Addressing, adapting to Chicago's water system needs

In the last decade, I have led the Chicago Department of Water Management twice. When I returned in 2024 after leaving in 2020, I saw how much the work of this urban water utility had changed.

Our mission remains the same: providing safe, high-quality drinking water and maintaining the infrastructure Chicagoans depend on. But our city’s challenges have changed, and our work must change with them.

Today, we face more intense rainfall, localized flooding, aging infrastructure and a historic effort to remove lead service lines. Meeting these challenges requires rethinking what a modern water utility must do.

This summer’s extraordinary rainfall exposed the limitations of infrastructure built over generations in an increasingly developed city. When heavy rain overwhelms sewers, the consequences include flooded streets, basement backups and property damage.

That is why the Department of Water Management is exploring new approaches to stormwater management. Through a partnership with the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago, we are piloting underground “wing” storage on the West Side. Together, the projects will provide nearly 1.7 million gallons of additional stormwater storage, temporarily holding runoff to give local sewers more capacity.

Innovation means expanding our toolbox, applying engineering principles in new ways and partnering with other agencies to solve problems more effectively.

The same thinking applies to lead service line replacement. Removing these lines is a critical public health priority and one of Chicago’s largest infrastructure efforts. It also changes how we plan construction, maintain infrastructure, train workers and allocate resources.

We cannot choose between maintaining our system and replacing lead lines. We must do both with limited additional funding. By leveraging available funding and incorporating replacements into capital improvement projects, we can advance this work more efficiently and equitably.

Flooding and lead replacement are different challenges, but they share a lesson: a water utility cannot stand still.

We must maintain the system Chicago inherited while building the system Chicago needs. That requires strong partnerships, workforce investment and a willingness to test new approaches.

Above all, it requires Department of Water Management employees who turn plans into progress in neighborhoods across Chicago. Our responsibility is not simply to maintain the water system we inherited, but to improve the system we pass on to the next generation.

Randy Conner, commissioner, Chicago Department of Water Management

Don’t destroy iconic Chicago monument

On a recent a trip to Paris, I commented to my husband, “I had forgotten how incredibly beautiful this city is. The architecture is gorgeous ... one building after the next after the next. Block after block after block. I so appreciate the beauty and grandeur of Paris architecture. I wish Chicago had more buildings like this.”

So it got me thinking why it's critically important to preserve what we do have.

Chicago is renowned for its beautiful and diverse architecture. It's our responsibility to protect and preserve it, as well as to ensure that it's presented in all its glory. So, I can't even begin to understand why anyone would consider, fund and approve of a project to transform the north entrance of the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry. Developing a structure that blocks the visual of this beautiful, historic and classical-style work of art is heinous enough. But actually upsetting the construction of the monument itself (yes, I do consider it a monument) is almost criminal.

Given the museum's historic value, being housed in the remaining structure of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, as well as one of the few examples of Classical Revival architecture, we should be doing everything in our power to conserve and safeguard this unique and special asset. In light of the other structural changes occurring at the Griffin MSI — specifically at the south portico — this change seems wholly unnecessary while it simultaneously disrespects the genius and artistry of Charles B. Atwood and D. H. Burnham & Company.

Please leave the north portico entrance of the museum as is. This incredible piece of art deserves to be viewed without obstruction, so all can appreciate the beauty and grandeur it brings to our wonderful city.

Annie McEnroe, Lincoln Park

Chicago media treated Angel Reese fairly

Sun-Times columnist Scoop Jackson’s analysis of Angel Reese is accurate in that it highlights how she has matured and blossomed since leaving the Sky. However, his accusation that the local media, “unused to seeing an overt-spoken leader of one of our professional teams, weren’t prepared for an overt, cultured superstar athlete” is not accurate.

Chicago has had numerous “overt, cultured superstars” that the media have followed and evaluated with candor and objectivity (does the name Michael Jordan ring a bell?)

Yes, Reese is a great player, and yes, Atlanta is a good fit, but don’t blame Chicago media for the chip on Angel’s shoulder.

Sheryl Gallaher, Palos Park

Dope pope

If anyone has any doubts that our current pope is a true Chicagoan, they need only to be reminded that he voted absentee despite having moved from the fair city more than 12 years ago.

James L. Vail, Dubuque, Iowa

Keep exposing corruption

Thanks for publishing Robert Herguth's informative story on Julie Roys' reporting on corruption in evangelical Christian congregations and organizations. Herguth and other "Watchdogs" reporters at the Sun-Times do a great job of sniffing out the most egregious conduct of the slimeballs who masquerade as pillars of the community. I hope you will continue to unmask these people.

Sherry Szilage Stoffel, North Aurora