BEFORE
THE ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
IN THE MATTER OF:
WATER QUALITY STANDARDS AND
EFFLUENT LIMITATIONS FOR THE
CHICAGO AREA WATERWAY SYSTEM
AND THE LOWER DES PLAINES
RIVER: PROPOSED AMENDMENTS TO
35 Ill. Adm
.
Code Parts 301, 302
,
303 and
304
R08-9
(Rulemaking
-
Water)
METROPOLITAN WATER RECLAMATION DISTRICT OF GREATER
CHICAGO'S PRE-FILED QUESTIONS TO MARGARET FRISBIE
1.
I. Introduction
,
page 2
,
paragraph 3, last sentence
.
Did you mean to state "safe for
people of all ages?"
2.
II.
Documented People on the River with Friends, page 2-4
A.
What safety protocols does your organization employ when inviting the public to
use the CAWS?
B.
Do you avoid certain areas due to barge and motorized boat traffic, absence of
safe entry and exit locations, and/or other issues incompatible with recreational
uses?
C.
Do you avoid
certain times
,
such as
during and following wet weather events?
D.
Do you allow children to participate in your events? Do you have special safety
protocols for children?
E.
Do you allow novice canoeists and/or kayakers to participate in your events? Do
you have special safety protocols for inexperienced participants?
F.
Please describe any liability protection that the Friends of the Chicago River
affords itself when it organizes events on
the CAWS.
3.
On page 2, last paragraph, you state that over the years you have worked to make the
Chicago River the natural, recreation and economic asset it deserves to be.
A.
Please clarify what you mean by the Chicago River: only the main stem?
B.
What is your definition of natural and how would it apply to the man-made canal
system, which is not of natural origin?
THIS FILING IS BEING SUBMITTED
ON RECYCLED PAPER
Electronic Filing - Received, Clerk's Office, August 25, 2008
C.
Do you
advocate returning the Chicago River and
all of the CAWS
to their
original natural state
(
i.e. conditions as they existed prior to anthropogenic
modification)?
4.
Page 3, paragraph
1,
You state that over the past 11 years, 2,640 people have been
canoeing on the North Shore Channel, North Branch Chicago River, Main Stem, South
Branch, Bubble Creek and along the Sanitary and Ship Canal.
A.
Is "Bubble Creek" the same waterbody commonly known as "Bubbly Creek?"
B.
Is it correct that the figures you have presented average out to 240 persons per
year who have taken these guided trips?
C.
Does this figure average to less than one person-trip per day over the time period
specified?
D.
Can
you please break these numbers down as they pertain to each
of the CAWS
reaches you have listed?
E.
How many of the
person
-
trips occurred on the
upper North Branch Chicago River
upstream
of the Albany Avenue
dam outside
of the CAWS?
F.
Do you mean to say that 2,640 person-trips occurred or that 2,640 different people
participated in the program?
G.
If you are referring to person-trips, do you know how many separate individuals
accounted for this total number of trips (i.e., were there individuals that took
repeat trips)?
H.
You indicate that your volunteers spend time rescuing participants who fall in the
water.
Do you agree that there is a significant risk of capsizing in the waterways,
due to wakes created by large motorized watercraft such as barges, tour boats and
motor boats, and that recreators who capsize may be in serious danger due to the
deep-draft nature of the waterways and the lack of points of egress?
5.
Page 3, paragraph
2.
You describe the Chicago River Flatwater Classic in the
statement: "This canoe and kayak race, supported by the US Coast Guard and the
Chicago Marine Police, gives people a safe opportunity to paddle through downtown and
interact with the river."
A.
What role, if any, did the United States Coast Guard and the Chicago Marine
Police have in the Chicago River Flatwater Classic?
B.
You describe this event as a "safe opportunity" to paddle through downtown.
What leads you to characterize this as a safe opportunity?
C.
How does the level of safety for this event differ from that of paddling that occurs
on days other than this event?
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Electronic Filing - Received, Clerk's Office, August 25, 2008
6.
Page 3, paragraph
3.
You state that 4,600 people have participated in the Flat Water
Classic and that many corporations sponsor the event and field teams of paddlers.
A.
When you state that 4,600 people have participated in the Flat Water Classic, do
you mean separate individuals or total person-trips?
B.
You have indicated that many corporate teams have competed for multiple years
in a row. Do you know what percentage of the total person-trips or separate
individuals are employed by or are associated with employees of the sponsoring
corporations?
C.
Do you know how many total
separate
individuals have participated in the Flat
Water Classic?
D.
Excluding this year, how many years has the Flat Water Classic been held?
E.
Based on your response to this question and the 4,600 people that you report as
having participated to date, what is the average number of people that participate
each year?
7.
Page 4, paragraph
3.
You state that 1,000 attendees paddled on the Chicago River in
Chicago Park District programs from 2004 to 2007.
A.
Does this figure represent total number of individuals that participated (i.e., no
repetitive participation)?
B.
Where did the paddling programs that you list take place? Please identify the
specific reaches of the CAWS or other river systems.
C.
This number of attendees participating over the time period specified averages to
fewer than one person per day, correct?
8.
Page 4, last paragraph, through page 6 second paragraph
.
You list a number of
amenities that plans for the Chicago River have called for. You also state that people
who live in and lead our communities desire the Chicago River system as a recreational,
natural and economic asset.
A.
Can
you discuss the amenities from this list that have materialized
on the CAWS?
B.
To what
extent
do you
attribute the introduction of these amenities to water
quality improvements that have occurred in the
CAWS
to date?
C.
Do you think that water quality improvements that have contributed to
introduction of these amenities would continue to occur even without the adoption
of the proposed rulemaking?
Why or why not?
D.
You state that the Chicago River system is an essential development opportunity.
What type of development did you have in mind?
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Electronic Filing - Received, Clerk's Office, August 25, 2008
E.
How do you reconcile the increased pressure for residential and commercial
development along the waterways with the desire to maintain a more natural
condition?
F.
Will this development aid or impede future efforts to improve aquatic and
ecological habitat?
G.
Would you agree that a large portion of the Chicago River System is no longer
natural, and the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal and Calumet-Sag Channel are
entirely man-made, which means that they are not natural waterways?
9.
IV. Increased
Access,
page 6
,
third bullet
. You discuss development along the
waterways and investments made to support this.
A.
What is the source of the statement you made that the MWRDGC has spent $3
billion on TARP?
B.
Do you know if this was all funded by MWRDGC or were some of the funds
provided by the federal government and others?
C.
What
do you mean by "thousands of residences along the North Branch, Main
Stem
,
South Branch
,
Bubbly
Creek
and Cal-Sag have been built in the last 10
years?"
D.
What type of residences are these?
E.
What is meant by "along the waterways"?
F.
Can you identify restaurants that are "flourishing" along the South Branch
Chicago River and Cal-Sag Channel?
G.
What state agency has sanctioned the water trails you refer to?
10.
V. What people
have to say about the Chicago River and
CAWS,
Page
6-7. In this
section, you discuss comments that have been filed in the rulemaking by citizens, interest
groups and elected officials and the results of a survey that FOCR conducted.
A.
Do you know how many of the 100 persons that filed comments in the rulemaking
are members or employees of FOCR or other interest groups that are participating
in the rulemaking?
B.
Can you tell us how many of the individuals that have filed comments in the
rulemaking
are not users
of the CAWS?
C.
What evidence do you have that the demographic of the 100 or so people that
have expressed comments in the rulemaking are representative of the "general
public"?
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Electronic Filing - Received, Clerk's Office, August 25, 2008
D.
How did you select
the recipients
of your survey?
E.
Were they all members of FOCR?
F.
Have you published a formal report detailing the methodology and findings of the
survey?
G.
Who designed the survey and what did the questions consist of?
H.
It appears that 61 persons (3.3% of 1,857) responded to your survey. Is that
correct?
1.
Why do you think you received such a low response rate to your survey?
J.
45 persons (73.3% of 61) in your survey believed that their health was at risk
when they recreated on the river. If so, why did they recreate on the river?
K.
Did they indicate why they believed their health was at risk?
L.
Did any of the 9 recreators who said they "got sick" according to the Friends
survey follow up with a medical doctor?
M.
Are you aware of the incidence of GI symptoms in a normal sample of the public?
N.
Are you aware of any evidence that fewer recreators would "get sick" in the
CAWS if there were disinfection at the WRPs, or is this based on a series of
assumptions?
0.
55 persons (90% of 61) said if the water quality of the Chicago River was
dramatically cleaner, they would seek out additional recreational opportunities.
What do you mean by "dramatically cleaner?"
P.
Why would you want to encourage more recreation in a dangerous waterway?
Q.
In your survey of members and others, did you ask about the cost people would be
willing to assume to disinfect effluent from the treatment plants?
11.
VI. Conclusion
,
page 7, paragraph
1, you seem to equate the commercial boost to the
region given by use of the Chicago River of "canoe and kayak rentals" with "shipping."
A.
Don't you think that shipping (i.e., commercial navigation) has provided much
more revenue to the area than "canoe and kayak rentals?"
B.
Could you give some examples of what you mean by "a new waterfront
economy?"
12.
VI
.
Conclusion
,
page 7
,
paragraph
2, in regard to children wading and swimming in the
CAWS.
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Electronic Filing - Received, Clerk's Office, August 25, 2008
A.
Knowing what you do about CSOs
,
other bacterial sources into the waterways,
and the physical condition of the waterways, do you feel that swimming and
wading in the
CAWS
would be a safe activity for children
,
or adults for that
matter
,
if only the District were to disinfect their effluents?
B.
Even if the wastewater treatment plant effluent was disinfected, would you
recommend that people, particularly children, should avoid exposure to the
CAWS due to pathogen contributions from stormwater runoff and combined
sewer overflows?
13.
In an August 12, 2008 article in Medill Reports Chicago, you are quoted as saying that
the "first flush
"
of a storm is so polluted that it's toxic.' In light of this statement, would
it be fair to say that even if the wastewater treatment plant effluent was disinfected, you
would still be concerned about recreational exposure to the
CAWS due
to pathogen
contributions from stormwater runoff and combined sewer overflows?
14.
The District has completed a risk assessment and is conducting an epidemiological study
to determine the health risks associated with recreational uses in the CAWS. Please
provide your thoughts about how this information should factor in to decisions about the
appropriate use designations and water quality standards. If you do not believe this
information is relevant, please explain why.
15.
A recent report by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on the Chicago Sanitary and Ship
Canal states that "[t]he use of this waterway by recreational boaters is viewed as a small
but potentially growing and serious problem for commercial navigation in the study
waterway segment."
Wouldn't efforts to increase recreational access exacerbate this
significant concern about the incompatible nature of commercial and recreational
boating?
Dated:
August 25, 2008
Respectfully submitted,
METR POLITAN WATER RECLAMATION
DISTB
T-0VGREArTE$- CHICAGO
By:
Fredric P. Andes
Fredric P. Andes
David T. Ballard
BARNES & THORNBURG LLP
' "Raw sewage and street muck: scrubbing the river after a storm," Brain Boyer, Medill Reports Chicago, Aug. 12,
2008, http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/chicago/news.aspx?id=97033&print=l.
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Electronic Filing - Received, Clerk's Office, August 25, 2008
Suite 4400
One North Wacker Drive
Chicago
,
Illinois 60606
(312) 357-1313
482492v1
7
Electronic Filing - Received, Clerk's Office, August 25, 2008
