Our joint committee meeting will begin shortly. We're
waiting for a few members arrive to make sure we have
Quorum. Thank you all for being here this morning. And you
noticed, we time this Alderman, Hopkins. And I made sure
that the rain held off for you to get here. So let's hope
our Council colleagues. Take advantage of that. Thank you.
Good.
Good morning.
The Joint Committee on Environmental Protection and energy
and Public Safety. Will now come to order today, we are
going to hear from City departments Regional agencies and
universities Partners on Extreme flooding events in Chicago
and how we are responding to and preparing. For these
events before we hear from our guest, we're going to begin
with a roll. Call to establish more on Hopkins, Manhattan
present.
Alderman Yancey.
I also.
I order.
I only person Knudsen
older person was Fateh.
Alderperson, Chico alderperson, Ramirez.
Auto.
Alderperson Gutierrez.
Alderperson Lopez.
Old.
Alderperson. Curtis.
Alderperson Tavares.
I'll
Olive.
Alderperson Scott.
All.
all the
All the persons picture Lopez.
Auto.
Alderperson Fuentes.
All.
Alderperson Taliaferro.
Auto.
Alderperson, Cruz older person Rodriguez. Sanchez
alderperson Conway.
Oliver.
Auto person.
Older persons of Asado.
Alderperson, Vasquez alderperson, Riley.
all the
Alderperson. Lawson alderperson Gardner.
Alderperson. Clay, alderperson. Martin alderperson. Mahna
hoppenworth alderperson Silverstein
Order me.
Baldwin LaSpada's also present in the moment.
All right, all outer person Gardner and older person
Ramirez are also present.
What's?
What's our County Fair?
Also.
Awesome. They're being sixteen members, present weeds, you
have a quorum join us. Virtually is alderperson, laspada.
459 can I have a motion to approve Alderman? Laspada,
remote participation, alderperson, Riley, Stone moves, all
those in favor. Say, aye. All of those opposed say nay and
the opinion of the chairs, the ice Hobbit. And other
personal Espada is counted for Coram will be marked as
present for today's meeting, non-members present. So we're
going to hear from a person. Stephanie Coleman shortly.
Also. Alderman Rodriguez, I saw any other non-members
wishing you recognize.
All right, well before we get started, we're going to go
into our public comment. So at this time, I will begin the
public comment period. Public comment is limited to 30
minutes and out of respect. For everyone's time, expect
speaker will be limited to three minutes and we don't have
anyone signed up virtually and I don't believe we have
anyone signed up in person. I'm so there being no speakers
are public comment, period is concluded and I'd like to
know
We did receive one written public comment, and to those
written public comments have been shared committee members
via email. So the item on today's agenda are 2023 0 0 0, 2
9 2 6, which calls for subject matter hearing on Extreme
flooding events that occurred on July 2nd and the city's
response. And mitigation efforts is what we are hearing
today. Before we get into our speakers, can I have a motion
to recommend approval this item?
SMS by Audra Martin, all those in favor of passing the
resolution respond, by saying, I all those opposed say nay
nay Penny of the chairs, the I stop it. I wanted to give
the lead sponsor of the resolution alderwoman. Stephanie
Coleman of the 16th, ward, the opportune
Need.
Need to.
Need to say a few words before we get into our speakers
today.
Thank you, chair Manhattan, and chairman Hopkins for the
Clarion call out. On this very important matter. As we
enter connecting our beautiful city, no matter if you're
from the South Side, the West Side, the North side or
downtown. We were all affected from the floodings and today
isn't it just about building infrastructure? But it's about
restoring hope to those families. Especially in the 3724,
28, 27 towards that are still experiencing that Devastation
and chairman Miss who just walked in and it was your cry
and I want to come in you chair Minerva. Now the woman
Scott and Burnett and I was outside leaders for truly
stepping up and thinking outside of the box, to help those
families that still to this day, or either displaced
experiencing mold and still have water in their homes and
not knowing what to do.
and it just shows that were
And it just shows the resilience of the city and that
interconnecting and how together how United together we can
help the citizens and residents of the city of Chicago. So
as I sit here and listen to the expertise and wisdom and
the true hard facts of how we can help those and hopefully
someone will be impressed to contact 311 because they did
not know what to do and FEMA. I know that I heard this
morning that the extension deadline has been extended but
getting more help, especially to home, that can't even get
insured, redlining still exists. So thank you, Chairman's,
hadn't, and Hopkins, and to my colleagues for two days,
very important discussion and how we together to make a
difference to truly help the residence. Thank you. Thank
you.
Did you have any words?
so,
So thank you all for being here today. And thank you to our
guests in the Box while introduced shortly. So over the
past few years, our city has seen an increase in the
intensity of the amount of rain we received during our
storm events on September 11th 2022. Chicago experience a
once-in-a-century supercell storm that resulted in over 5
inches of rain over a two-hour period on the city's North
and Northwest died less than a year later, the city's South
and West sides were inundated with water during a
significant flash flooding.
Forum events, resulting in a total of more than eight
inches of rain, in the greater west side of the city, this
event left, roads and homes flooded with many residents
facing extreme damage. Costing tens of thousands of
dollars. Each recognizing the scale of the destruction, in
our city President, Joe Biden, declared a Federal disaster
and federal resources became available to those affected by
the floods.
These are.
These recent examples, aligned with the consensus among
climate scientists and organizations, that climate change
is contributing to more frequent and intense extreme
weather events. As a city, we need to be proactive in both
adaptation. And mitigation, as we strive to secure a
resilient and sustainable future for Chicago and its
residence today. Committee members will hear from
representatives from the office of climate environmental
Equity. The Department of Water Management, the Department
of Transportation, the Metropolitan Water, Reclamation
district, and the office of emergency management
Communications on the role, they play in responding to
major storm events as well as how they are planning and
preparing infrastructure projects, to help us be better
prepared for Future, Extreme rain and flood events.
We?
We've.
We also invite.
We've also invited representatives from uic's great cities
Institute in freshwater lab to share data. They collect on
the issue and recommendations, they have her City officials
in addressing this sometimes, as public servants, we can
get stuck in our silos and patterns. It can help to have
outside voices, not just towards Innovation or redirection.
And we thought that this could be a role that they help
play today. At hearing today, will help members of this
body a better. Understand how climate change, influences
are rainfall patterns and infrastructure vulnerabilities
while highlighting the ongoing efforts of our city
departments to enhance our preparedness for similar events.
I also want to take this opportunity to remind my
colleagues that the FEMA application deadline for our
residents who endured the hardships of the June 29th
through July, 2nd floor, storm. What we know that's been
extended. Do you remember what the extension date is?
Will be announced on WBBM August 31st October 31st. Sorry,
thank you. Older person that's there. So the flooding
deadline for the female applications was October 16th. It
wasn't coming Monday and it has been extended to October
31st. So well we did invite FEMA to join us today as well,
but they declined a citing a standing policy with the US
Department of Homeland Security that prevents them from
being here.
Stop.
That's what they told us.
All right, so with that, let's welcome our guests. So
joining us in the box today and then we'll start from
closest to the front. We've got Cheryl Watson with the
Chatham Community resiliency Advocate, and community
members. Will share her lived experience on sledding on the
flooding events. We've got our chief sustainability officer
from our office of climate and environmental Equity,
Angela. Tovar our commissioner for the Department of Water
Management Andrea Chang, we have a president carry steel
from the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District was also
joined by dr. Catherine O'Connor and Kevin Fitzpatrick. We
have an Jang from the depart. Our Deputy Commissioner from
see. We have Camille Muhammad and Glenn lineman from the
office of emergency management Communications and we have
dr. Theresa Cordova, and Professor Havelock from the
University of Illinois at Chicago. Thank you to all of our
guest.
Each.
HP.
Each speaker has been asked to limit their testimony, we
got a lot of expertise in the Box over there you guys. So
we've asked each speaker to limit their testimony seventh
10 minutes closer to the 7 if you can make that happen just
to make sure that we can have time for questions. So
following testimony and presentations will have time for
our committee members to ask questions, and provide
feedback. And with that being said, Michelle w.
Please.
Please show you.
Please share your testimony today.
The more.
Good morning, everyone.
Thank.
Thank you for this opportunity to participate in this
convenient. I come to this work. First and foremost, as a
descendant of enslaved, Africans raised by history-makers
storytellers and Believers. Those who persisted in spite of
discrimination, they Champion system changed and supported
equal civil rights. For those who have been left that are
left out of the policy and decision-making and really told
that these faces are just not for us. So, I felt really
motivated as a child. A resident to work through my climate
resiliency advocacy related to policy change organizing,
and providing leadership, to remove the harm to those who
are most impacted by inequities.
I,
I am.
I am a child of child whose parents were part of the first
wave of African-American residents to overcome. Its racial
barriers to home ownership in the Chicago, Southside
Community, the Chatham State of Mind intentionally
committed to upholding high social etiquette maintaining
property values and Community activism tube. And the
opening of any new liquor stores in the community. The
residence beautified
Proper.
The property and soap.
The property and supported the local businesses and the
community was growing with more essential life, services
and additional bus routes. It was the only moderate
middle-class African-American neighborhood named as a jewel
in the Chicago Crown of neighborhoods in the midst of this
up-and-coming community scene. But what without
understanding in the distance where some inconvenient
truths, powering Smoke Stacks at the u.s. steel mills and
the plumes of smoke rising from the city garbage
incinerator reject. The order is emissions throughout the
night sky, summer nights were interrupted by the mosquito,
fogging trucks, that slowly rolled through the neighborhood
street like an invasion scene in a horror movie where with
toxic pesticides for years before they were bands.
We're all.
For over seventy years when rain falls in Chicago, Chatham
plus with the climate crisis. More extreme weather is on
the horizon. I imagine the trauma of families having to
repeatedly drop everything to address to hazardous water
swirling in your basement from sewer. Backup the water in a
date. The foundation walls or is pounding in your backyard
and rushing under the basement doors. I've experienced
hazardous flooding since I was a child and the dis
Breast.
Breast and destruction to my family's well-being, your
yearly.
The community was not given honest information about why
the flooding was occurring, this Parks, fear and distrust
is Trust of the city leadership Channel. Knights greatest
fear was that the city was trying to flood the growing
black community out of the neighborhood, and undermine the
finances and try in the time that they invested in their
property.
This.
This lack of respect and transparency, triggered, the
historical slave trauma, and cumulative, cumulative, racial
discrimination that lives in our genetic DNA. Even today
the accumulation of my great-grandfather distress during
his life in Mississippi as a product of illegal
relationship.
Kia.
Cheer.
Cherry the disrespect of being the arms bear for his father
who was also his master in the Civil War as a preteen.
Imagine the truth, for, you know what? He was left on the
battlefield until help came after his master was killed,
yet his, his bloodline family denied him, the inheritance
that he was supposed to be giving a property in
Mississippi, the Next Generation follows the gray,
My grace.
Migration to Illinois and is met with housing and
educational set segregation and no voting rights.
Oppression from job discrimination as well. As many
opportunities in the armed forces, for my father,
Continued after serving in World War II, my parents
continued to pursue their goal of moving, their growing
family from Ida B Wells housing to a home date with there
was no mental health treatment for the cumulative
historical trauma that my ancestors experience.
That drama is in our DNA today, flooding impact very
bilocale. Chatham is grossly impacted by a poorly designed
sewer, that undermines any protective measures Property.
Owners may have paid for until this is corrected. China
will be at high risk of flooding. As the data continues to
be compiled from the summer flooding, the Westside
continues committed communities experience, very high.
Rainfall come also has severe flooding as well, as we are a
low-lying community. The area continues to be impacted by
sewer, backup in basement, and more freaking have heavy
rainfall due to climate change, no solution has been
proposed.
What are fun?
They're funded to call.
They're funded to correct. The 100 year old combined sewer
system in a community community. That is at a lower
elevation, which delays the movement of the soil water from
flowing out of the system fast enough before. It enters our
basements, the loss of diseased trees have been removed
with little Outreach to Property, Owners or information to
encourage proper Tree Care so they can trees can match or
if they healthy specimens to fill in the Lost, canopy and
dust improve, the benefits of cooling, cleaning the air and
absorbing some of the heavy water that we have.
Now, that President Biden is, is delivering additional
funds as a result of the climate hazards that we have and
experience. I hope that we will have resolutions to get our
problems resolved by fixing the sewer poorly designed
engineering out on its side.
We would love to have more Community engagement, so you can
hear more of our stories and know of the impacts
financially mentally in every way we are just totally
disrupted and FEMA can't fix that and they can't fix me
fast enough and Loans are not an option for a lot of
people, we're barely hanging on
now, with all
Now with all the other trauma in the community. So we hope
that this testimony that I give is a balanced picture of
what's really happening in our city and they do, you will
extend the assessment broader across the city because what
happens if one side? Maybe one thing and something's
happening and other side but that doesn't make one less
need help than the other.
Did you go?
Did you hear me? Cuz I wait, we did. I was giving you a,
thank you for your testimony, Mrs. Watson now, I'd like to
turn it over to some of our city officials. So starting
with our chief Tovar.
and just curious, when you're
Good morning, chair had an chair Hopkins, and honorable
members of both the committee on Environmental Protection
and energy and the Committee on Public Safety. My name is
Angela Tovar. I'm the chief sustainability officer for the
city of Chicago. Thank you for the opportunity to address
you today on behalf of the office of climate and
environmental equity. And I hope after the passage of this
year's budget, the re-established department of the
environment. I'm delighted to say that I've been before
this Council a lot recently. And that's no surprise. This
body has
Strong interest in.
Strong interest in how climate change affects Chicago Inns
and how the city will respond in this moment to ensure
environmental and climate justice for all of our residence.
You just heard a powerful testimony from our wonderful
partner Cheryl regarding how flooding has long impacted the
daily lives of Chicago, in, in places like Chatham. We've
heard stories about places like Austin, and many other
neighborhoods across the west side more recently hearing
from neighborhood Champions, like, Cheryl that. That's how
we begin to under better understand this issue. And that's
also how we continue our discussion around ways to better
adapt, our city to a changing climate. There are so many
people in this room that have powerful things to say on
that topic from leaders, like Cheryl to our partners in
city, government and mwrd to the experts at you. I see who
you'll hear from later. So for that reason, I'm going to
keep my remarks brief.
right now, and we
Right now and will join you to spend a lot of time
listening to the collective wisdom in this room. And if we
can go to the next slide, please,
Play.
Climate change, affects us all today. And it will affect us
all in years to come. And while it affects us all we know
it, disproportionately impact, black residents are brown
residence and other vulnerable populations, who are facing,
deep environmental, health, environmental and health
disparities where traumatic events like extreme flooding.
Can.
Can become a can.
Can become a compounding issue this plays into the
cumulative impact of environmental pollution that we
recently explored at another important hearing a few weeks
ago.
Play.
What?
Flooding. Isn't fortunately. Nothing new for our city dwm
and mwrd will describe the infrastructure projects underway
for decades to control flooding and to reduce its despair.
This severity. What is new, however, is the way that
climate change is causing more frequent, and more intense.
Heavy Rain events that can overwhelm our existing
infrastructure and caused the harms that we saw on multiple
occasions this summer next line.
We're big science fans here on the sustainability a team
and unfortunately, we have the data that backs me up here.
and,
And you go back one slide. I'm sorry.
Can you?
And you.
Can you go to slide 6 Gina?
Oh, I'm sorry. 11 side back holidays.
The courtesy of Illinois, the wonderful State climate
tologist transferred. Let me show you what I mean. Doctor
Ford crunch the numbers on a damaging, Heavy Rain event.
That took place long ago in 2020 and may 2020. Chicago
received an overwhelming, nearly 3 in of rain, in 3 hours
back in 1961, the annual chance of this happening was 4% by
1989. There was a 10% chance of it happening in any given
year. And then by 2020, it was now a 15% percent chance of
happening annually. Unfortunately, there is no sign. The
trend line upward is going to change. This is the new
normal as we saw the summer next line.
As I mentioned earlier, increased heavy precipitation and
flooding events caused by climate change. This is very much
an environmental justice issue. Again I want to turn to
data compiled by doctor for that bear this out over all
flood insurance claims our way up across the board for
hundred million and pay out since 2011. And I believe that
number doesn't account for this last year's event. But look
at how disproportionately we are seeing these claims across
Are.
Our city 87%. Yes, 87% paid out in communities of color and
using other another measure 311 cause of damage. We again
see a pattern of more calls in our South and West Side
communities to sum up with the data analysis is telling us.
We are increasingly more likely to have extreme windfall
event due to climate change and when we do that rainfall is
causing flooding. That is disproportionately affects
environmental justice neighborhoods. In Chicago, low-income
residents May struggle to pay for flood insurance. The
cleanup costs and lost a personal belongings, as well as
the repairs that could reduce their flood exposure in the
future.
Property damage from reoccurring, flooding can contribute
to larger issues in these properties that may not be
covered by insurance. And finally, when we think about
communities that have already been already historically
disinvested and they have an abundance of needs preventive.
Measures that reduce future risk. May be secondary in terms
of priority to other infrastructure needs in those
communities.
Next.
Next time, please.
Before.
Before I turn it over to my colleagues. I want to close by
beginning to talk about Solutions and hope we can protect
our most vulnerable Chicagoans. We can prevent damage to
the houses and apartments that are residents probably call
home. If we are laser focused on collaboration and bold
Solutions in a moment, you are going to hear about the
essential infrastructure from mwrd. Such as the deep tunnel
that protects us. Just as importantly, you're going to hear
about other essential passports here. There is an
opportunity for us all to work in Partnership to utilize
it. Expand green infrastructure Solutions as well that we
know, are effective and absorbing. All of this water OC is
working with dwm and mwrd and several other important
Chicago. Recovery on several important, Chicago recovery
plan infrastructure projects that you see here.
These.
These are space to grow which is our resilience School
Yards Project. We're working in coordination with C. On the
expansion of the green alley program. And we have a pilot
program that is in development which right now we are
calling rain ready, Chatham based off of a report that was
compiled by cnte that. Look at home level interventions and
communities like Chatham that have been overwhelmed by
flooding. I'm so the idea with that program as we're
working, collectively
With.
With the water department.
With the water department to identify measures that will be
effective in preventing Flooding at the at the home level.
And that is something that isn't is in development and will
continue to move forward. Next time, please
Thank.
Thank you again for the opportunity to speak today.
Flooding is a traumatic event and that is why it is so
important to give voice to effective. Residence. Let's
result that the whole of government will work to mitigate
these effects in years to come. Thank you.
and,
Thank you very much she so far. Next up, we've got
commissioner Andrew Chang from our department of water
management.
Good morning, everyone.
My name.
My name is Andrea change, commissioner for the Department
of Water Management. Thank you so much for having us here
today. Can you go to the next time, please? Thank you. So,
I'm just start out by talking a little bit, specifically
about the most recent horrible flood on July 2nd, and then
I'm going to go into some of the initiatives. More broadly
that our department is working on in conjunction with a few
of the other folks up here over all, you know, is we know,
this was the largest 12 hour, rainfall amount in recent
history actually, exceeded the great flood of
You know, now.
You know, 1987 that a lot of us are familiar with, with over
8, in, on some parts of the West Side, actually / 9.1 near
Northern Cicero and Western Chicago border. So if you were
to equate that to snow, that's 84 to 96 inches of snow.
Something that I don't think most of us couldn't really
conceive of just a massive amount of rain for comparison to
Total monthly amount for July typically would be about 3.7
inch so it's more months worth of rain.
Next light.
As we?
As we all know it would have started raining really heavily
and then it kind of paused that little I've been to the
rainfall versus time for that day. Rainfall in inches on
the left time on the bottom, you can kind of see the
cumulative amount of rain, is it slows down in the middle
and then it pops back up. Again, that's secondary. Rain
that we got. This is a base on a gauge USGS gauge at
Roosevelt and Laramie, just to kind of give us all a sense
for how that rain came down next line.
Well.
When we plot this kind of data on serve a duration on the
x-axis and a rainfall intensity and the y-axis going
vertically, are you can kind of see where those rainfall
data land. And if you look at all the way on the, right
that. That's above the, the line where that says 100-year
storm event, it's actually above the line actually more
than a hundred years or more that meeting. It would be the
chi.
Storm, you.
Storm. You'd expect to see once every 100 years but
actually it's more like once every five hundred years based
on the data that we have there cuz it's actually above that
line.
I know.
Next bike.
We know Basin, r311 data, and just being out that day that
the most impacted wards that day, where the 37th 2829, as
well as the eighth Ward, the 24th Ward. You know, a lot of
familiar scenes are flooded by Doc's, made it very
difficult to travel around that day, even if our own Crews
and a lot of a lot of damage that day, I next line, when we
applaud those 311 calls for that day I you can see very
clearly. The the heat graph are on the right. The red is
where its most intense clear on the west side of the water.
And basements were very concentrated there, physically,
south of Armitage Avenue and west of Cicero.
and,
And that's exactly where we had the most intense rainfall
next slide.
I can.
In comparison, we also on that same plot the right hand
side. You can see two other recent events. We plotted
basement flooded for the July 22nd events in Green from the
southwest side but War nineteen, or so, then there was also
an in that was about a 25-year story within times. But not
as intense. As the one in September 2022, that blew across
the the Northside. That was a 50-100 years storm. And then,
in July and red. Am I on the right? We have are one hundred
to Five Hundred Years storm in all three events. It was
really that what you think climate changes, its the
tropical storm style system threat that stall at a
particular location and circulate and just dumped water
without moving.
Next line.
very,
Bearing that out in numbers, we had about twelve thousand
requests total for that that incident over about that that
week. Cuz I'm going to cause we know came in later. If
people learned that, they really needed to call, 311 is 70
of those were flooded by talks about 843, where water on
the street. And then, the bath majority about 8,000 were
water in the basement. 276 of those were actually ones
where the water was reaching the first floor, as noted in
in 311 2400 of those water in basement calls were in war,
37 alone.
Below on the bottom of slide, you can kind of see a
description of what we do when we get those phone calls and
311 DWI. If it's a flooded by. I'll be asleep. The goal is
to create passageways underneath there. So we clean those
catch Basin, sometimes the breeze washed into those catch
basins during storm. So, you know, we are urgently address
though to make sure that we're cleaning it and unclogging,
it potentially multiple times during a storm as needed to
keep that flow. You know why people be able be able to pass
underneath for water. In basement, we go out and verify
that the main sewer is Flowing properly and it's not
clogged or that, there's not a collapse again. Sometimes
you will get in a really intense. Brainstorm, you can
collapse sewers and you can watch a lot of debris in as
well. We clean the sewer is needed. We talk to the
homeowner and I'll give information as relevant about our
private sewer drain program. Where if there's some kind of
damage or collapse on their privates or may not the main
one in the street, but the private side, we have a program
for eligible.
We can.
We can have.
We can help repair water on streets. We do want to see and
I'll explain a little bit more about this. So you do want
to see temporarily water on Street rather than water in
basement. But if it's been there for a while, that usually
means that we need to cat. Clean the catch Basin
potentially remove any debris from the catch Basin lid and
ensure that the restrictors there or the rain blockers and
we call them. That's it within a catch Basin are installed
and working properly.
Next.
Next line.
Next light.
And why is that important? So this is a little diagram in
here. This case the blue is the rainwater and the brown is
the sewer water coming from the home, on the right hand
side, you have the home, you have the private sewer drain
kind of coming out an angle to that oblong Circle in the
the street that the sewer main. You can see that same look
super mad because work a combined sewer system. Like so
many other cities is taking that waste from the home and
the rain from the street. And in this case, not the rain
from the roof. So we want that water to stay on that street
for a little while, temporarily and slowly filter into the
store. So it gives the sewer a chance to absorb it over
time without over it without surging. It, we do that by
installing those rain blockers, so it might be a little
hard to see from where you're sitting, but there's a little
red block on the entrance to the Sewer for in that catch
bass in. Those are rainbow occurs and they're just like
little Vortex. If you
The magic.
imagine you know I like a funnel and it's just slowing down
the flow rate that helps us keep that flowing at a
reasonable rate into the store. And then we also in this
diagram, how those downspouts disconnected from the top of
the roof. You know, there's two places Raines, Williams
falling, and getting collected in this, or the roof in the
street, from the roof. All that water flows into your
downspouts, right? If you have those disconnected and it's
flowing onto your lawn and other grasses.
Absorbed.
absorptive are
Absorptive area, it's keeping it out of a sewer. And so
when that water surges like that, you're not, you're not
taking up space within the sewer for that water, that could
just be going in your lawn. So, in this scenario, you have
your downspouts disconnected, you have your rain blockers
properly installed, and you see flooding isn't happening.
Now, if we don't do that next line,
That.
Then we got basement flooding so if you keep your downfalls
connected to all that water's flowing from the roof into
the downspout down into the sewer, that's less capacity for
everything else, right? And if your brain blockers removed
which sometimes happens because folks get irritated when
they see you know water on the street because we need you
more about educating then all that water is going to flow
into the sewer and overwhelming and water always finds the
lowest spot, right? It's going to find that basement. So
for us, it's really important that we make sure that we're
keeping those brain blockers installed. Educating everyone
about the benefit and trying to get people to disconnect a
downspout that's going to be really key next line.
So I know I'm short on time here so they go very quickly.
Through our stormwater plan, we had a broken into short
medium and long-term implementation time frames and often.
We're in the world working with in partnership with mwrd
and and lots of Partners to make sure that when we're doing
these, where are leveraging all the best practices and
continuing to learn about what works. So in terms of
shorter timeframe, in the six to 12 months time frame, are
we have our grade basic cleaning of catch basins and Sewer,
Mains. And the hardest-hit areas the west side that we're
doing right now, actually implemented starting in August
for about 40% done and really were taking when cleaning
sewer Mains were also camera them to identify any potential
repairs that are needed after the cleaning. And, you know,
helps not only identify damage from the July 2nd storm and
places that might have colored fake collapse is Superman
but also reducing the likelihood of future flooding and we
got in a great base basis.
You.
Using.
You think?
Using a contractor. We also have our private sewer drain
repair program. Is I mention that is an aware if there's
damage the private sewer drain for eligible homes. Usually
a single family of two flat. We are able to do the repair
and we have fliers are available. Hopefully, all of your
offices have them if not, please let us know. It's a pretty
popular program.
Never.
Next.
Next flight.
Angela mentioned, we have our space to grow, which of the
partnership with CPS would mwrd, it's a great program.
We're providing new playgrounds to schools that include
stormwater retention so the kids don't you know, usually do
it at first but there's usually permeable pavement on the
playground. And underneath often catch catch areas where
you can kind of catch that storm water and retain it and
rain guard for bioswales, it's all. But then eventually to
get to learn about that I get to worry about water
conservation about storm water on so it's a good
Educational Opportunity as well. We're working on some
updated agreements and like Angela said there's some
additional funding for that so really great program
medium-range timeframes. We are working on downspout just
connection on Matt. You know, Citywide a disconnection like
you mentioned is a really important tool. It may not sound
like it's something that substantial, but it's hard to
educational process that we need to work on. Tell people
understand.
The cumulative.
The cumulative impact of many people disconnecting, the
downspout is, is very effective and it's very awkward about
it because somebody who reduces their disconnect or
downspout is reducing the amount of water that goes into
their neighborhood into their neighborhoods, to her, not
just their own. So it impacts every one. We also have our
storm water wings or Pilot that we are working on to
install storage tanks during it in public, right away to
help during intense storms.
I'm no.
I'm next line.
And then it's part of our annual Capital Improvement
program. A we have our normal Superman replacement where
it's getting to say a hundred years old and it's time to be
replaced or based on our hydraulic modeling which will talk
about a little bit more for half. The diameter needs to be
increased. If it's showing that the mileage showing at
that, could be impactful for flooding. We also do. You
serve a lining is you're aware and that's where we should
create a pipe within a pipe. It's less expensive and
traditional sewer main replacement and less disruptive. So
we do that as often as we can. And then we also do
Rehabilitation of sewer structures. Usually were talking
about catch basins here, wanting them cleaning them if the
restrictor is damaged or missing at your place. And who
actually lying about 100 over 100,000 structure since 2012.
We also.
We also have our grid-based inspection and replacement of
missing Vortex restrictors Citywide. We're working on,
making sure that all the instruct. The researchers that
we've installed across the city are actually still there
and doing that on a grid bass style.
Next.
Next line.
And then lastly we have our longer-term scale here. This is
mrs. B's. A regional proposed tunnels that we have mapped
out what we've done is taking the city divided into
quadrants based on the sewer catchment and proposed for us.
Very large tunnels that provide significant flooding
medication in each area. So the first one that's going to
be done, is what we're falling area for, and that's on the
southwest side and that is on a, 22-5 your time frame.
Mostly pending fun, the these projects are on the scale of
billion so that's going to be our biggest push. Here is
trying to get funding for these projects that we know are
more Regional in nature and get the water faster to our
friends at mwrd but that's going to take some significant
funding. But the designs are being worked on. We actually
got a FEMA Grant to work on area for design and so that's
moving forward.
Be here.
Next line.
We?
We do, as I mentioned, have our store model it's
hydraulically based we do Continue to update the data for
this based on recent rainfall. So, what does that mean? It
takes into account to account climate change? And, you
know, it basically means we have a moving Target to try
instead of threshold of mitigating flooding across the city
that requirement is continuing to grow because we are
continuing to incorporate the latest in rainfall data into
our model.
Let's see here for becoming a lot of our decision-making
process of remodeling and black slides. Please, and I do
want to just include a few tips really quick during during
storms for homeowners. A lot of you are familiar with this
as we kind of talked about this every spring, but it
sometimes it's Common Sense. Things like avoiding running a
dishwasher or washing machine during a storm. If you can
wait a few hours until the storm is past, that's always
best clearing the area around downspouts to make sure the
water is Flowing freely from your foundation cleaning
drains and sewers of debris. Especially as snow is melting
allow for for drainage and to never dumped statoil's are
grease is in the private trains or catch basins actually
Creek clogs, as well as installing ring Gardens in Green
Landscaping. That are fun that are going to talk about a
little bit more.
and by,
And that is it. Thank you. Thank you so much. Commissioner.
Next.
Next we're going to hear from present still. We're looking
at a the Fantastic alert and you're probably going to talk
about this mwrd, just send out an overflow alerts, that my
chief of staff received on her phone. So there are ways
that we can be informing ourselves as constituents. So
Metropolitan Water Reclamation District. Thank you. Both
first, good morning, chair, hadn't and all the alderman in
the room today and everyone that's present. Thank you for
being present for this important conversation. My name is
Carrie still and I am president of the Board of
Commissioners at the Metropolitan Water Reclamation
District of Greater Chicago.
I'm here to discuss pivotal Partnerships that hold great
significance to address stormwater management and combat
flooding. And I appreciate the opportunity to share the
essential work that the mwrd does. Now some of this
information might be a little repetitive but it is very
important. Sometimes want to hear things more than once
because you know it's important and some of its repetitive
because of course we all work together.
So quick overview of what we do at the mwrd. We treat
Wastewater manage stormwater for all of Cook County and
protect our primary drinking water, source Lake Michigan.
Now.
Now, during rain event the rain from your home or the water
from your home and the rain combined and must go through
local sewer line to get to the MWR.
I'll start over because this part is important. I want to
make sure like I want to give a quick overview of what we
do at the MWR D. So we treat Wastewater manage stormwater
or all of Cook County and protect our primary drinking
water, source Lake Michigan. When water leaves you're home
and when it rains that water combines and has to go through
local sewer lines to get to mwrd, whether it's one of our
treatment plant tarp or one of our reservoirs
Yeah.
Yes. Tarp is a system of deep large tunnels with huge
diameters and we have vast reservoir reservoir but local is
local infrastructure.
Is outdated.
Is outdated old and clogged and there's an extreme rain
event. That water will have issues getting to the mwrd. It
will be like trying to drain a swimming pool with a straw
honestly.
Play.
Climate change is real and we saw more than one extreme
rain event just this year. So we have to make improving our
local infrastructure, a priority. So that water can get to
the mwrd. I want us to have honest and upfront
conversations about how we can all work together to work on
stormwater Management in combat flooding. Now during the
July 2nd extreme rain event, the McCook Reservoir that
Services areas that we are discussing today filled up to a
capacity and just a few hours.
A toad.
I told.
A total of 4.8 billion, gallons of water was captured
during this 500-year rainstorm that otherwise could have
ended up in additional unwanted places. So this was not a
100-year Reign storm that happened in July, but a 500-year
rainstorm and we were able to collect Justin McCook.
Reservoir 4.8 billion gallons of water.
Kern.
Current.
Currently mwrd, is working on stage 2 of the McCook
Reservoir that will add an additional 6.5 billion, gallons
of water of storage when it is completed in 2029. So that's
a project that's already in place. Once it's completed, the
McCook Reservoir will have a combined storage capacity of
10 billion gallons,
End.
Mwrd also has a Thornton Reservoir that has a capacity to
hold 7.9 billion gallons of water, that Services, the area
of Cook County, south of 87th Street.
App.
Upon its completion. In 2015, the project reach, instant
benefits storm water damage, decreased in a 91 square mile
area of Southern Cook County.
M.
MD.
Mwrd has engaged in communities across Cook County in
response to recent storms to collect additional data on
flooding, to verify our various work in these communities
and share our mission to manage stormwater and treat
Wastewater. We are currently partnering on hundreds of
local stormwater management, projects of various sizes and
impacts ranging. From rain Gardens a rain barrel
installations to Reservoir excavations streambank
stabilization and foodprone property and flood-prone,
property acquisition in total.
These play.
These blood reduction projects are protecting more than
17,000 structures. That's homes businesses and other build
other buildings, throughout Cook County. The mwrd is
committed to partnering with all municipalities and
government entities across, Cook County in an equitable
just and timely manner to ensure, no Community is
forgotten, as water has no boundaries.
We?
We are transparent and our efforts to capture stormwater
and continue to work with local state and federal officials
to stress improving infrastructure and that it should be a
priority. So that stormwater can reach our facilities in
the immediate. Mwrd officials have actively participated in
public meetings with our engineer experts and surrounding
communities affected by the July 2nd storm event provided
information on its operations and preventive actions taken
by mwrd to minimize stormwater damage across the region. We
also convened a series of meetings with Engineers from
Cicero Berwyn Oak Park in Chicago to discuss ongoing
efforts to mitigate flooding and identify possible
collaboration.
The in.
The mwrd advocated for a disaster, declaration from Governor
pritzker, which was issued July 11th, 2023 and participates
in mitigation coordination meetings with FEMA on a weekly
basis.
In.
In August mwrd issued, a post storm survey to collect data
on flooding and packs within our community and our service
area to help us better understand each. Community's needs
as a plan, for providing future assistance, towards
addressing stormwater issues throughout the region.
In.
In addition, mwrd provides an overflow action Day text,
message alert option that encourages residents to conserve
water before during. And after that, there is a major rain
storm predicted by reducing water, uses usage to Absolute
Necessities. We can lessen the amount lessen. The amount of
water that flows into those local sewer lines to free up
space so that we can assure water gets to us at the mwrd
and doesn't go into unwanted places.
and I think,
And I think you all.
And I think you all received that overflow action day
alert, and that is probably because if it wasn't through
mwrd and you're signed up with Chicago, we met with the
city of Chicago, after the rain storm, or you're married,
arm are Brandon Johnson and now the office of emergency
management and communication includes the mwrd. Overflow
action day Alert in their alert messaging system, which are
disseminated. Be shy, text notify, Chicago social media
post and emailed. So we did see the need for us to reach a
broader audience. Obviously, there are more people
interested in city of Chicago, alerts then hearing about
mwrd wastewater treatment.
More information on mwrd overflow action day, text alerts
and how to sign up is provided in the resource photos that
are distributed earlier or you can visit mwrd.org or sign
up for mwrd alerts.
By.
Buy chicago.org or OMC alert. All of these are valuable
resources available to homeowners and businesses. So that
they are notified when to take action and can help reduce
stormwater damage. In addition, the mwrd launched a no
wipes. Down the pipes, Public Service Announcement, a few
years ago, you know, we can quit doing the slide
The flight.
The Flies are for our engineer when she speaks after me, I
don't have any slices, just me talking to you all.
So, in addition to recently, we have no wipes down the
pipes, Public Service Announcement, a few years ago to
educate the public that even went as flushable too much of
anything can talk your pipes. So, as I spoke of earlier,
obviously, if you're flushing wipes, down the pipes or all
the leaves and debris, that get caught up in the pipes that
basically, you know, is a blockage. So we did put out a
service announcement about that. In the next space, the
recent discussions and Engineers from communities impacted
by recent unprecedented. And unpredicted storms, mwrd is
looking to revisit stormwater management projects that will
start the preparation process or addressing future storms.
Climate change is real and we can be assured that the rain
will return. There is not one solution, but a combination
of grey and green infrastructure is necessary.
so,
So I agree that we should continue our space to grow
program that was mentioned earlier, because it is a great
opportunity. So great way to reduce neighborhood, flooding.
For those of you not familiar with the space to go program.
I know it was mentioned earlier, but it's basically we're
just transforming old school yards into beautiful green
places, green learning areas.
but the
But that green.
But that green infrastructure. Can capture stormwater and
store it when there is a storm. So far, we have completed
with the help of Chicago Department water department and
see PS. 34 School yards combined and we have captured
6536000
over seven almost seven billion, gallons of water, have
been captured throughout Cook County,
We also think we should have Grace the green alley program.
When possible we have five green alleys across the city of
Chicago that have captured about 300,000 gallons of water.
Of course, these are all
Rodger.
projects that we can do that. Don't take as long as a huge
gray stormwater project but their smaller projects that
might take a year to complete, but they can provide
benefits once complete, the benefit is, of course, keeping
stormwater out of those. Local sewer lines when we have
those heavy downpours.
Also, we can't stress enough. You must disconnect your
downspouts, we have to educate our constituents and
everyone about this. Connecting their downspouts that can
make a huge difference and it makes even more of an impact.
When you put that rain barrel underneath the downspout,
Are.
Ever.
every rain barrel can hold about 55 gal, the current cost
of a rain barrel through a rain. Barrel program is about
$10 for senior citizens and the normal price is $21. But
once again, is it makes a huge impact and you can use that
water to do other things because your conserving water. So
you can use that water later to water your plants, and what
not. So just imagine for the rain barrels, because I know
they're often people who don't understand the impact of a
rain barrel, or might think it's just a minor thing to do.
But if you have a rain barrel, and it holds about 55 gal,
and then there are about 30 homes on a block. That's 1650.
Gal of water that you are keeping out of the local sewer
line at a time when we're having heavy downpours and we're
trying to do everything possible to clear up.
Slow.
Localsyr.
Local sewer lines because remember, the water has to pop
has to flow through local sewer line to get to the mwrd so
that we could store it, treated capture it or just reserved
it while we're in a rainstorm.
In.
In addition we have green infrastructure call Out programs
where we partner with local governmental agencies to help
fund the construction of green infrastructure in their
communities with accepting applications for this program in
till December, 31st.
In summary, the mwrd, continues are essential work and
commitment to protect the quality of our most valued
resource and Water Supply Lake Michigan. We ask the public
to remain informed and know that they can also know what
they can also do to help reduce flooding.
M.
MD.
Mwrd staff is working with the Chicago Department of Water
Management to prioritize projects that will provide local
storage and convince improvements. And we look forward to
working with all of you, we must keep the lines of
communication open. This isn't a one agency that can solve
the problem, but we have to work together, we have to work
together, one to stress, the importance of local
infrastructure and to get additional funding funding.
to make it a
To make it up.
To make it a priority but then also we have to embrace a
additional green infrastructure so that we can help with
the stormwater management issue. I have an open door
policy. I'm here to work with you all at any time and now
I'm going to turn it over to our engineer. The engineer,
Catherine O'Connor, who will give you more suggestions and
some honest and put thank you.
Thank.
Thank you, president steel and I dr. O'Connor we can go
through the slides and and just thinking of the time, let
us know presidents. You are actually really thorough the
very helpful. So if there are things you want us to hop
around for that doctor cook, just let us know. We can go
backwards and forwards.
Thank you very much. I'm Catherine O'Connor. I'm here with
President still can hear me and my colleague Kevin
Fitzpatrick. Kevin Fitzpatrick is the division Chief and he
manages the completion of tire and the stormwater
Management program for Water, Reclamation District. I will
only use three slide. So if you could please advance in the
interest of time. Next fly, please, next slide, next,
slide, next, slide. Next slide, I don't want to, I don't
want to repeat. I think the present field in a fantastic
job. This schematic shows the water backing up in a
basement during the July 2nd storm, a typical home in
City of Chicago.
City of Chicago would perhaps if they didn't read the
Overflow action alert discharge, possibly 400 gallons of
water out of their home that day if they're downspouts were
connected to the Sewer. That eight inches of rain for a
typical size house would have been a thousand gallons. So,
ignore overflow action. Have 400 gallons. Your bowels are
not disconnected. That's eight thousand gallon, that's and
that's the situation. We were in that water backed up in
the basement, as shown in the, with the Redskin attic and
tarp was not full nelson. Weather Service was reporting,
flooding. There's plenty of multiple feet of water on the
streets. 9 a.m. our tunnel was not full at 9 a.m. on July
2nd at. So, I could you please advance
Neck.
Next slide, dr. Chang handle that very well. Next time,
please just overwhelm system. Next line. Please.
Next, slide, please. We talk about the different levels of
flooding at this light. I just like to show the rain
Garden. This is a house disconnected. We went meaningful
this connection and that's where we're in the meetings
every couple of weeks with prefer I call her professor, you
call her commissioner Chang and we're working very hard to
get to identify meaningful. This connection. We can't just
disconnected. Have people was tripping on the ice in the
winter. We wanted captured mean.
Play.
Hopefully, and into the ground and to Miss Watson point we
want trees and green and fresh air. So we want Greenery in
our cities and one last slide, please Advance on again.
End.
Mwrd in partnership with Department of Water Management,
completed a master plan, actually decks life, please.
For.
For the west side and we evaluated planning needs and
documented existing conditions at Matt's in collaboration
with the city's trunk supermodel, that took years to
establish that model has given us quite a bit of
information. We tied it into our deep tunnel model so that
we understand the system and that project has identified
design retention 10 projects, and 1.39 million gal captured
at a cost of about $22 22.94 million dollars. So we know
what we need to do our Board of Commissioners. President's
deal with back to the legislature with mwd was given storm
water authority. In 2003, it was strictly for multi Juris
fictional projects residence deal in the board. Saw the
need to get into communities and do the projects. It wasn't
until 2014 that we had authorization to do these. Local
projects were very committed were lockstep with water
Manor.
bent with
Bent, with our short.
Bent with are short medium and long-term needs. And I will
turn this over to Lucy.
Thank.
Thank you, dr. O'Connor and so, we have our Deputy
Commissioner Shang with the Department of Transportation.
More.
Good morning. Thank you for having me. I'd like to
introduce myself. My name is and Zang, and the Deputy
Commissioner for engineering at the Chicago Department of
Transportation. I'm here to discuss green Ali's. I only
have one side though. I'll make it pretty pretty. We have
Nineteen Hundred Miles of public alleys in Chicago. It's
actually one of the largest Ali networks in any city in the
world. Most of the tallies are not connected to the storm
sewer system and are prone to flooding green. The green
alley program is an environmentally friendly initiative to
reconstruct Ali's, it was created to improve stormwater,
drainage reduce heat and conserve energy. And the alleys
I'll use techniques such as permeable pavement to allow
storm water drain into the pavement, into the ground.
Also.
I also have a drainage system improvements as well as
underground attention to store, rainwater, temporarily
until the storm sea storm system, can handle the flow. I'm
in addition High Albedo concrete. That is used for surface,
reflectivity reflectivity to reduce the heat island effect
in alleys and recycled materials as well. We improve
grading and basically allow the flow lines and the pitch
and the alleys to facilitate that drainage since 2007,
you've installed just over four hundred green alleys across
all words in the city. And this is due to the increased
work that we've been able to do as a result of the
dedicated funding in the capital Bond program, that was
cast, and
cast and crew.
Cast in 2021, as well as the expansion of the green alley
program. As a result of the Chicago recovery plan through
the neighborhood infrastructure menu program. Each word is
allocated 1 green alley per year and
There.
there's,
There's been a very successful selection from all of the
words and we're working towards designing and ensuring that
these aliens are are built in a expeditious manner.
They?
Thank you.
and,
Thank you. Deputy Commissioner. We are now going to hear
from Khalil Muhammad and Glen my men from our office of
emergency management and communication.
Could.
Crap.
Good afternoon.
Good morning, everyone. As alderperson, hadn't stayed at my
name is Khalil Muhammad. I went to see the Chicago Cubs
office of emergency management in vacations. Thank you for
giving us the opportunity today to be here. For those of
you that don't know, MC is the mandated esda for the city
of Chicago, which is emergency services and disaster Agency
for the city of Chicago. This is mandated by state law.
So in instances like this, you know, we initially sent out
Personnel to assess the situation on the ground and
coordinate with other agencies to meet the immediate needs
on the ground with this disaster in particular. We meeting
at these start to follow disaster sequence that you have on
the screen right now. So we get the disaster, we collect
what we called, local damage assessments, we make a request
of the state
Who I am.
I am of the Illinois Emergency Management Agency for women
re-evaluation of the damage with FEMA, which is what they
call a PDA. So we do the PDA which is us actually going out
into the street and knocking on doors and talking to people
about what they sustained in their household. And then we
submit that information to the governor. So he can sign a
declaration and send it up to DC and ask the president
United States to declare a disaster, declaration, which
happened in this instance, the last time we had something
like this for an afford it, like this was approximately 10
years ago, 2013 pretty much. Same area, folks. Same type of
situation of storm.
Stop.
Double.
Toby go to the next guy we can talk about the city's
response and OMC. In particular the day of you know we had
already, we monitor whether anybody over everything OMC or
get some of them work, Chicago stuff, we pretty much we try
to make sure we're constantly monitoring things Citywide.
Was it be whether special events police and fire, radio
traffic, the news, local, and National and international.
Make sure we try to keep abreast of anything that could
affect the residents of the city of Chicago. We knew that
there was a storm coming. There could be a potential for
flooding. But as anybody that knows anything about storms,
it's a forecast.
When?
When they fall.
When a forecast, they just tell us certain information, and
there's a range and where they think it's going to hit and
things of that nature. So, we had people out on the street
that day, assessing doing things, I know it was a there was
something dammit evaluation to happen the next day and a
press conference in Chicago. On my mind for actually a
holiday, you know, we had DSS Department Streets &
Sanitation, Personnel out there, helping and cleaning up
the alleys and it read, I was out there. I think it was
about close to four hundred personnel and 125 refuse trucks
in 15 sweeper City, why they were doing that and Streets &
Sanitation also for at least a month afterwards. Gently on
the weekends was out there before the first week they were
out there every day and know that Ali is getting that
stuff. But you know, they were out there, you know, helping
residents get stuff out of the basement and get those
Alley's clear continues.
So you know, he WM helped out, they had crews out there
because they have to close out. Those 311 calls as the
commissioner talked about earlier. And then we also in a
partner up with the Salvation Army in American Red, Cross
immediately get what we call clean up. Kids to those most
impact Awards being all depends offices. And it Noah some
events that happened that we made those available, but as
well, during that time next line,
So you know from the range of the 6th or the 27th, there was
a lot of stuff that was going on within our agency just
trying to make sure that we got a full picture with the
data and we were communicating with FEMA and I M at that
time to you know, get the get some type of decoration, get
some assistance, more assistance to Chicago. And we also
get some Community gauge meant with some meetings and some
of the most effective towards, with the alderman, this and
other community organizations. We at our office, we
literally look through the notes of pretty much every water
in the basement call. So, we could categorize, and, you
know, make that part of a report that we sent to my email
so that we could get those pdas. So that, that was a lot of
man-hours to get people physically. Looking at the screens,
looking at the pictures that was sent in. For those of you
that don't know, if you use the 311 app instead of calling
you can send us pictures. So weak
Actually.
Actually, you see a visual of what happened on July 11th in
the state of Illinois, Cook County issue. Disaster
decorations. We did an AAR which is an after-action report
and we collected agency cost as well. Because in addition
to getting assistance to the individuals out there,
something like this impacts our public infrastructure as
well. There's some programs that FEMA has in place. If we
meet thresholds that we can make,
Get some.
Get some of those.
get some of those,
Get some of those costs reimbursed and some of our
equipment or infrastructure that was damaged reimbursed, as
well on the 14th, going to be submitted City of Chicago
formal documentation for individual assistance to Imo.
That looks like a big gap but like I said, there was a lot
of data to process. It's not just the 311 information. It's
looking at the social for Mobility index, which is
something that we can track by census tracts to hire the
Social Development building, and index, the better of a
chance that we have of getting funding because those people
are more impact it because they are less likely to be able
to recover on their own from something like this. So on the
25th or the 29th, we actually were out in the field
knocking on doors and doing those official ETA with teams
made up of FEMA email OMC, Cook County Department of
Emergency Management and Regional security. So if you go to
the next fight,
You're?
you'll see the
You'll see that, you know, we assess pretty much a total of
1500 residences or addresses in Chicago. And you can see
that breakdown of you know destroyed major minor affected
are unaffected know. Those major numbers help us a lot and
telling our stories as well as those miners affected you
know that tells us to that there was some damage but that
major is a category that we really want to see
unfortunately to try to make our case to FEMA.
You know.
You know, we were out there with five teams of people, we
were established, what we call a command post at the
Austin. Town Hall, Park District facilities. Every day. We
will meet out there and we would have signed pretty much
what areas people are going to assess for the day from
there.
Neck.
Next.
Next line, please.
so,
So we got our disaster declaration, thank God on August 5th
from it. Got forwarded from the governor's office to do to
President Biden. And then the Declaration got signed on the
15 making assistance, available to residents of the city of
Chicago. So, if you go to the next time, we can go into the
individual assistance, which is pretty much what
everybody's been in seeing out there to the residence. So
there's, you know, pretty much the individual and household
program ihp. That's where most of the money is coming from
the people are receiving or repairs for cleanup and other
things. There's also the disaster unemployment assistance,
that was a program that was available. That is no longer
available there was a period of time and we will notify the
Alders and everybody about that that time has passed there.
Something called disaster Legal Services which is still
available and will be available after that October 30th
date and
There is.
Nearest.
There is enough.
There is I know a lot of people talk about this to the
small business administration loans which I know that may
not be the preferred method for people. But that is
something that a lot of people can't take advantage of an
Echidna. Make them a lot more homework than just the
individual assistance. If they take advantage of it right
at the right time and tractors and do the right medication
things. Like I know one person that, you know, got the
money and their plan is to get the check valve installed,
so they don't have this problem in the future. You know,
make sure they do those mitigation efforts that make it
pretty really hard for them to flood again.
Information.
Information is up there if you don't have it all ready and
take a screenshot. If you look on the computer or take a
picture with your phone of the website, the phone number,
or you can go into the FEMA Ave and make these applications
or visit one of the for disaster and actually five. I'm
sorry. Cuz we have a roving D Arcy in the city of Chicago.
These are actual physical locations where somebody can
actually make an application. Make an appeal or go and talk
to somebody if they have just general questions about the
process.
Neck.
Next.
Next song, please.
So, back to adjust ihp. So, give housing assistance in other
needs assistance, it's a direct Grant to the Survivor, you
know, the deadline to apply. Like, I think Alderman,
Coleman mention earlier is October 30th got extended
yesterday, but October 30th, that's it. It's over 30th. So,
as long as you get something in by October 30th, even if
you still got up, he'll still fighting with Team cuz I know
people are doing that and stuff like that since they
fighting. But you know, having some difficulties. Make sure
you do at least, get that initial application in October
30th next life. Please.
Guess, I'll just go over real quick. But this is about the
dancer unemployment. This was something that was
administered, b. I d e. S, it's, it's something that could
separate that. We'd the state had to apply for as that.
Gave people benefits that were eligible for up to 26 weeks
there. For that application. Expired. On September 21st,
next slide, so, disastrous legal services. This is
something. I think a lot of people should take advantage
of. This can help them with home repair contracts. So, you
know, like people that are actually, when I get there, a
full basement redone and stuff like that, take advantage of
this, make sure you got a contract in place. Go to the
city's website, there's a list of licensed contractors up
there. No, make sure you utilize this. Not the neighborhood
guy that says he can do it for.
Keep up.
Cheaper price, you know, make sure you are getting
reputable people and make sure you using services that are
available to you to do this. If you're still having
landlord issues disaster, legal, assistance can help you
with that. And also if you have an issue with me, but you
don't think they're treating you right, disaster legal
services will help you with that appeal. So the provider is
legal aid, Chicago, that's the website, that's the phone
number, you can call them or go on the website and they
can, you know, get you set up with some assistance if you
need it. Please. So, the drc's, I think this has been a
real good component of this. This is where somebody can
physically talk to a person about their situation. We've
got four of Port is provocation that been up in the city
4851 West North Avenue and 73074 Denson a shopping plaza,
500 South Central, that is at
Park District facility.
Park District facility, right? There is a 2914 South Kedzie,
which I think many people are aware of is one of our tfss
sites and the 28th Ward. And at the Imani Village at 901
East 95th Street in the eighth Ward. Now, up until I
believe tomorrow, we also have something called a roving
DRC rdrc. That is a branch of the Chicago Public Library.
They've been up there all week. So we've been utilizing
data just because this happened in July 2nd. We get regular
updates from Team about who, registers and stuff like that.
We saw that there was a nice amount, an uptick of people
registered in that area. And we don't have a a, a D Arcy
that we think it's close enough to service those people in
an area that we saw enough registrations in enough money
going out that we thought they needed to be somebody there
and just based off talking to FEMA. They've they've gotten
about forty or fifty people a day in there, at that
location to
play Ben.
They've been on.
They've been open this week so it was a good decision to
make sure that roving D'Arcy, was locate their next five
please.
So SBA small business administration provides low-interest
loans to assist with Transportation losses as well as
repair replacement phones for real and personal property
damage. You know, one thing that FEMA makes it very clear
to people FEMA is not going to make you whole, you know,
it's
that's not what the
That's not what the perp.
That's not what the purpose of the program is, you know, of
i s b a loan. If if if you have issues with her insurance
company or if they're not paying at all, maybe another
option that could make you close to home or make you whole,
because of the amount of money in the interest and stuff
like that, the rate being low. So I really do know,
obviously, people need to make decisions that are best for
what their financial situation is. But I would not discard
or discredit SBA is not something that is a viable option.
For some people that have some serious issues that they
need in their house. To be fixed based upon what happened
to Flo up. So the S&P is operating what they call a b, or c
or two of them, business recovery centers, when is at 3600,
West Ogden? And the other one is down here in the loop at
332 South Michigan, which I believe is like a regional
office to assist with providing low-interest loans, and
stuff like that. But also at the DRC
in the
in our,
In rdrc. There is an SBA rep. So you know, you can go to
one of them either to BRC or the DRC to talk to somebody
from SBA slightly.
So as of October 11th over two hundred and fourteen million
dollars has been approved. Countywide as part of the
individual, the ice cream program over at 91,000
households, in all, this comes to an average of about 2200
per household. You know, if Dairy is based on community
area War, don't you? Just go up and down, cuz it varies
depending on the damage and different other factors as I
said before, people can appeal. So with your original Ward
is right now, if you appeal, or if you get some of the
other work done, that may go up up these values, 116
million of that, it's just here in the city Chicago, 450
3,000 people here, residence in the city of Chicago and
that comes out to an average of 2200 per household.
Additionally, that's been about sixteen hundred SBA Loans
for about 55 million dollars.
One thing.
One thing I want to also say that to not there up there,
right now in the slide. But you just had some information
about some of the on-the-ground stuff. Is that in one thing
that we've been doing to push this message out is FEMA, has
sent out about 150,000 postcards to see the zip codes that
were most affected to let people know. Hey, this is
available. This is how you apply my understanding. Is they
will still be sending out some more music, more mailers,
since we have gotten an extension to make sure cuz
Still seeing new piece.
Still seeing new people. And these are not like not like
ones and twos, but we're seeing that some of these fights
2030 new people. A day coming in that have not registered.
So, there's a lot of people that still don't understand
that they were eligible or, I did not know that this was
out there for him. So if you know, you know, anybody, you
know, carry that message. That's one thing I would say that
they just make sure that it carried out as many of the
residents as possible. Next time, please.
So in terms of long-term recovery so there's something
called crisis, clean up hotline. If that's been established
with prices clean up is going to do more long-term stuff.
So like let's say, hey I need mold remediation, I don't
have the money for that, you can call 211. We're going to
try to hook these people up with volunteer organizations or
some other organizations, taking, maybe a system that are
dead and things of that nature. We also, we've been working
with this agency since the beginning of this. It's just
been hard to get them to get enough volunteers and get some
things in order. But we finally, I think we've got things
in place, where next week, there's going to be an issue 30
properties if there's going to be some muck out. So it's
for some people that really haven't done anything but just
take stuff out there basements in their drywall as molding
down there, there's no insulation that's mold and it's been
sitting down there since July 2nd is not been touched, you
know, we made it real clear to Rubicon.
We would.
We want to help as many people as possible.
We want to help as many people as possible, but we want to
make sure that they are priority is to seniors and the
disabled people in these communities. Cuz those are the
people that we think are the most vulnerable and need the
most help. So, T-Mobile card is a volunteer organization,
mostly made up of military veterans. And you know, they're
going to start working this job. Really excited to do this
work for Google time before with the covid vaccine and
stuff like that. During that era, you know, they are a very
dedicated and committed group and we commend them for what
they do. We're trying to find other volunteer organizations
that can help out with some of the stuff for people that
just cannot afford that mold remediation or some of the
other things that are needed to make sure that at least
their basement is may not be fully back together, but it's
at least a safe and clean the area again.
So, you can go to the one more thing. I'm sorry before we
go to the next line. So one thing is the long-term recovery
groups. This is something that's going to be on going, you
know, this is a disaster, you know, just because I told her
30th in doesn't mean This Disaster is an over. You know,
there are some long-term needs that the community needs
met. The one thing that is part of the FEMA process, is
they go out and they try to try to try to be the
incubators, what they called long-term.
Regroup.
Three groups. So we've got two pretty much. There's two
viable ones that are pretty much getting Bible in the city
one and Austin which is the one that's been the most. I
think a viable they actually did an event at build on 5100
West Harrison - about 70, 80 people showed up there and you
know we had seen him out there to really meet one of the
needs that we've heard from the community is like hey I
haven't gotten what I think I am entitled to under this
program so they brought the specific step out there to help
them with those appeals to go through those issues. So,
that's what the the Austin ltrt has been able to
accomplish. After I had some vendors out, there some other
agencies to give some people some information about the
other resources are available to work, trying to keep on
working with them and other groups to build up that
capacity because this is a, a whole village thing that
needs to happen. Now is not just a city or we need to
community, we need the volunteer organizations, we need
some of the knock.
After.
Off.
Popped out there to really step up to the plate and try to
help all these communities recover as holy as possible. So
the other group that's a group in Chatham that I know he
had a meeting and they had I think an event baby about a
month ago. So you know, there are getting geared up as well
too and then if you go to witches are think our last night
here.
We?
We had another rain event, I think a lot of people heard
about it around September 17th, most of the news attention,
came to Calumet City that area Dalton, you know, but we
have some communities out in that area that are in the city
of Chicago. Most mainly Hegewisch. That was some stuff and
maybe the eighth Ward as well. But what we did was we get
the same thing. Ran it in terms of our 311 water in the
basement closet, we got and, you know, Cook County and also
we talked and talked with the stage in the state was able
to get p.m. it agreed to do a PDA Terraria. The way out
there, assessing those as well to see if we can get enough
for decoration and the way these decorations work for
everybody, just so they understand there for the whole
County. So, if we get it, it'll be for the whole County
which includes the city of Chicago, and it doesn't just
include that one community of the city of Chicago that
called. It would be
The whole.
The whole set.
The whole city of Chicago, just like this is because
because we can do most of this was affected the west side.
But we had Pockets, like, and Marion up and Avalon Park
that we saw it. Now with the data were saying some other
areas that really didn't give us a lot of 311 calls, but
they registered inspectors went out and saw that there was
real damage. So, you know, we never know the full extent
until we get something like this in place. Where is
actually money on the street and ask when a lot more to
people.
Are coming.
are coming out and we
Are coming out and start get.
Are coming out and we start getting a better sense of the
damage as a whole, that's pretty much it for us. I thank
you for your time everyone.
I'm sorry that Walmart thing we've got also just so people
understand we've got a couple things that we do. We have in
place that our long-standing, we have a slot operations
guidance document that's not a side that we have that has
been updated since it's been in existence since 2014. We
also have something called a multi-jurisdictional hazard
mitigation plan, which we do with Cook County. We have an
Annex for Dad that was last updated in 2019. That is a, we
do that update that every five years. We've had something
in existence as a hazard mitigation plan. Since about 2006,
the city had their own beat start doing a joint one with
the county since 2012. So I just want to make sure that
people know that we think about these things we prepare for
these things. These are not things that just happen. And
we're scrambling. Know we have plans in place, we follow
the plans, but mother nature always has a different plan
than what are playing in.
The weird.
The we adapt and we overcome. Thank you.
Thank.
Thank you so much for your testimony for our final
testimony today, I would like to welcome dr. Trisha
Cordova, and Professor Havelock from you. I see to share
some insights with the city from uic's fresh water lab in
great cities Institute.
Good morning, everyone.
So I am always giving myself a hard time, calling them
nerds, but I think I'm a nerd to because I really think
this infrastructure and stormwater Management in particular
is very interesting. So I'm very happy to be here here.
Woman had interior trim and Hopkins and
I'm a.
I'm going to present very quickly some information so that
I can make room for more time to be spent with my colleague
doctor Havelock.
So, I will.
So I want to call your attention to the map. I think you
have a copy of it, but it's also up on the, on the, the
board as well. First thing I want to say though, is that I
really appreciate the fact that our chief sustainability
officer spoke about the issue of climate change, may, you
know, yourselves, for example, that infrastructure
stormwater Management in particular has developed with the
hundred year flood in mind and we've been doing that now
for quite a while, many many, many decades. And so most of
the infrastructure that we have in place has been
For that.
For that Hunter.
For that hundred you.
For that hundred year flood but we're seeing out increases
in the frequency of the 500-year flood floods and even in a
lot of places, the Thousand-Year plus. So this is a big
problem. This is the problem that is not going to go away
anytime soon. And so the extent to which were making
investments in infrastructure is very, very important. I
really also appreciated that that the a commissioner from
the dog water. Commissioner spoke about short hair as did
the captain O'Connor speak about short-term medium-term and
long-term cuz there are some things that can be happening
in the short-term. There are some things that need to be
done more long-term what what I want to do before I pass
this on to my colleague cuz I want his present to you this
this day that we pull together. You've heard a lot of
references today to the stormwater events between June 29th
and July 3rd and you've also heard a lot of references to
the 311 calls as well as the extent to which
Where is the?
where is this?
Was this extensive flooding one of the things? Well let me
let me sew them given that. Then what I want to do is nmap
some of what you've heard and what you can see up there
then on the screen is where the 311 calls were
concentrated. So you so you can see what has already been
said. But you see it very visually the extent to, which is
concentrated on the west side and the extent to, which is
concentrate also on the south side. Now, if we just opposed
That way.
That with the map to the writer.
That with the map to the right of it. This isn't a dot
matrix map. Density map. That shows where the our
concentrations of populations are by race. And you can see
just visually the numbers of 311 calls that occurred in the
African American neighborhoods and also let you know
neighborhood. But primarily African-American neighborhoods
on the on the west and south side. So if we then look for
example at the in the table below, you can't see it there
but I know you have him copies of it. The table below what
we did is we looked at areas block-by-block where there are
concentrations of populations by race. And what we found
out of those 311 Paul's almost half of 48.649 per cent of
those calls, came from African Americans.
which,
Which is a.
Which is a which really points to I think this issue a lot
of the issues that you raised for example about about where
it was being impacted right and Indian and the and the
severity of that impact. In addition you can you can see
the next in line was the numbers of calls from communities
where there wasn't necessarily that 75% concentration. And
and then let me know is had about 12%. So let me just say
something
very quickly about why we
Very quickly about why we see some of these figures. Now, I
do want to point out that it would, it would be very
interesting for example, to compare this this information
with maybe 311 calls that came in last year when the event
was on the northwest side, do we still see that kind of
distribution? I dare say that we are still seeing the
disproportionate impact in these neighborhoods but one of
the things that we do know about the types of storms that
we're getting that only has a more severe but they're also
becoming more concentrated and in that concentration even
becoming more severe. So where is the concentration of
current? It's a crane away from the lakefront and where is
that water going? Is going into into the areas that are
that are lower lying areas such as a right? Which is
something. My colleague is going to speak. To the other
thing. We asked when we were looking at this data, we asked
OK, why ride? And we seen this kind of discrepancy but we
we we know some of the obvious
Let's go.
Let's really dig in a little bit, just thinking about it
sort of an eyeball in a little bit. It seems to be
happening. And there is also where we have higher rates of
disinvestment so that you're not seeing. For example, you
seen more flooding in areas where there's profit with his
list where there's less disinvestment and we speculate
potentially and this is a question, perhaps you all, and I
answered Catherine In the City by the extension.
Leesburg.
Example. Are we invested in infrastructure in the Illinois?
Terry's are receiving this investment and probably not to
the extent that we're investing in infrastructure in areas
where we do see development over development is occurring.
So, for hypothyroid, pause has eyes and there's a direct
relationship, then between the lack of disinvestment and
the lack of infrastructure in areas where there is high
work, where there are high concentrations for example of
African-Americans. And so part of the response, then really
needs to be. And we've talked about this employment to
violence and so on, but the importance of building up these
neighborhoods write the important to invest in the
neighborhood and bringing all the investment occurs. So
that's some of what it what I want to say this. But I
really wanted you also that the professor have to walk has
has enough time to present some of her thoughts.
Thank you, Teresa. Thanks everyone for being here. I am,
Professor. So I understand we're getting towards the end of
class here, and people are restless and leaving. So I'll
try to be brief. And to the point, of course, these floods
have high element of inevitability, they will keep
happening. Our city is on what was once. A wetland, it is,
there is very little slope, we have covered it with
concrete and asphalt and then the nature of geology itself
is that there is not
Allah.
A lot of absorption. This is combined with all the
predictor showing that we are going to have increased
amounts of rainfall and that this rainfall is going to come
in ways that are uneven and overwhelmed. The built
environment. Again, speaking to what Cheryl Watson had to
say. This is a, let's quote, the great novelist Toni
Morrison here. Water has a perfect memory is always going
to remember from whence, it came and that's exactly true,
right? Chatham is located on one of the lowest points in
the city and an area that was once known as Mud Lake or
hug. Like so this rain is coming, we are not really built
for it and we're in a position geographically to receive a
lot of it. So where can we be hard? But I think we can be
hardened today from everything. We've heard here for real,
you ain't creative collab.
The idea.
Ideas. So we've got good human minds and we have to learn
how to encounter the rain live with the rain and maximize
this water in ways that are beneficial for us in Chicago
and throughout the state of Illinois. So, I'm not going to
repeat the good ideas that were shared, but I'm going to
introduce a few new ones and the first thing which is quite
actionable. Oh, okay. The first thing that's quite
actionable is
Me.
I need an alert system for household. Use mwrd overflow.
Action days are great. But remember over the summer, when
the air quality was bad and all of our phones Buzz, we need
that when we're having rain events and it needs to be tied
to location from cell phone towers, and the messages need
to be very important. People need to hold their household
water use when it is raining and we need all those phones
to buzz. We need it in conjunction with a big campaign,
billboard public service announcements for people to begin
to understand that any water put into the system during a
rain event can
Reese.
Resurfaced in your household. And for those who are really
interested to just know something simple, go out on the
streets and clean the storm drain of trash and leave. So I
think, first and foremost, let us get this emergency system
going immediately. Anybody in an area that's blooding?
Their phone should a light and Buzz Green infrastructure.
We've heard a lot of great ideas. I'm just going to put a
few extra things here. One divided ministration announce, 1
billion dollars for tree. Planting let us put our most
impacted neighborhoods at the front of the line to receive
that money for.
Trees.
Treat another piece of green infrastructure that I've seen
out in California are reconstructed wetlands and this can
happen at small and large scale at the large-scale. Let's
work with Great Lakes, restoration initiative and other
Great Lakes organization to start working on the hard edges
of our lakefront and introduce Wetlands. That can hold and
filter water. But we can do this on microscale, curbside
Wetlands, right? Everyone knows those pools, right? Where
the parkway hits the curb we can replace those. You know
hard concrete edges with plants that can absorb is water
because that standing water also breed disease and toxins.
And can be very dangerous especially if kids go out after a
storm. The other thing I want to say about green
infrastructure. Instant
Mission is we need to tie it to community groups and
educational initiatives. I was in North Lawndale on Monday
visiting that green Corridor where there is green
infrastructure and
Does.
The city comes out sometimes and mows it. And the Beautiful
plants are gone and people that benefit and are using that
don't have jurisdiction over it. They don't have local
people that can maintain it that understand it and they
don't have signage and things that are encouraging. It is
kind of development as well as downspout. So we need to
talk. I are development to Green economy and educational
initiatives. We can do this in the summer for young people.
In school, we can do green infrastructure structure, job
training, but you can't throw something down that nobody
understands and no one has the right to maintain. It's got
to be integrated in order to be effective. I want to end
with the importance of water reuse. This again has two
scales.
Star.
Start.
Start on the large-scale, it is laudable and admirable. And
miraculous that we've got the kind of infrastructure that
we have to hold store and treat water and you know hearing
as we did from the city and mwrd today about those
expansion but let us consider where all that water is going
at the end and that is out of the city through the sanitary
and ship canal and those many billions.
What?
Water R&B.
Water are being treated as waste at a time when there is
drought in the state of Illinois. So, we've got to get to
that next clothes that final Loop of the system and reuse
that water for non-potable uses. We need to bring it into
productive effect. This is water that can bear rates. This
is water, that can help alleviate water shortages. This is
vital and there is also developing Federal money and
interest in it. But on the disaster level we also need
decentralized. Sometimes even portable water recycling
units, they started to do this in the city of Detroit where
the flooding and combined sewer overflows have been
devastating, but units that can be on site that can hold
water and that can treat it and that can be used, you know,
for irrigation and maintenance.
Ask.
After work. So these are the points that I'd like to
introduce with the overall, kind of approach that we need
to learn to live with. The right. There is no concrete,
that's going to make it disappear. We've got the integrated
into our design, into our communities, into our governance,
and into our education. Thank you.
and,
Thank you. So
Thank you so much for fesser. Thank you to all of our all of
our speakers, every single person. I hope you all heard
here. Every single person has a very important role within
our city, within our County, and our larger management. And
I appreciate all the time, you all have taken to come here
today. We're going to start with questions and I'm going to
turn it over to Chairman Hopkins to us Arkansas.
Yeah, thank you very much for women had and I just want to
begin by my behalf of my staff, Rosie of Amarillo, and
Sarah Hughes. I want to acknowledge the hard work of you
and your office and your leadership and assembling a
blue-ribbon panel of expert witnesses that we just heard
from this present, a presentation for outstanding are they
were substitute. If they were detailed, they helped us as
public officials gain a much better understanding of the
problem, and they laid out potential Pathways to solutions,
that is what a city council committee was supposed to do so
outstanding, work to you and to your staff, I just have a
couple of questions and then we'll turn it over because I'm
sure our colleagues have questions as well. My first one is
for dr. O'Connor doctor two questions. Does the Water
Reclamation District? Do any sort of modeling where we
could definitively say what the impact of the McCook
Reservoir would have been if it were fully operational and
functional? What would have the July 2nd?
Ray.
rain event look like
Rain event. Look like I had the McCook Reservoir been
completed in and been online and I also related to that.
Could you touch on our ability to proactively take steps
when we have reliable weather forecasts for a large rain
event? Pending are there things we can do, like opening the
control gates at Lockport lowering, the capacity, the Water
waste system in anticipation of events like that in and how
does that play in to our current response? Because as we
heard, it's going to be a few more years before McCook is
done. And this won't be the last major rain event that we
have between now and then. So what are some steps we can
take in the interim.
Those are.
those are very good questions and it's something that we
debate internally, I believe I can say with relative
certainty that
The.
the event on July 2nd would not have been materially
different if we had all 10 billion gallons because the
flooding occurred prior to the system being full,
so,
and that's a little bit of the beauty. I don't know if it's
Beauty but we're seeing climate change the tunnel and
Reservoir plan was approved by our Board of Commissioners
in the 19 early 1970s. And since then, the rain has become
more intense and that's why we need to look at it for local
capture. We need to treat the water where it falls, because
that's where I plug it in last year. September 11th, the
northwest side. That's where the rain fell. And that's
where it's flooded. So,
We do look forward to.
Completing the tunnel and having the ten billion gallons of
storage at the McCook Reservoir but for the very intense
rain, that will not help it will alleviate flooding for
more reasonable store. And you had another question that I
had a trying to lower the Water waste system in
anticipation of rain events by opening. The control gates
at Rockport. Would that have helped. Thank you very much.
We do lower the water to the level that the Army Corps of
Engineers allows the sanitary and ship canal has to be
maintained for navigation and it takes 4 hours to lower the
sanitary and ship canal, one foot. So, in anticipation of a
storm, we do lower the Waterway and and that does provided
tremendous amount of storage for the entire system.
we do, he
We do get the benefits.
We do get the benefits of that completely managed Waterway.
And that is, that is our first stop for storage for
stormwater.
Yeah, thank you doctor. I think that's an important point.
We can't dig our way out of this. So we need to know that
Source control is an essential part of the solution. So
everything you talked about rain, barrels, and Gardens, and
all that week. We really need to lean into that all that's
important. Thank you my final question. I'll coach are,
would be for our commissioner Chang. You mentioned using
the non trench system of pipe lining. I know we did a pilot
study a few years ago and Cureton Place piping, primarily
for private drains. What was the results of that study?
What is the status of our cured-in-place pipe in program?
And can it possibly be adapted to water supply lines as
well as sewer lines share. Thank you, soak your type. But
when we talk a lot of here, remains of course within the
street and we've been doing that for a number of years.
Very successful. You're right, we did it. Recently for
private sewer drain. So that would be the connection
between the main sewer drain in the street of the sewer
Main and a
And how?
And the house. So smaller diameter usually made of clay a
little more challenging to line. The first round of it was
unfortunately fairly unsuccessful. We had cracked cracking
in that liner, but there's multiple techniques, right? So
the cracking occurred in one technique, not in the other
techniques, when we try to get some vendors to do. The the
technique, I didn't crack at the expense of, it was much
more than what we would have expected. Because basically
people don't usually do it is not the common method that's
done. So we went and tried a different method and this is
not pipe lining, but pipe bursting, that was done more
recently. So that was the intent is any trenchless and this
is a little off topic. It's not for flooding, this was for
meeting trees but you obviously trees have the benefit long
term for flooding. So I'm in order to maintain the trees.
The idea is to try and use a trenchless method, whatever
that may be to remove that private train so that
You know, off in the trees are right about the private
drain or right on the top of the sewer or I would top of
the service line. So the pipe bursting, I think it's a bit
more successful downside of the pipe bursting. As if the
light if there's a light service line very close, we had a
couple occasions or we could damage the lessor was lying
and we had to replace the last service line and then make
sure you still had to come to town. So, I think it gave us
a couple different tools to use depending on the exact
location and exactly where the tree is in comparison to go
to a
now, we have, like
Now, we have lining for a third.
Now we have lining for a certain, you know situation. We
have Piper staying in certain situation with the tree
coming down, always being the last resort.
Thank.
Thank you, and thank you, coach your head and I can close
my questions. Thank you. We've got a older person, Scott
followed by an older woman and them, it's and it's any
other members would like to get on this. Just let us know.
Thank you, everyone that presented today, that was quite a
bit information, quite of a lot of information to capture
will this information be available for? So we can share on
social media. Know, you had to memorize everything.
Alderwoman Scott weekend, we can make sure to have their
presentations available and I'm sure all of our panelists
would be able to have more bite-sized information
available. If you need to be great to share with
constituents. I had a question for the professor. You said
you were in Lawndale and
Can you?
Can you go into what you saw and what you did with my my
intern has went up when you said you would like them. 16th
Street Green Corridor there with all the Community Gardens,
so there's they don't cut. So then there's also a city
install by Green infrastructure installation, that's
supposed to be really beautiful with flowers and things
that also beautify. And so the messages I was hearing was
that the maintenance is usually that the city comes on and
does Cut & Sew all of the end of the benefit of having the
flowers aren't there. They were also talking about the need
for signage that people come by and don't understand like
what this is or what it means, or how it helps. And they
were also
The message that I was really getting from the unicorn of a
stewards of this place, is that they want training. So
people that live in the neighborhood can be part of the
planting and part of the regular maintenance and maybe the
expansion of it. So it's like a green infrastructure,
installation, great. But if it's not part and parcel of
people's, you know, that they can run it, that they can
work on a
Work on it, that they can make sure it's functioning and
that their signage, and that things can be explained. So,
yeah, that was the message that I was getting as well, as
you know, what's the number. So that when the city comes,
you know, the Moe's that they can say, wait a second, you
know, these plants are really important. So fun of
information when you take on a garden, it is your
responsibility to continue to maintain it. And most of the
people that are in my community, they get the money for the
garden and then they stayed at there's no money to maintain
it, so they don't properly maintained it. So, that means
that now everything is more than 5 feet because I'm 52. So
they're taller than me. So it is the city's responsibility
because then you have rodents that Harvest themselves. In
those tall, green East, Green Space, and then, so we come
in and we cut it all down so that one people can't hide in
there. Rats doesn't.
Bill.
Build.
Bill Neff. And
Bill Nest inside of things like that, so they don't
maintain it. So the information that you got was a bit
slightly false because they don't maintain the six Gardens
that are on there, they got the money and said, there's no
money to maintain it. But when you get a city, when you get
a garden from us then you're supposed to maintain it. It's
a part of your community agreement. So when it's hi, it's
my responsibility as the alderman when I see you have no
other choice. It's it's, it's, it's excessive. So I didn't
want you to that. That information was in a great
Mario. Yeah, that would be great. That they were maintaining
it and then the help that is offered, they don't want the
help, they want professional help that
Thank you.
they can afford, they don't want the kids to help them
where you could do that in the summer and have helped. They
don't want that help. So it's my job to make sure that we
have Gardens, but we also have, I am 3000. Vacant, lots and
I always will say that. So we need homes more so that I
need those Gardens. And so, thank you. I just wanted to
give you a point of clarity on that because that's very
frustrating for me.
Be wanted to go back to see. Now for the green, the green
alley.
I guess. So again in the 24th Ward we have several Ali's
that flood but as you know you know firsthand that those
green Ali's cost about $500,000. So what are we doing for
additional Federal funding that we can?
Have.
Have more green Ali's because that I wipe away our entire
menu menu money cuz that's the only way we can. 1.5 million
is not going to get us enough, and to kind of create this.
Why?
Right way.
Right winger.
Right wing of preventing floods. We we we can't even afford
one.
under the
Understood. Actually, with the, the Chicago Capital Bond
program, each Ward is a lot of 1 green alley per year, so
that that's that's part of that program. It's it's a given
is just a selection that the Lord can make. And on top of
that, though there is the room to select additional green.
Alleys as you stated, there's only the certain amount of
money than 1.5 million as part of the venue money. So that
that there's a limit there. We can explore other sources of
funding to expand the program and there is as mentioned
earlier there is the next the five million dollar expansion
offered during Ali's as part of the Chicago recovery plan
on. But yes we will need to explore other sources of
funding to expand the screen. Ali program across all words.
That would be great because it's a lot of the West Side
alley.
have a
I have a bunch of teeth Ali and that one would just cover
one. You have a lease that goes straight up a t h. She's
sometimes a four way so it would be great to explore a
little bit more funding than one because we have a lot of
streets, not a bunch of Ali's absolutely understood.
Thank.
Thank you old woman. Old woman meds.
Thank.
Thank you. Madam chairman, and thank you for hosting this
meeting today. Thank all of you for being here.
Are we?
I reckon they had a funeral this morning.
Justin Long.
But I thought about it last night and said,
my constituents need to hear.
and,
And I need to be there to represent during the flood.
Little.
that a family gave me, granted me permission that I could
be here but I listen to the testimonies of all the
witnesses
Little bit different here in the testimony and being in
their circumstances.
What?
One point, I got angry and all over again because I felt
the frustration of my community.
We?
Which was very devastating.
I have a commissioner Gary still having to be there to take
some of the abuse that we were feeling commission O'Connor.
I know you came out chain without. We had pretty much
Colima.
We had him all.
We had them all in the neighborhood and the frustration of
the community.
I can't put it together compared to what is being said,
information? But information, that's not helping the
service. They were well particularly if I have to take this
information and I'm still trying to get them to understand
the process,
We?
we heard process process, process, process a month.
6 weeks before anything to get done, then you feel my
frustration, this mail
The mole.
And here we are now.
I've been three weeks three months, people still have mold
in them.
Is is really sad name.
and I,
And I can tell you one thing for sure.
They have not been there.
Are.
Equity distribution throughout this city.
Listen.
This is not our first time talkin about a flood. This is
not a first-time meeting with the Water Reclamation
District. This is not our first time with oumc coming out
location.
And we talked about down Mission. I told you yesterday, if
you cross central coming, that's a download Zone. Water
going to go down here. Little common sense to me and
nothing is being done. Yes, we have the rain blockers, yes,
thank you for the schools where we picked up the garden and
they'll take off some of the water. But
That's not enough. Are we trying to gentefied take out this
neighborhood? And we going to allow this to keep happening.
What are we doing?
You're?
You're messing with the most.
Are.
Underserved Community. All right, tell me what investment
has been gone.
In that neighborhood from the time back, 20. Or we go back
further,
2003. I've been I've been there and I've been through
Bloods and as you continue to get flooded, guess what the
insurance company do.
I do.
I don't have to tell you, I'm maybe you don't know cuz you
have an expensive but it's devastating is a nightmare. You
talk about a disaster. I don't want to hear anybody
disaster. This is right there but I realize we on the
community. They just info said who cares.
but,
But I do.
I can.
I care about every single.
Purse.
Percy.
Person who are in those houses right now sick and can't get
the hell just for the cleanup.
I thought.
I think the city like all the Departments.
A boy.
It was.
It wasn't that they didn't help because they did it just
that.
In.
It need more.
More. I have really cried out more.
Didn't.
This is something if we care about Chicago on, we all care
about making sure that these people we shouldn't have to
feel like that in the same community.
The triplets.
Take me to 37 Ward. Let me just say that much too because
we get to the whole War, get it all the time.
and,
and I'm
And I know. And yes, we're grateful for FEMA.
but,
But you know what? My constituents and they're not giving
them enough and I realize they're not giving them enough.
Dump.
Some people's, we can go to FDA and maybe take out a loan
because I'm still working. But what about the folks on
those fixed-income who retired already? And they got to go
back and do what?
When they?
When they've lost everything.
If you had a thing bedroom shoes, clothes washers and
dryers floating through people's homes.
It was just devastating, couldn't believe it.
and,
And yet, we're still trying to recover even today as your
ottoman sitting here, 37, what? I'm tired of it. I'm still
trying to recover.
I'm still trying to fix my basement, where I have family
members living there.
So that I can be able to have a little comfort.
I live.
A little comfort.
I don't.
I don't want to keep getting information. I want something
done.
I do.
I don't want to talk.
I guess.
I got the information but I want something done a
structured. How can we have it all over the city and never
had any done in 37th?
This.
Just tell me that.
it a
It ain't the first time the statistical show you. We've
been flooded before
not one, not two.
and,
And if imma get beat up, I'm not going to come down and and
just praise you because I don't have nothing to praise you
fire.
I feel.
I still got work to do.
Let's do more, do more.
We?
We put in surveys, I want you to know. You put surveys
water rat.
Catherine.
When it's over.
Damn that we need help. We took surveys, we was in for a
grant but we was in competition with the Suburban. Terry
I'm
I know.
I never heard nothing else back from. Here we go through it
again.
Who is the?
Who is in overlooking them, overlooking us. Are we not
somebody?
Are we not paying taxes?
I have to pay.
I have to put up with the open the gate. That's what I have
to put away out there and want to hear nothing else about
me about how it works. They want to say the gate was open
based on NASCAR.
Now.
now, if you can go out there and explain that to the
community,
God.
God bless you, but we need help and we need help now. Now,
Are.
Everybody.
Everybody can't go back those businesses. That in those
basement, they can't just go back and take a loan out cuz
they're on a fixed that's a business, they don't know.
Now, you want to pay back and they don't even have.
It is kind of difficult. And yes as of Saturday we had a
probably about 75 new register which is why we need that
and I'm not sure I'm grateful for October 31st, October
30th, but I think that we need even a feather extension
here just to make sure cuz he wants his gone. They won't
get a chance to and we don't want to leave. No one by not
one.
Is really what?
Is really one person behind you, leave a family.
Come by.
Somebody is responsive a whole lot of people. So we want to
take care of that. I want to make sure that
I should.
I shouldn't have to say, I want the sewage clean. How often
do we clean sewers in the city? Do we claim through it on a
regular basis? Once a year twice a year or do the
constituent just called and said we need to explain answer
that and can I if I'm a German while commissioner time goes
to answer that question, maybe if you're able to speak to
and I don't know if cheap tow bars also able to speak to,
you know, just, you know, it can't be, I appreciate you
being here this morning, and I'm sorry about the funeral,
and I know that one of the reasons alderwoman Coleman
brought this to the black caucus was really, because of so
many of the impacted residents in the 37th Ward and on the
west side, and these presentations were really helpful,
especially getting contacts for the the history of flooding
there. So, I'm wondering from our city departments
this is,
This is also open.
This is also open to steal. If you guys want to talk about
some of the work that you are doing on the west side of the
city and maybe in that short medium and long-term peace
again,
Just give it.
Just give it a moment.
But now, so we're cleaning obviously right now. We're doing
great base cleaning because of the really bad flood. Both
to assess what damage was done because of the flood and
also to prevent future flooding. We do go out rather
distribution system. We get the whole city about every ten
years generically, but we both really go out and clean
anytime somebody calls about a water in basement. Water on
Street, a private training program. Every time that
happens, we're checking the sewer and see if it needs to be
cleaned. So I say 10 years but that's system-wide. There's
also the other three, one, one ribbon cleaning of it as
well. And obviously want to have these big rain storms as
well. You know, I think that's great, face cleaning makes a
lot of sense to, to Institute as something that we do
regularly going forward in terms of short medium and
long-term physical for the west side, you know. Do you
know, we're working on downspout just Connection in the
area. Very critical, the more
We can get involved in those.
We can get involved in those, the better is going to be for
everyone. We also have the wing storage. The wing storage,
that was mentioned in the slide where we're looking to see
if we can have storage tanks. And some of the public right
away is where there's basically space. As we all know the
streets are pretty crowded. So when we look for space to
have searched tanks, you know we're looking for where
there's additional physical space to put storage and will
continue to work on the other thing. Some of the slides. Oh
no.
We did have a kind of laid out, but that's okay.
I was a.
I was a short-term and then we also have our private drain
program. Of course we're always encouraging folks, if they,
if when we, if you're getting water in basement, when we
talked to them, if we think that it sounds like they have
an issue with their private sewer drain specifically, we
make sure the people have information about the private
sewer drain program so that the city can try and help with
repairs. If they're eligible, you mentioned space to grow.
That's obviously and a couple of different neighborhoods.
Not just the west side but SeaWorld Capital Improvements.
We've done some of the Westside recently. We obviously are
continuing to re-evaluate given our model to see what can
be done in terms of Superman replacement superstructure,
rehab, Silver Lining, and Rain blocker. That is as we going
through and do these catch bass in Seward, man, cleaning
that we're doing right now, checking on the status of the
Bring.
Brain block.
Brain blockers is pretty critical making sure that they're
clean that they're there and their functioning
unfortunately. So many of them have been removed.
I'm a.
I'm in longer-term, we have our regional tunnel solution.
The first one, being the area for that's going out, but
those are going to be in the first one. Just the area for
is in the 225 years that's been a long-term time range.
Thank.
Thank you.
Enable.
And I believe our president steel wanted to answer as well.
Thank you. So I'll do it. Miss, you know, that I understand
the pain of what's going on because I've been at the
meetings with you and it is very discouraging to try to
talk about you, no rain barrels and disconnecting
downspouts and things like that. When we know what what the
person really wants us to be made whole because their
basement has been messed up, they lost, memories is
unhealthy, everything is going on the most we could do with
water rat pack, of course, you know, is to share
information about FEMA. But I have you know, just said over
and over again.
That I need us.
That I need us to work together with this. And I am a voice
at the table for your community. I know we completed about
one space to grow and maybe another green and structure
project in the in your ward since I've been at Water
Reclamation and I definitely suggest that we need to do
another space to grow program because I mean by project
because that can be basically a green infrastructure
project that we know. We'll see turn around in about a year
that can usually hold at least over a hundred million
gallons of water to help those neighborhood. What we need
from, you all is one. We send out surveys to get
information about areas that are flooding and I know we
talked to you but we talked about also doing the 311
information just to make sure we're
tar.
TARC.
Target in.
targeting the right areas and we're looking at options for
green infrastructure when making sure it's in the right
area. So that's one option. One of the green alley program.
Now honestly we do a matching green alley program but
you're correct. Green. Alleys are think all the men? Scott
mentioned green. Alleys are a lot of money so I know how
all the men on your menu money works. You might not want to
allocate that money to a green alley. One big thing on the
west side that you mean Aldrin Scott. We should work
together it to do a, i
I'm paying basically on this.
I'm paying basically on disconnecting downspout. Now in the
dream perfect world. We could get money for a pilot program
to disconnect downspout, but until we get that money, we
should really go out and push that because that is a big
issue. And a easy way to help solve not solve the problem,
but to do something actively. Now, while we're trying to
get extra funds, you know, to make constituents hole from
female from anyone, but we still have to actively do these
small projects. The one thing we should work on instantly
is educating about the importance of disconnecting
downspouts throughout the war while we're working on a
digital green infrastructure projects and then the big gray
like McCook will help you when it's complete but obviously
we have a while and so that's complete. So let's continue
working together but we do have the options that we could
do now and options and play for later.
and,
and then, of course,
And then, of course, I'll let our engineer also add to it.
I covered it pretty well. Thank you. I want to ask a
question about.
When?
When are we answering about infrastructure? You know them
pipes and things in the base that sit on the ground 100
years old and they probably too small given the development
that you taking place in the neighborhood. So why are we
talkin about some infrastructure dollar? You didn't neglect
at the community a hundred years. So why are we talking
about?
Dollar Store.
Dollars there was doing that, you're correct. And I thought
I kept saying that sometimes I think I said too much but we
do have to improve local infrastructure so I will
completely co-sign on what you just said. If infrastructure
has been neglected, we have pipes that are older than
everyone in this room. They have blockage has their
corroded population has increased. The infrastructure has
stayed the same. So if water cannot pass through that local
infrastructure to get to mwrd, we cannot help you. I always
say draining the swimming pool with a straw. I like
draining a swimming pool with the straw. That's the visual
that happens. You think about that when is raining really
hard, that water can't get to us. If it's just been
raining, 5 minutes, you have water on your street.
The.
The local infrastructure needs attention.
If I'm a modern mix because maybe I want to follow up on
this and and this is for commissioner Chang as well. I'm
wondering. How do we currently? Yes, that's right. Cuz when
we talked about the local infrastructure, there's a public
infrastructure and I know you know what Alderman is
staying, right? We got very old infrastructure. We know we
were going through a large Superman replacement project
that's been happening for like 8 months in the 49th Ward
that's going to help with some of some of the flooding in
Merry.
Area.
Areas. But I'm wondering in addition to the public
infrastructure and updates on that are there ways that we
can also access the private infrastructure because I know
like I live in a 22-year that building we were dealing with
issues about a decade ago that required us to, you know fix
our kind of sewer line and replaced. But you know whether
you were a homeowner or renter a lot of times you don't
know there's a problem until there's a big problem and so
I'm wondering are there things whether it's educational. Or
maybe funds available to do some kind of scoping from the
public side to help us like even spot assess. Like hey we
noticed a lot of flooding over here maybe while we're out.
Assessing, you know, is this community area or these three
blocks are there ways to help notify people? I know the
city doesn't do things on
privates, I
Private side, but when we're doing things on the public
side, is there information that I don't know if we gather
information where we could help inform that, that,
homeowner or property owner about things. They could also
do to improve, sorry. That might be a broad question. Yeah,
man, you know, as we're going and doing say sewer made
replacement or just other work and not on the Block Level.
Can we identify if there is shoes on the private?
Floor drain.
I think of
I think about that a little bit, but I came, I mean, I
think a lot of times you, you know, there's an issue with
the private drain with theirs, either water in the
basement, or sometimes of State little sinkhole right in
the street, if something's collapsing. And yeah, I think
I'll have to think about that and less Matt, or Brenda. Do
you have any ideas about the top of your head?
But yeah, we don't we don't cut that other than we
currently do. I can tell you that but in terms of thinking
about how we could potentially do that without needing like
a right of Entry to get onto every property will brainstorm
and thank you.
All.
Automatic anything else?
No, I know I'm done. I just will continue to advocate for
the resident and I think that time is now I think that
we've been bamboozled far too long and I'm looking for some
results for the residents who I love and service everyday
giving it. My all I don't feel that the city have heard us
throughout the years and I'm hoping that you hear me now
that we need some help. Thank you.
Thank.
Thank you. I'm autumn in Chico.
Thank.
Thank you. A lot of my comments were echoed by my
colleague, so I'll keep it brief yesterday. I had the
opportunity to go out with the assessment teams in my ward,
from the September 17th falling in my, in my area, that was
almost a month or approaching a month after that happened.
Is there anything we can do for my residents, can do to
kind of speed up the process when we get into for 5 weeks,
they feel neglected, they feel left out, they feel nobody
paying attention to him. So how come we kind of speed up
the process to get them quicker? I'm too kind of ease their
mind at this troubling time for them.
I'm wondering if you want to and I think you were speaking
a lot to the response teams.
All right, thanks for the question Alderman. Chico. So, one
thing that I would say, and then I think equal this earlier
is, you know, we need people to call 311, let us know, you
know where the damage was, you know, we can only make these
assessments based on the information that we have. You
know, we looked at this information from literally, I think
a day or two after the storm event.
Happen.
Happened just to see how many calls we got in the city just
to see if there was an effect somewhere this week, we did
see that pump it was not it was nowhere near what Calumet
City or the other people in the Suburban area experienced
but we need that data so that we can talk to our partners
with the county and I email because to get those are you
get those teams out there? We've got to, you know, get
everybody on board to show that this may be something that
qualifies as a federal disaster. Or even if it's not a
presidential disaster, it may be something that SBA
assistance is warranty for. So data data data. That's why
I'll tell you the more data we have in the quicker we have,
it is a faster. We can get those people out there.
SMS. I had a follow-up question cuz it and listening to
your presentation. I had a similar question solder
machiko's, though. It was more General. Tso. Follow up.
Are we?
Our response teams only resources that are available if
there is a disaster declaration.
So, what you want to we're talkin about is the TDA. So that
is the preliminary disaster assessment teams. The roles of
the joint teams were, we have FEMA somebody for my email
summary for the county from somebody from the city. The
city has generally always going out with our Emergency
Management, Personnel to do what we call a windshield
survey probably like a day or two afterwards or storm. That
we think it affected a lot of people you know, and we use
different. Tyler's because we know what the FEMA guidelines
are they, you know, pretty much they say that there needs
to be what they called Dirty Water so it needs to be sewer.
Water needs to be a certain amount of water. It needs to be
a in terms of these are the things that we need to get a
decoration or do something to help us a nice to be a
primary living space. So I understand people have a lot of
stuff in her basement. It's sentimental things like that,
but seemed has one of their qualifications. Was it a
primary living space?
What's my?
What? Somebody actually living down there, permanently, not
just a space cuz they asked these questions to us. Like,
can you discern whether or not it was a space that just
that they have for their grandkids, when they come over
ere? Does somebody live down there, you know, everyday,
24/7 365 so that there's a differentiation there so those
are the things
Things that we need to get.
Things that we need to get them on board. We need to show
that need and I talked about SBI social phone ability, and
that's another thing that helps us. Unfortunately, the
hired at svi, you know, it makes a little bit easier sports
for us to get that justification in place of where these
new people cuz you're only going to get a few more
decoration or a disaster and where they think that, without
the FEMA, assistance is going to be harder for those people
to recover. So those are some of the guidelines. I mean, to
be best answered by someone who, I know you invited. But
I'm just channeling what we know and some of the questions
that we ask them, believe me, we are in a part of my job on
a daily basis has been is literally going back and forth
with them every day about the needs of our residence and
trying to make people understand over there that. Hey
you're dealing with the third largest city in United
States.
This is my.
This is not, you know, small-town America, we have different
issues, I understand with the guidelines hard. But these
other issues that are presented here in the city of
Chicago. What can we do to make sure that we get the
assistance to these people? You know, within whatever your
guidelines are. I understand that. But, you know, it's it's
a, it's a daily task. Believe me, the daily tasks.
Thank you. I'm older person Gutierrez.
Then.
Thank.
Thank you very much for all the information that you all
gave us and I just want to share when we're talking about
talking to her constituents and have him them involved to
understand how the different departments in the city and
the county and in the state and all of the levels of
government work together, towards an issue, I would like to
emphasise and would like to for you all to know that you
can count on me as a Spanish speaker. That could go out
there. Daughter door talking to her constituents with the
dues and do not often times. We see some of the
information, it's great in the websites, right? Is way too
great out there but it's not on the hands of our
constituents. So if we can come together at the council and
with all of the defense department city and county in and
create like a campaign with her constituents and specially
in the 14th, Ward, nineteen ninety percent is Latino.
The winning team.
The Winnie to me and my staff and I know with other
stakeholders, I know we can do great work towards not only
have them know the information, but also maybe modify some
of the stuff that we're doing that, we're not supposed to
be doing that. Sometimes these, we do it on a daily basis.
We don't even know we're not supposed to be doing it, and
it will impact. And then the later run, I went when we have
a big thumb rain, like we did actually, I was blessed to to
have my team and myself to help family a constituent with
the senior, the wife just had surgery. And it was just like
3ft up the water. We were there until midnight to 1 Friday.
Helping them getting the stuff out and for me I think it's
a blessing coz I know I have committed staff. That is
willing to do the grunt work and we need to make sure that
it doesn't happen again.
and,
And I totally understand my colleague Alderman. Maids in
Chico, where we're desperate sometimes to help our
constituents, but sometimes we is Alderman, sometimes we
don't even have the answers and when our constituents come
to us and they're seeking for help, we would love to have
it an underhand her or just a phone call away from her
phone, but sometimes it's not like that. So I just want to
thank you all for the hard work that you all are doing and
call me as the wine of yours.
willing to do, the
Willing to do those the work towards our community, to not
only informed them but for them to understand also how the
system works and how can we better that those processes
which is the most important thing is, I know sometimes I
was even talking to Coleman right now. We will love to have
not only the answers but also how us to have not only be
understanding, but how can we all of the processes with all
of the different departments? How can we expedite some
things or how can we do it? A better in a less time? All
those prodigal. Sometimes you just took, so take so long
and in families cannot wait for us that many weeks or
months to have an answer.
No.
Not on.
No, don't you?
Not until we come to the Department and ask for the
question, right? I know we need more staff. I know, we need
to do better in many ways, but let's just continue to work
together. You know, we're in order for us to begin to
better our Chicago in our communities. Thank you.
The.
Thank you, older person.
and,
any questions from any of our committee members or non
committee members that are present
I'll know.
I'll make one comment at before I turn it over to my
co-chair and that's just for, I heard a lot of feedback.
We've had the community members come to some of our
committee meeting over the last couple of months and really
the response to the flooding lack thereof or just the
questions in the gaps that have been identified our great,
this was really helpful to hear about, you know,
recommendations Solutions but also to hear about the
limitations of the solutions that each of your agencies and
departments has so that we could see his comments but we
collectively and Council can also think about what some of
those gaps are. So Chief, Tovar back there, I'm looking at
you. As you mentioned, our proposed Department of
environment already has a lot of work. Cut out for it as we
think about gaps, we need to fill. So I appreciate all the
work.
You do.
You do for everyone that showed up here today and know that
will be following up. I'm sure some of my colleagues
individually, but definitely from our committee on
Environmental Protection and energy to think about ways
that we can kind of activate are our folks in our Wards to
fill some of those gaps.
Thank you, Joe and had that can close the agenda for today's
joint meeting. This matter will be reported out to the full
City Council on October 16th. And no further business being
her daughter. Man can do some make some motion to adjourn
the hearing no objections to order that can close the joint
meeting in a reminder that in approximately one hour from
now 1:40, we will convene a special city council meeting in
this chamber. Thank you, everyone for your participation
and for your attention,