To gauge the amount of sewage that flows from Oak Lawn households into interceptor sewers operated by the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District, village officials want to place devices called “flow meters” into the MWRD’s pipes.
But village officials say they’ve run into a snag because the MWRD is delaying giving the project the green light.
“We spent two hours talking about our request,” village manager Larry Deetjen said of a Feb. 17 meeting between the two agencies. “They repeatedly denied (it.)”
The plan calls for installing, beginning next month, 15 total flow meters in sanitary sewers, seven of which are owned by the MWRD.
Without their installation, village officials said the cost of Oak Lawn’s $400,000 Sanitary Sewer Master Plan would increase by $100,000 because Oak Lawn would have to install extra meters in adjacent village lines.
The MWRD has allowed other municipalities, including Tinley Park, to install similar devices in its sewers, Deetjen said at Tuesday night’s village board meeting.
Now, one week after their Feb. 17 meeting with the MWRD, Oak Lawn officials hope a letter from Mayor Dave Heilmann to MWRD board president Terry O’Brien will carry some weight.
Trustee Alex Olejniczak (2nd) said sewer problems have plagued the village for years and that the latest snag was particularly frustrating.
“For five years, we’ve been fighting a lot of bureaucracy,” he said.
Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services