Budget Message / Highlights - Metropolitan Water Reclamation ...

METROPOLITAN WATER RECLAMATION DISTRICT OF GREATER CHICAGO
2009 BUDGET
Budget Message / Highlights
Environmental Monitoring
It is the District’s policy to perform certain levels of environmental monitoring of our lake and inland waterways. This
information is utilized to satisfy certain reporting requirements and aid the District in its facilities planning. This information
has enabled the District to use the most cost-effective and efficient methods to comply with water quality standards. Our
ongoing waterway monitoring program provided the District with data to support the use of sidestream aeration. This decision
allowed the District to avoid spending over $300 million for plant expansions in favor of spending only $39 million for
sidestream aeration stations.
Solids Processing, Dewatering, and Disposal
Our total sewage treatment process is expected to extract 265,950 dry tons of biosolids which will require treatment and
dewatering by way of concentration to reduce its volume, heated digestion, centrifuging, and air drying. In 2009, the District
will produce 137,600 dry tons of biosolids for beneficial use as final cover for landfills, direct farmland application of
centrifuge cake, and through the controlled solids distribution program. Work has also begun with Engineering and M&R in
reviewing the possible production of Class A biosolids directly from our digesters.
A contract to process approximately 30 percent of the solids stream at the Stickney WRP via construction and operation of an
alternative biosolids handling facility was awarded in 2001. Initial operations were expected to begin in 2004, however
construction was delayed due to difficulties in obtaining the necessary permits. Currently, operations are expected to begin in
spring 2009 and will result in a net operational cost increase of approximately $5 to $7 million to process and utilize biosolids.
The contract is specifically designed to develop new markets for the processed biosolids that do not compete with current
outlets.
The identification and development of new and innovative markets for our biosolids product will continue in 2009. The Solids
Marketing Team in the M&R and M&O Departments has made significant progress towards the identification and
development of long-term stable markets for the beneficial use of biosolids. In pursuing the use of cost effective outlets for our
biosolids, we have significantly reduced our biosolids inventory. This situation enables the District to continue a program
which is among the most cost effective in the world. See page 244 of the Maintenance & Operations Department Budget for a
complete discussion of this program.
Energy
With the exception of the main office complex, all
Energy Consumption in Dollars 1988-2009
energy costs are budgeted by the Maintenance and Million $
Operations (M&O) Department. The 2009 Budget for 60
energy totals $43.0 million for M&O, or 19.4 percent,
CPI
of M&O’s total appropriation.
In spite of bringing new facilities on line, the M&O
Department has held energy purchases relatively
constant for the last 20 years, and well below the
general rate of inflation, through an aggressive Energy
Management Program. Key components of the program
include adjustments to collection / treatment operations
whereby energy intensive pumping during off-peak
electrical rate hours is maximized, increased use of
methane gas (a by-product of the treatment process) to
fuel the boilers throughout the facilities and a gas
turbine at Stickney, and the rehabilitation of
hydroelectric turbines at the Lockport Powerhouse to
increase their overall efficiency by approximately 10
percent.
50
40
30
20
10
0
Electricity
88 90 92 94 96 98 00 02 04 06 2008 2009
Est. Proj.
The District currently purchases electricity for the
District’s major facilities from a provider at a fixed rate under a three-year agreement. A two-year extension of the agreement was
recently signed with an expiration date of December 31, 2011. We are seeing an increase in overall rates for the electricity
generation component of approximately 31 per cent over existing rates, based on a mixture of daily and seasonally specific rates,
plus an additional 5 percent for Com Ed’s revised distribution tariffs. Upgrades to equipment, resulting in more efficient operation
Natural
Gas
200
150
100
50
27
27