, there's a lot of great amenities for communities
to keep them healthier and, and, and safe.
So, um, I, uh, commend everyone who's doing that work
with from Park district to water rec Army Corps.
My question for you is about sort of the,
the cost and responsibility.
I know Army Corps is gonna drive everything here,
but who else sort of on an annual basis?
So who else has money?
What are we spending and who's spending it?
So my understanding Alder Lawson, is
that the feds will take on 50% of the cost
of the study that needs to be done,
and then the other 50% is spread among as many different,
what are called non-federal partners as possible.
That's a pretty darn good deal for non-federal sponsors.
Right? So that's the 3 million,
that actually, that's the 3 million that
Path, right? So the
1.5 half of that then needs to get split
among non-federal partners,
which makes it a lot more palatable for everybody else.
Okay. And who are the top four non-federal
partners on a project like this?
What we understand, MWRD has signed on, uh,
to be supportive, the city of Chicago
through the park district, and I believe planning
and development, um, Illinois,
DNRA state agency has signed on
and, um, the Cook County Forest preserved district. Okay.
So all governments though, there's no friends of the river
for the state or any non-profit?
That's right. Okay. But,
but the good news is that that search, uh,
that can continue, uh, the door's far from shut on, that
We'll take anyone's money. Right.
Well, almost, almost. Great. That's all I have.
Thanks, commissioner. Good to see you. Good work. Thank you.
Question. Thank you, chair. Thank you.
Um, alderman, Hoffen Worth.
Hi, commissioner. Thank you so much for being here.
Um, thank you Chair Hopkins
for bringing this resolution forward.
And, and also I wanted to, um, thank your team
for being here, because really without your team, it's hard
to do this work.
And I appreciate all the words that you're
bringing forward about how we have to be
locally working together.
You know, what is, what is the key cohesion?
What does it look like? And as I'm, um, listening
to stories, um, here now from my colleagues
and I, I am from the FORTI eighth
representing the FORTI eighth ward on the,
on the, uh, Lakeside.
But I was born in the, in the 10th ward.
And so I think about all the rivers, and,
and I do think about that tour that we took, thank you for,
for organizing that with other activists.
And, and you said something about how is it
that we can work with local groups,
not just in consultation,
but, you know, how is it that we're working with them, um,
to make sure that our work is, is truly equitable?
Um, I was hoping that you can speak on how you're working
with groups or youth
or our schools on, on what you do,
and really listening to, to what, um, you know, the impact
of your work in their, in their daily lives.
Um, so in terms of the me thank you, uh,
for asking the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District,
it sounds like you're asking about MWRD, uh,
does a whole lot of work on education
and outreach to help the next generation understand
how important caring for our planet is.
We've got education materials for youth, we've, uh,
we get those out into schools,
they're translated into different languages.
Uh, all of that work goes on at MWRD.
Um, for purposes of this resolution,
I think there's education value and the resolution itself.
I would hope, I really hope that all of you
who support this can take this back home
to your wards and show it off.
You deserve to do that.
They deserve to see that, uh, we're all doing our jobs
to help make
for a healthier life support system for them
and for their kids and their kids' kids.
So I think the education value goes on beyond just a, say a,
a piece of a curriculum.
It goes into the actions that we use to back the words,
like the kinds of words we have in this resolution.
Is there, is there any one thing that you, one,
create concrete action that you think Chicago,
Chicago should be leading on, uh, sustainability
and you know, how we're protecting our environment
and our fresh water and, and our waterways?
Is there any one thing that you can think of
that Chicago can be leading on right now?
One action.
The coordination that I think is going on between, uh,
Chicago and MWRD
and other agencies to help fight climate change,
I think is something that cuts across all kinds
of sectors and interests.
Um, and I know that coordination is, is going on right now.
Um, but if we can keep reducing our, our footprint, um,
from greenhouse gases, this is incredibly important
because one of the first ways climate change
manifests itself is in our waterways.
That's where we tend to see the effects
of climate change showing up first.
So when we see in 2020, uh, 20
to 25 foot waves crashing into our shoreline,
to the point where we actually wipe out Chicago beaches,
that will never come back again.
You know, I think three of 'em are in your ward.
That is how we see the effects
of climate change when we see massive rainstorms
and tents, uh, rainstorms, like we've seen
that those show up in our waterways first.
So I think that that coordination's happening
and we just want to keep doing it with you.
Thanks. Thanks Commissioner Davis for being here.
Thank you Chair Hadden for advancing this resolution.
Thank you. Of Course. Um, Otto Lopez, thank,
Excuse me. Thank you,
uh, chairwoman following up on, on
that statement, because I would like to invite you
and your colleagues back
because I think that many of us would like
to see greater coordination
and communication between the leaders of this chamber,
as well as water reclamation.
Because as you just alluded to,
we saw two huge flooding events last year
that hit the Southwest side
and impacted over 300,000 people.
We saw where the deep the reservoirs in, uh,
Hodgkins was 90% full while the one in Thornton Township,
if I'm not mistaken, the Southlands Reservoir barely had 5%.
So clearly we're having issues when it comes
to what's on our streets versus what goes in the pipes,
which makes its way out to you guys.
Um, so I think that hopefully this will be the first
of many conversations together, um,
where we could start addressing where the deficiencies,
bottlenecks, and pinch points are
between our systems and yours.
Um, because I think it's very difficult for us to go back,
as you say this, this will be something people wanna talk
about, but I know if I go to Gage Park or Chicago Lawn
and tell them what we talked about with water wreck,
the very first thing in everyone's mind is going to be,
what about the rain?
What about the flooding? So, uh, while we celebrate this,
we look forward to, uh, a continuing conversation with you
through this committee, uh, to see what we could do, um,
to make sure that we are expanding those options
of coordination and collaboration, uh, in every department
that we have under our vested under our authority, as well
as all the ones under yours. Thank you, chairman.
Thank you. Um, I, uh, will just say,
uh, before bringing this to a vote, um, again,
thank you Commissioner Davis.
Thank you, chair Hopkins for bringing this forth.
Um, actually, I, I don't know if he's still here,
but I just wanna harken back
to public comments from Mr. George Blakemore.
Um, you know,
Our environment is super
important, I believe is what he said.
Uh, and being in a toxic environment has negative
impacts on our health.
Um, and that's kind of how he started the meeting.
I think it summarizes, um, uh, just the truth that most
of us can agree with here.
Um, so Alder la Spata, questions of that balance, right?
Ecological, economic, you know, um, and environmental.
Um, and Commissioner Davis, your response is there.
I think they're not at odds, right?
Especially when it's the place that we live in, um,
which is why this local efforts
and locally led efforts, um,
through organizations like MWRD, I think are so important,
um, because we're not just making rules, processes,
and, you know, uh, starting initiatives
for some other place.
This is where we live.
Um, we are directly impacted in, in all the ways.
So appreciate your work
and, um, uh, I'd like to attend a motion
to recommend approval
of SR 2025 dash 0 0 1 8 6 5 8.
So moved by Alderman Howorth. All those in favor say aye.
Fantastic. All those opposed say nay
in the opinion of the chair.
The ayes have it, and I will report this as vote
as a recommendation to pass at the next city council meeting
on February 18th, 2026.
Thank you, commissioner Davis. Thank you all.
All right. Our second item is SR 2025 dash
0 0 1 8 7 6 3,
recognizing Lincoln Park Sioux in the Chicago Bird Alliance
for launching the Rat Contraceptive Pilot Program.
Um, members of the committee were sent a copy
of the substitute language ahead of today's meeting.
We've also provided a physical copy
of the substitute resolution.
No major substantive changes were made to the resolution,
just the elimination of the word citywide
and the final resolved clause
as recommended by the Department of Law.
Um, may I have a motion to accept the substitute, um,
to bring up before us today?
Alder Crews. So moved. All those in favor say aye.
All right. The ayes have it.
Um, I'm gonna turn the, uh, mic over
to our resolutions lead sponsor, our vice chair,
uh, Timmy Knutson.
Thank you so much, chair.
And I'm excited today to present a topic
that we've thought about deeply in the 43rd Ward.
And it's the topic of rat birth control.
I'm gonna introduce this topic,
and in doing so, introduce some expert guests
that we have here in the box.
In a dense mixed use community, like the 43rd Ward,
one issue con consistently rises to the top
of our inboxes and its rats.
Residents, block clubs, local businesses are all frustrated
and at times terrified of the rat situation.
This is a quality of life issue
that people feel every single day
and is disrupted by many different things.
It could be construction, it could be restaurants,
and it could just be our current state
and atmosphere in the city.
That's the reason that I'm pleased to formally recognize our
for our 43rd Ward rap contraception pilot
program into the city record.
We bring this resolution to committee today
to have it fully documented, not just as an initiative
between the 43rd Ward, Lincoln Park Zoo,
urban Wildlife Institute, Chicago Bird Alliance, and,
and Streets and Sands,
but as a model for what is possible across
all wards in Chicago.
My hope is that by continuing to elevate this work publicly,
we encourage other communities
to explore similar innovative pilots,
and eventually we work towards a day
where abatement is done, where more with more innovative,
humane and sustainable materials.
So I've gotta start by giving a big thanks to our Streets
and Sands Commissioner Cole Stallard
for being a strong partner from day one, as well
as Assistant general superintendent Gloria Pittman,
who's our city's new rats are, um, DSS between
the commissioner and, and, um,
and Gloria helped identify appropriate pilot blocks
and has worked collaboratively
with our office and the researchers.
We look forward to continuing to work closely
with Commissioner Stallard over the next several months
as we collect and analyze the data.
Overall, the city has two heavier reliance on Rodenticide
that has not solved our rodent problem.
This carries real risks for the birds, pets,
and wildlife that are part
of our lakefront ecosystem in the 43rd Ward.
And throughout the city, poison is neither the most
effective tool nor the right one
for our community like ours.
In collaboration with Commissioner Stoller in August, 2025,
the 43rd Ward officially launched this program
with the Chicago Bird Alliance,
the Lincoln Park Zoo, and other experts.
Through these groups, significant independent funds were
raised to power and fund this program.
This approach, you uses contraceptive po pellets
that are safe for every living creature except rats.
It's rat birth control. I could eat it, it wouldn't harm me.
It uses over the counter substances.
It's a method that has already been used successfully in
other urban areas such as Boston.
And now we're bringing that model
to Chicago through the pilot.
Eight blocks in the southwest corner
of the 43rd Ward were selected.
This includes four treatment blocks and four control blocks.
These locations were chosen based on rat activity,
commercial activity, 3 1 1 complaints,
and they're being carefully monitored by scientists
and cameras on the ground so
that we can act, actually measure the results.
To me, this is what innovative government looks like.
When something isn't working effectively,
we don't double down on the same old remedies.
We try smarter solutions and we test, we learn
and we improve on how our government is solving
everyday problems.
At this time, I'd like to introduce
and pass the mic if there are any questions
to our expert partners that we have here today.
We have Alyssa Berman, Cutler, senior Director
of Government Affairs at the Lincoln Park Zoo,
and Matt Leski, executive director
of the Chicago Bird Alliance.
Do we have any questions for our experts?
Vice chairs. Vice chairs? Got it. Alder person, Lopez
Making sure. Yeah.
Do they have a statement that they wanna give
or are they just here for questions?
Um, either way. Do you guys may wanna make a statement?
That would be wonderful if you could. Thank you. Thanks.
Um, yes, thank you so much
and thank you Alderman for, um, inviting us here
and for, um, elevating this really important project.
Um, here at Lincoln Park Zoo, we have over 30
scientists working on issues across conservation,
and we're particularly focused
through our Urban Wildlife Institute on reducing conflict
between humans and wildlife.
And so we look at that in Africa
and think about how do we, um,
protect lions from encroachment, from urban environment.
And then we think about it here in Chicago,
how do we get the wildlife that we want
and reduce the wildlife that we don't want?
We look at it from a one health perspective in particular.
We know that rats are vector of disease.
And when we think about these, uh, how to reduce rat, um,
rat populations, we are really thinking from that realm.
How do we make sure that people don't, um,
experience the harms of rats,
and how do we make sure that wildlife
doesn't experience that harm?
Many of you know that we had a really terrible incident in
Lincoln Park a few years ago, um,
where some really beloved birds, um,
were killed by rat poison.
And so that helped us think about how do we look
for new innovative solutions.
Um, as the alderman said, how do we look at, um,
new tools in the toolbox?
And we think that contraception could be one of them.
Um, our role in the project is that scientific advisor,
and so we're really proud of that.
We are looking at how, what is the efficacy of this?
We have, um, camera traps, um, that we are able
to judge the population.
Um, we are looking at how the rat population changes, um,
and we think there's some really promising results, results
so far we think we are seeing some reduction from the
camera traps thus far.
Um, my scientists would say, don't get too excited.
They really wanna see the full data.
They are being very rigorous about
this, um, which is wonderful.
Um, and then we are also looking at
how are the rats coming in and taking these pellets
and are other animals doing so?
And so far we are seeing that the rats are going for them
and that other animals are not.
And so that's really encouraging as well.
Um, so we are really looking forward to this partnership.
We are hopeful that it could be a new tool for the city
of Chicago to reduce our, um, really problematic rat issues
that we've seen grow over the last few years, um,
and are really standing by
to be your scientific partners in that.
All right. Yeah. So I'm Matt
Leski from Chicago Bird Lines.
Uh, yeah, and thanks for recognizing this project.
This is, I think, a really innovative project.
I think it's a really great example too, of the partnerships
between government, uh, Lincoln Park Zoo,
all you, all the nonprofits.
I also wanna recognize that this has been a very volunteer
driven project now on the ground.
So once we, you know,
Chicago Bird Alliance's role has been raising the money,
kind of, you know, trying to, you know,
get everyone together in the same room,
but then we've also really been helping with the,
every week someone has to go out and check those wrap boxes
and refill the pellets.
And so that's been, that's one of our big roles right now
too, is just been the sort of logistical, feeding the rats
as many pellets as we can get into them, hoping
that eventually we're gonna start re seeing
that reduction in the, in the rat population.
Um, and I just, you know, echo everything that Alyssa said,
so I don't have much more to add, but yeah.
Well, happy to take questions.
Thank you so much, Alyssa
and Matt for partnership on this project,
but also everything else
that your organizations do in the city.
Um, so with that, do we have any questions?
Alder person, Lopez? Yeah.
Thank you. A again, vice chairman.
So, um, this program has it begun is go ongoing.
Um,
Yep. This program
has begun.
It, it really started in August, 2025
and um, uh, our experts can probably go more into this,
but it takes around a year to collect a full data sample,
um, because of, you know, the pellets need to be ingested,
they need to go through a mating cycle,
and, uh, contraceptive takes time.
Don't we know it? So we have about five months
that we've been able to, to monitor this so far.
Correct. And my understanding is that rats
with their industrious reproductive system can literally
crank out litters in roughly,
is it a six week timeframe, roughly?
Yeah, it's pretty short. Yeah, it, yeah.
So yeah, they can have, they can have up to like a little
Two litter simultaneous. Yeah. Yeah.
Yes. Remarkable animals.
Um, so in the five months that we've been doing this,
and I think all of us can agree the rodent issue in Chicago,
it seems to be getting worse.
I just yesterday did a post unrelated to this
where I've said that I've seen a a 19% increase year over
year in road and calls in the 15th ward.
Um, what impact
does enforcement have on this?
Because while I appreciate the efforts to find
more targeted approaches at dealing with road
and abatement, um,
because we don't wanna kill all the life in our city
with our poison, um, was there also increased in, uh,
streets and sand enforcement?
Was there a dumpster task force that went out?
Was there a cart replacement in this eight block,
in this eight block pilot zone?
What else was a part of this?
Or was it strictly just the contra,
the road and contraception?
Yeah, and I'll, I'll go to the experts on this.
I will start by saying
what the reason we looked at specific blocks early on
with Streets and Sands
and chose some over others is we couldn't choose any blocks
that, for example, had private abatement required.
Um, like our restaurant blocks, a lot
of our restaurant groups, we have agreements with them
that require separate private abatement, um,
and wanted to make sure that DSS had a good understanding,
they're staying away from the experiment blocks.
Um, and with that, I,
I wanna pass the experts just to answer a little bit more.
Yeah. Um, we know
that enforcement is an really important tool,
and so when we look at our Chicago wrap project,
we are talking to people all the time about
how do you make sure that you're not having garbage out?
How do you keep your community gardens clean?
All of that for this purpose,
because it really is about having an,
an experimental situation.
We didn't want to put those additional, um, things in place.
Um, sorry. Thanks der.
Um, we wanted to make sure that we were looking
specifically at, um, how is this effective?
And so wouldn't wanna have that kind
of a task force on these blocks.
Okay. So, okay.
So then the only difference was the nature of the poison.
Got it. Yep. Um, in your own,
was this entirely in your ward?
Yes. Was there a reduction in calls of service for road
and abatement over the last five months? Are you aware
During the time? No,
it's, it's around the same. Okay.
And then what is the cost for this?
I know we, there was a reference to costs, so
Yeah, so we, Chicago Bird Alliance,
we raised the donations.
It was about $34,000 total to do the full year pilot.
And that includes, you know, the equipment, the,
the pellets, the, you know, everything else
that goes along associated costs with that.
But that doesn't include, uh, man hours. Correct.
It doesn't, yeah. 'cause we're doing it
as a volunteer study right now.
Yeah. So, right.
So if you were to factor in how many man hours
worked on a weekly basis,
would you say, for filling of those? Yeah,
I mean, just for filling up the boxes, it,
it does not take very long.
Uh, take, you know, like an hour, hour and a half Yeah.
To, to refill
All, all eight blocks. All
All 20. Yeah. All 20
boxes. Yep. And all Yeah.
All, yeah. All the alleys. Yep.
So I, um, I think it, well first off,
I just wanna commend you guys on trying
to find something innovative, uh,
and to you, our colleague, um, my questions are just meant
to try to figure out like if, if we're looking for things
that are different, we have to know how to scale up.
And it's the cost $34,000 for eight blocks
in a city of 8,000 blocks.
I'm, my, my brain can't do the math right now. Well, not,
I think, and I do want to, when we look at it as say,
and again, I'm trying to think five, 10 years ahead, say,
this pilot works and we do some add-on pilots
and they keep working and we do shift out the materials.
Um, the materials are at scale are actually cheaper
than, than Rodenticide.
Right. And so a a beautiful thing about this in talking
with Streets and Sands is that, you know, there's a fear
with some of these innovative programs that, you know,
it will require less people
'cause it potentially could, right?
Or someone loses their job.
It wouldn't, it would just be switching out the materials
we use for rat event.
If we get to that point far down the line
where the data proves that this would be an impactful,
um, strategy for the whole city.
If we got to a point alderman
where we were putting rodent abors out of work,
we could always put them back
into the tree trimming service.
I'm sure we could find something for them
to do in the city of Chicago.
Works hard or not harder. Thank you,
Chairman. Thank you.
Alright, Alder person, Conway,
Uh, uh, I first will say, I don't know if,
if this program was used at Oz Park,
but I will tell you, I coach, uh,
I coach my daughter's soccer team at Oz Park,
and I wanna really thank you for the work
that you've done in cleaning up that whole park,
which had a huge rat problem that got a lot of,
lot of news, by the way.
Also as another lesson, don't sign your child up late
for soccer because you might might find yourself coaching
the soccer team in, in penalty for what it's worth.
But I, I, my question was about, uh, was about expansion,
um, building on, on Alderman, uh, Lopez.
So, um, I know we've only done it for five months, so
that's a, you know, maybe perhaps not looking beyond that.
But I have huge problems with, uh, ghost Kitchens
downtown in the 34th ward.
And believe me, I got Department of Finance getting
after 'em about their dumpsters.
But it's, uh, huge rat problems
that can really expand from there.
And, and one I would ask, is this, is this something
that you think, uh, would be helpful to that?
Presumably yes. But then also when do you think it's gonna
be ready to expand beyond the, uh,
the test area? The pilot area?
Yeah. No, and, and they're good questions.
And I think that when we look at this pilot,
we're giving it the whole year
because when they show the results from Boston
and some neighborhoods hoods in New York City, you start
to see the impact, the rat population going down
around months six to the eighth day.
Okay. And then they go down drastically after that.
You know, never say never, right?
But it, it doesn't get rid of every rat in the whole city,
Boston and New York, in,
in neighborhoods in New York that are using it.
It's not scaled in New York yet.
They still do have rats, but it doesn't go to zero.
It's just more manageable,
and it absolutely is intended to help with those issues.
We, even though our wards, um, of course look different,
like all do, um, I have a certain amount of density
that really adds to, um, the amount of trash in small areas.
And, um, in certain areas, like around Oz Park
that you mentioned, there's a very high number of rats
that we've been working on, um, hard.
And I think, you know, it, it, we have to make those calls
to our businesses all the time.
Every time a new business comes in,
I'm negotiating these plans of operations
to require daily garbage, um, private abatement, um,
always making calls about it.
And it's just, you know, in these urban dense areas, a lot
of things interact all at once.
Kids playing businesses, businessing residents living.
Um, so we're, we're trying, uh,
we're trying to just reduce that.
No, that's great. I obviously have several, I mean,
I have a even denser word than yours, so I, believe me,
I have these problems and I want to thank you for, for an
outside the box idea as along
with my colleagues. So thank you very much.
Yep. And I'll give actually, uh, just another compliment
to Department of Streets and Sands,
because the Oz Park situation Yeah.
That Al person Conway mentioned it.
We were told at the time of this playground renovation,
it was the most, um,
visited most popular busy playground in the city.
Uh, it potentially had the, one
of the largest wrap beds in the city under the playground.
And it was because of the ground material they were using
the turf that this is an old playground, it was wood, right?
The, the turf was under,
it hadn't been replaced in years and years.
So we knew when we went to tear this all out the playground,
this largest rat, pop rat area in the city,
they were all gonna scurry.
Right? When you tear up a material
that this whole world's living under, they all scurry.
So the Department of Streets
and Sands, it was really like a mission
at four in the morning.
They went out there while it was still dark
because the light aggravates, the rats tore it all out.
And I mean, it's, the ugly truth is kind
of hosed rodenticide over the population
and really controlled that massive population
of rats going far out into our neighborhood in a park
that hosts a lot of activities every single day.
Um, it was a, a disgusting experience
where I learned quite a bit about rats in the city.
Well, it, it, whatever you Well, it clearly it worked
and yeah, I'm, I'm picturing like
that scene in Indiana Jones, uh, when he is going down
to get the arc of the Covenant,
or I, early on in Last Crusade, that's, that's
what I'm picturing there, but
whenever you did it, it worked.
And as a, as a parent who uses that park, I, I
give you my personal gratitude on that. Thank you.
Um, let's go to all the personal spota.
I, this meeting has everything
and I am totally here for it.
Um, I totally feel like we're in middle school science class
right now, and like we're at the science fair
and you're giving your presentation
and like, we're, we're very much in like, in the data
and observations part of like your, your poster board
that you've put up, what really, you know, it's
Fantastic Notes itself.
I'm gonna start requiring tri-fold poster
boards for all presenters.
I love it. I love it.
And I'm like very glad that I have not had lunch yet.
When you're talking about like the, the, the digging up
of Oz Park scene, um, loving it.
Um, and it sounds like when we're talking about this, a lot
of the upfront costs is actually like the capital costs
of like getting this project up and running.
Is that like an accurate description, a map?
I, I mean, yeah. The upfront cost. Yes.
'cause we had to buy the boxes, you know,
so the boxes are specially designed
by the nonprofit that we work with.
Wisdom Good works to try
to exclude anything else from getting in there.
So the whole point is to really target the rats.
So those are specially designed boxes.
So yeah, that was a big part of the upfront cost.
I couldn't tell you exactly like per bucket,
you know, how much it costs.
Um, but yeah, now we're just into the phase
where all we're doing is, is distributing pellets.
So that's all that really is, is, you know, probably just
that one for one exchange for rodenticide
to pellets would be all the,
the cost you'd probably be looking at once
you plus the, the labor.
Yeah. I find it fascinating. Yeah.
I think the, the, the efforts that you're making
to avoid confounding variables, so to speak mm-hmm.
Of like not testing a bunch of things at once. Yeah.
Very interesting. Like whether it's a, a briefing
or a follow up hearing, I hope we get
to hear like the final results.
Mm-hmm. I know that SSA 33 up in Lake W Park,
Bucktown doing something similar.
I don't know. What fascinates me here is the,
the rigor in the experimentation here.
Right. Very, very interesting.
Yeah. I mean, and that, and that was the
whole point, right?
The way that we set this up was to make sure that like,
we can prove yes, it works, or,
or maybe, you know, we don't want it to not work,
but the whole idea is to like really show
that these are provable results either way.
Uh, which is why, you know, having a great partner,
like the Urban Wildlife Institute, um, which just,
I just wanna also make people aware.
They've done other studies in the city
with rodenticide testing on non-target animals.
Right. So like, foxes, raccoons, possums,
everything has rodenticide in it.
So it's getting rodenticides getting into all these other
animals that we know in the city,
which is another reason why we wanted to, you know,
explore these other options.
Uh, not only because the owls died, but
because we know it's getting out into the environment
and it's getting into these other animals.
So we really wanna see like, does this work or not?
And then be able to come back and tell you guys,
hopefully in several months that it does.
Yeah. The way it works itself up the food chain. Mm-hmm.
I, uh, like one last question.
It's a bit tangential,
but the rap project at Lincoln Park Zoo
is not a new initiative.
You all have been doing urban research on rap populations
for a while, and I, I wondered if you would want
to share a little bit of that work with the committee.
Sure. Um, yes.
Our Chicago Rat project works on,
as we talked about a little bit, how do we, um,
minimize human, um, interaction with rats?
How does, how do we minimize those health impacts?
And we have looked at, um,
how does it work its way up to the food chain?
How do we look at, um, the inequities around, um, rat uh,
abatement around the city?
Is it just about, you know,
how do the loudest voices come in and how do we, um, come in
and try to mitigate against that?
Um, and then, like I said, looking at what are the, um,
interventions that we can do and that are pretty inexpensive
and easy, and that we can communicate better around rats.
Um, how do we make sure that people understand how to keep,
um, garbage away from, um, the, the rats?
How do we, um, make sure
that community gardens are really healthy, um,
and aren't being attractive to rats?
We know there's ways that they can be managed so
that they are not attractive to rats.
Um, and so that's really helpful and,
and gets away from that conversation and that, um,
and we are really looking forward to working with any of you
who would like that in your community.
So, um, please reach out. Chicago Rat Project is ongoing.
Um, we also famously weighed in on whether the, um, famous,
um, rat hole was indeed a rat or a squirrel.
Mm-hmm. Um, and in the end
we did learn that it was a squirrel.
So we can have scientific experts on that as well.
Let me say, any research you can provide
through the chair on successful non rodenticide
interventions would be really valuable.
But thank you so much. Thank you. Vice chair.
This is, I'm, I'm genuinely loving all of this. Thank you.
Thank you, Alder Persson. Any other questions?
Yeah, Alder person. Lawson.
Thank you. Der Kon.
Um, if you send any of these rats north
of diversity, we're gonna have a problem.
Just put, I wanna put that on the record.
Uh, we are neighbors, we have neighbors hoods
that look very similar, and so I appreciate the work
that you're doing and I, I look forward to being able to,
to expand this program.
Um, when you picked the area, what is,
is it all city pickup?
Is it private pickup? And was that a factor in
where the area you chose?
Obviously the businesses are private.
Yeah, and I'll, I'll go to Matt.
I, because I think it's all city pickup,
but what I would say before we go to Matt is that we did
consider a few blocks that we thought would be fascinating
to see how they all interact.
And we realized it just wasn't gonna work.
And those blocks are the ones
that end up having a real tricky wrap problem
because there's restaurants on one side of the alley
and there's houses on the other side of the alley.
We found for this pilot, it was going to be too chaotic
'cause there were too many third parties, um,
that were engaging in with, with the rats in on the block.
Matt, anything you'd add? Yeah, no,
I was gonna say, yeah, it's primarily city pickup,
I think in those lot in the, in these alleys.
And then the, the other thing I will say is
that we didn't really do much,
I don't think the enforcement changed,
but we did make sure that all the, I think bins
that had holes and things in them were replaced, so
that at least that was like not a factor in terms of
allowing the rats to go and feed somewhere else.
But yeah, pretty much all city pickup, I think. Yep.
And it's under the CTA line part, like one one alley is
One alley Is, yeah. Great.
No rats under the CTA. Yeah.
Well, and there, yeah, exactly.
Um, you learn a lot about rats doing this job.
Um, and, and I know that I was just chatting
with my colleague, um, right.
A female rack can give birth eight times a year.
She's always pregnant, basically. Um, yeah.
And so, right, they are, they are prolific, uh, producers.
And so this, I appreciate this innovative strategy.
Um, I think the other question I have,
it always comes up about the dogs, right?
Um, and I'm assuming dogs are part of a group of, of animals
that you've also seen rodenticide in,
but with differing results, the new product is, is dog safe
and, and they're not attracted to it in any way.
No. Yeah. They, they, they can't get,
they can't even get to the pellets.
Right? So that's already not an issue, like,
at least at the bait box that we have
or the, the pellet box.
Um, and then there isn't
that secondary poisoning by like a dog.
'cause you know, we've talked to dog owners while we're out
like filling these boxes and there are concerned
because if they, their dog gets a rat, it's generally
because it's been poisoned.
It's, you know, it can't run away
Right out during the day. But that
is something that I know that the vets
and things have also, you know, expressed concern about is,
is that secondary poisoning from dogs getting
to the rats themselves that have been poisoned.
So it, it, it is not, it does not work its way
through that chain either.
So it to save that and Yeah. This, this product. Yeah.
And I could, what I would add to that too, in addition
to the, you know, the canisters just being
only rats can get in it.
Um, the ingredients, uh, within the pellets,
the pellets taste like peanut butter.
Mm-hmm. Um, the ingredients within the,
because we need the rats coming back.
Right. We need 'em interested. Right.
Um, the ingredients you can get over the counter.
It's really random list wisdom good works.
The nonprofit that we mentioned
that supplies the ingredients on
this, um, kind of went through it.
There's like an over the counter arthritis medicine. Yeah.
They sent me a sample. I may or may not have tried it.
Um, and it's just, it's, it's important to state
that this, this is, so it's been tested on species.
It only works on rats. It is safe.
My only point in trying it
or not trying it in my office is to show that it is safe.
Um, because we're invested in this experiment. Sounds
Like another viral TikTok video.
This One saying this one was vetoed. So,
Right. I was saying, did,
did you require your staff to take it?
So maybe there's nga. Okay, all right, good.
But this is the most humane way
and that it doesn't harm other animals.
It was heartbreaking when the two owls died, um, from,
you know, traces of rodenticide.
So that is why I think, and,
and Matt could comment on this,
the Chicago Bird Alliance raised this
money relatively quickly.
Um, it, it's clear that there's a population
that is very concerned about the bird population.
And then of course with this,
most Chicagoans don't like rats.
So it's a good two birds with one stone. Yeah.
Would you comment on the fundraising process a bit just in
case anyone is interested in how that went? Yeah,
I mean, I really, I to credit,
it was our board president last year who really went out
and kind of beat the bushes and got the campaign started
and brought together all the groups.
And so I know we had a few, especially residents in
that Lincoln Park neighborhood
that were really excited to try something.
And so they, they made some relatively big donations,
but we ran all the, you know, the whole campaign was
through our, our organization and on our website.
And, but yeah, it probably one
of our most successful quickest sleep, you know,
funded campaigns we've had out there.
Yeah.
Great. I, I think just two, two more quick questions then.
Um, who, you mentioned, obviously we have the zoo
and the Urban Wildlife Institute, um, Chicago Bird Alliance,
the supplier again, and who,
who are the other partners in this?
Yeah, yeah. Wisdom Good Works is the non-profit
that produces the, the pellets.
And so they've been doing these pilots throughout the
country already in a few different areas.
Mm-hmm. Um, I know, I think you were mentioning that there,
there's another neighborhood.
They used a completely different product that isn't being
as like, rigorously tested so that, you know,
there are other products out there,
but this is the, this, this is the group we're working with
because they're also invested in, you know, the,
the infrastructure to collect the data to help like plan,
you know, plan out the volunteer schedule, all that stuff.
So that's why Wasm Good Works was a, a good partner to, to,
to be, uh, in this, you know, pilot.
Uh, and then of course the city
and then the Department of Streets and Sands and,
and the Alderman's office have all been partners.
So we've all been working together. Great.
Great. And last question, I promise.
Is there anything equivalent for pigeons,
But why? Pigeons are
cool. They're
Brave out of the Belmont now they're nots.
Um, and, and I know we have some great peregrine falcons
nesting in Lakeview now that love the pigeons,
but I certainly don't want, you know,
and any, you know, we have pigeons are as bad
as rats in a lot of places, right.
Uh, maybe not as disease ridden but bad.
Um, and one, you know, can cause all sorts
of health problems once they take over.
And, um, uh,
it's come up in a lot of neighborhoods in the city.
So I would love to see if there's other options to deal
with all the vermin, uh, that we have in Chicago.
So thank you all. Thank you all for the work.
Um, I'm, I'm gonna chime in here.
Um, The question, um, mainly
for the Urban Wildlife Institute, a question
around rot behavior, but first I wanna say
for the pigeons, we could give them jobs.
Have you guys seen this New York
cannabis company called the Travel Agency
and they've started training pigeons again
to do carrier pigeon work?
Oh. And they deliver your cannabis
and little red backpacks all over the city.
So jobs, um, just saying we could put pigeons to work.
Um, um,
I am, I'm curious and, and,
and this is, um, um, I wanna thank Vice Chair for,
for bringing this, uh, forward.
Um, I know zero about pesticides, uh,
effectiveness, whatever, just
what I learned passively through our jobs.
Um, most of my rat issues, I mean,
we're a dense area too.
We have a lot of restaurants,
but actually most of my rat complaints are not necessarily
connected to my commercial areas.
We also have a lot of trees. We have a lot of food for rats.
Um, that doesn't just come from people's dumpsters.
So, um, two,
we actually just had a tree come down on the corner
by our office, um,
because of the root system had been completely eaten
by hungry rats.
Um, yeah, no, they're vicious.
We have like a rats of nim situation going on
underneath Ashland Avenue also, um, the,
the current pesticide that we're using with the city.
Um, and any of your studies, have you found
that it's losing effectiveness?
I, I, you do? Um, well, so yeah.
I mean, this is kind of a complicated question
and I don't know a lot about it, but,
but it has lost effectiveness already.
So there, there's already, right now this sort
of like extra strength throat ide, um,
that has been used basically.
So that's, that's generally what's already
being used in a lot of these places.
Is this already like extra strength rodenticide,
which they do is already,
which they already are seeing obviously not being
as effective already with certain populations of rodents,
you know, especially because they reproduce so quickly,
the resistance to these pesti, these,
these rodenticides can be built up pretty fast in a,
in a relatively short amount of time.
So yeah, we're already on the second generation
of lethality in these rodenticides,
and so that's, I think the other sort of unsustainable part
of this whole piece is that we can see that kind
of coming down the, the pike that we're just gonna have
to keep upping that, that lethality if we're gonna continue
to try to control the rats like the way we're doing it now.
Um, thank you. And I'll, I'll just say again,
I think Alder Lafata mentioned, you know, um, Alder Lopez,
how many years are you at in office?
11. So represented here. We've got, uh, yeah, we've got 11.
Some of us have been in for like seven, right?
Six and a half. Um,
and I, I do think
every year it seems like the rat population seems
to be going up and the rat problem's getting worse.
And one of, one
of the observations in our ward has been also
as we talk about climate change in our,
in our earlier topic, um, having, um,
winters that aren't as reliably cold
or with longer freezes also have an impact on
how well the rats are able to reproduce.
Right. So, uh, just saying in my short time in office,
the observation is there, right?
And, and we've got, uh, our streets and sand on, on baiting
and abatement is great.
I think I have, I have no notes on,
on what they can do.
I feel like they're doing a fantastic job.
We get specific areas.
We have, um, not as much construction as some
of my colleagues wards when we do have
major construction projects.
We have big plans and abatement in place.
Like I feel like we're doing the things
and the rats are winning.
Um, and so I just wanna lift this up as well, um, that
we can't wait
for our solutions.
Like they're already not working.
The, the, the, the process we're using is not working
and it's not because of a lack of effort or strategy
or knowledge, but
because of a few different factors that are outside
of our control, right?
Climate, um, lack of, you know,
diminishing efficacy, right?
Of the particular poison that we're using.
And so I appreciate this pilot, um, wanna look at
how we can support, definitely we wanna have you guys back
in, in another six months
after it's completed to hear the results
because I do think it's in the best interest of this body
and our city to be looking at what are some
of the other solutions we can use, either
as a layered approach
or, um, as something that we transition to that's going
to be more effective and have longer term benefits, um,
and be sustainable.
So appreciate, uh, vice chair you bringing this forth
and the work that you guys have done to pilot this.
Um, Lopez,
Sorry, chairman, just I just wanted
to throw this out here too in six months.
Yeah. Can we invite the department back as well? Yeah.
Because I think that it would be great depending on
what we learned from this experiment, um, to your point,
if we have a new menu of options,
because I know we've talked about in the past,
not only this, we've talked about the dry ice Yeah.
Which we did at one point. Yeah.
We've talked about, uh, the, the,
the feral cap colonies as well.
All these alternative poison methods to do this.
So maybe they can start coming up with in six months
what a menu of options are for communities that choose
to engage in something other than poisoning as well
as their enforcement efforts as well.
Yeah, that's a great idea and thank you.
Yeah, we can do that. And that's what, uh, uh, my chief
of staff was over here writing about the carbon
monoxide dry ice piece.
Yeah. Um, Alder Cruz,
Um, chairwoman, real quick, what question,
but I do wanna say that we're always learning something new
every day, and that includes rats.
Um, but I have a quick question.
I, I know this is in the 33rd, uh, 43rd ward.
I'd rather say, I'm just curious of what, we didn't try two
to three different wards just to make the comparison.
Um, is there a reason why?
I just wanna make sure that we, you know,
we could compare every neighborhood could be different.
The area could be different, at least two to three.
Yeah. And I, what I would say too, this
because of the grassroots nature of how this came about,
you know, we really met
with the Chicago Bird Alliance early on
and started talking about this.
We then had, you know, iterations of calls
with the wisdom good works, um, uh, the zoo and the experts.
This is a step phase one.
I do believe that there will be a phase two right?
To check that it works at scale outside
and also to compare contrast like you're saying.
I think right now we're just still in that initial phase.
Yeah. And like, um, alderman Lopez said, probably bring,
uh, straight in sanitation next time.
And based on that, maybe we can expand the pilot
and maybe the city can, can play a role into that. The
Cost. Yes. And
that's an important thing.
I am really glad that other areas have been trying
innovative approaches like was mentioned through,
through an SSA.
It was very important for us to bring streets
and sands into this project
because this is only gonna work one day if it
works with streets and sands.
Right. And Commissioner Stallard has always been very
innovative and he's been just a good brainstorm partner on
innovative strategies.
So, um, bringing them
to the table on this project is something we need to do,
keep on when we scale it. I agree.
Alright, good to work. Thank you. Thanks for,
Yeah. Derman, now Howorth.
Thank you. Thank you Vice chair for bringing this forward.
And, um, thank you to Chicago Bird Alliance
and the Lincoln Park Zoo for being here.
I, you know, my neighbors, they,
they have tried dry ice on their own, you know, and,
and I, um, am along the red line
and we had that major reconstruction on the red line.
And so a public school is right there
and there's a little patch of land that they tried to
create a garden and the kids were just too scared
because the rats kept jumping outta the garden.
So now they're thinking about paving it over. That's a
Rat. Uh,
a rat, a play area,
what we call the dog friendly area. Rat friendly area.
Yes. Yes. Friendly.
So thank, thank you for bringing this forward
and, um, I look forward to, to more conversation with, um,
streets and sand also later on.
But my question was, can you talk a little bit
or can somebody just talk about what is the baseline here?
Is it 3 1 1 calls or is it like sightings
or droppings or what, what's the baseline
and then what is gonna be your measurement
of success in, in six months? Yeah.
And you know, that is where it would,
it will be great when we have streets and sands here
because we did pick blocks that had very high, uh,
3 1 1 requests for, for rat abatement.
And once we have that final report in the end,
we will be able to do that data,
compare contrast year over year
because 3 1 1 stores all of this.
Um, so we can organize and,
and provide more information, um, even
before that next meeting.
But just so that you have a kind of data, you know, data set
that we'll be comparing to.
Great. Thank you.
And then thank you for, um, the information
that you will send
through the chair about the Chicago RAT project.
Is there, we have a lot
of small businesses too in the 48th ward
and also along the lakefront, um, with open patios
and there, there's an issue, you know, people wanna be
outside, but they don't wanna spend time with rats.
So is there anything that businesses can start
to do now in preparation for spring and summer?
Um, any information that you could share
with us would be really appreciated.
Great. And you know what we'll do,
we will share some information through Streets and Sands,
because every time I speak with them,
they say any technique we use will be made successful
through our residents, our businesses behaving, you know,
through proper, um, garbage strategy
and making sure that nothing overflows
from the garbage cans.
Um, just these kind, kind of common day-to-day things that,
um, every constituent can
and should be doing that would reduce the wrap population.
So we will get some material.
I know they have it in a good, um, organized visual form
and we can send that out.
Terrific. Thank you so much. Thank you.
Thanks all the person. Yeah.
I wanna thank our vice chair
and, uh, may I have a motion to recommend approval
of SR 2025 dash 0 0 1 8 7 6 3.
So moved by Alderman Na Howorth. All those in favor say aye.
Any opposed the opinion of the chair?
The ayes have it, and I'll report this vote
as a recommendation to pass at our next city council meeting
on February 18th, 2026.
Having no more questions.
Um, all right, Alder Lopez, motion to adjourn. All in favor.
All right. Hearing no objections.
So ordered the meeting on Committee on Environmental
Protection Energy is now adjourned.
Don't forget to come back for public safety.
I say for Alder Hopkins. Thank
You so much.
You Yeah, yeah. Thanks.
Yeah, for a very fast, you know, finding out yesterday.