Governor Quinn pledged $10 million towards kickstarting the Chicago River cleanup effort this week, but don't expect to use this bridge as a diving board anytime soon. more ›

The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District has quietly managed the region’s water treatment infrastructure since the agency reversed the Chicago River a century ago. But scandal and change have marked its recent history. more ›

The sordid saga of the Chicago River took a new turn this week with a decision to stop dumping polluted water from treatment plants into the waterway. That water makes up 70% of the river...yuck. more ›

The Illinois Pollution Control Board followed the Metrololitan Water Reclamation District's moves toward making the Chicago River less polluted yesterday. more ›

Now it appears the MWRD has changed its priorities and thinks perhaps clean water is important, after all. more ›

One day after the EPA made it clear that they won't abide a Chicago River rife with poo germs, regional water regulators emphatically said they were not ready to clean up. The icky water in question comes from treatment plants operated by the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District, whose Board President Terrence O’Brien came out swinging at a press conference on Friday. Despite a recent court ruling ordering improved water quality on stretches of the waterway and calls from just about everyone else (including the City, State, Feds and local environmental groups) for the District to end the practice of dumping “undisinfected effluent” into the River, O’Brien called cleaning up the Chicago River a waste of taxpayer money. That is quite a statement coming from someone who publicly claimed, "It's my job to clean up our water and keep pollution out of Lake Michigan..." more ›

New documents have emerged that show the damage caused by a sewage pollution stream in the Chicago River that extends all the way to the Gulf of Mexico. Did that information come from a brave whistleblower? Or a Wikileaks sleuthing of secret files? Nope. Turns out it comes from testimony by the authority itself and its allies aimed at proving that they had already trashed the River with pollution too thoroughly to make it worth saving. more ›

It has been a rough week at the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District. The Trib revealed that the US EPA has joined the City and State in pushing for a significant clean-up of the Chicago River as part of an ongoing battle over the District's practice of dumping effluent into the waterway. And despite the Mayor's prickly "swim in the Potomac" response to the feds, the heat was turned up further on Thursday with strong anti-pollution editorials in both the Trib and the Sun-Times. more ›

Mayor Daley was in rare form on Wednesday responding to questions about a Trib story that revealed an April letter from the Obama Administration and the U.S. EPA pushing for the Chicago River to fulfill the Clean Water Act’s “fishable and swimmable” goal. Bristling at the federal guidance and unfunded mandates, Daley seemed to be channeling his inner Tea Partier when he blurted that the feds should, “Go swim in the Potomac,” and noted that, "We're trying to make this river every day cleanable, more cleanable." more ›

There might not be anything as un-sexy as water infrastructure. Which is probably why a year or two ago, you would probably have gotten blank stares if you had asked your neighbors about the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago, a quasi-governmental agency responsible for dealing with the region’s water system. Despite its sizable budget, taxing powers, and massive impact throughout Chicagoland, MWRD has remained off of most people’s radar. But that has changed in a big way in 2010 as a series of high profile stories have shined a light in WWRD’s direction. more ›

There may never be a presidential race quite like the current one (proof enough), but don’t let that fool you into blowing off important local races (and yes, voting for judges is important so don’t even take the easy way out by voting “no” for all of them). The long list of candidates and offices, some of which you may never have heard of, can be intimidating, but we at Chicagoist have come up with a quick guide highlighting some of the important races. We've also included other resources that might come in handy on Election Day, which should just happen already. more ›

Chicagoist is a big cheerleader for the city, but there are some things that even we have a hard time getting excited about. Swimming in Lake Michigan or jumping into the Chicago River are two of them. Maybe it is the dumping. Or maybe it is (jump in the way-back machine, for a second with us) Dave Matthews Band. Or maybe it is the knowledge that every summer, the beaches are closed several times... more ›

To paraphrase Ronald Reagan, it's morning in Chicago, but not for long. The storms that wreaked havoc throughout the area are a faint memory, and we're left to clean up the mess as we wait for more storms to come today. The north and northwest sides of the city felt the brunt of the storm, with reports of trees being split by the high winds. Over 300,000 businesses and residents were left without electricity... more ›

You may have noticed that it rained literally all day yesterday, which just means one more example of the weather not cooperating in Chicago on a holiday. more ›

While some people have already cast their vote (Bush is up 12 votes and all 26 voters turned out in Dixville Notch), hopefully your giving us a quick look before you head out to the polls. Wait though, did you read that? Dixville? Moving on, information on these last couple of races on the ballot is hard to find. Especially on the race for the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District Commission. Does that mean they're not important and we shouldn't vote on these positions? Well according to the Daily Herald the Republican challengers for the three seats don't know either. more ›

Election day is November 2nd and if you haven't yet, go to The Chicago Board of Elections web site and click on "Services" on the left side of the page to confirm that you are registered. Once you do that, click on your voter ID number and your district information will display and you can also take a look at a sample ballot. Whoa, look at that ballot! When Chicagoist did we were a bit... more ›