Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle announced $20 million in funding for the Stormwater Management Project Implementation Program at a press conference on June 24, 2024.
The initiative is led by the County’s Department of Transportation and Highways (DoTH). Funding for the program is provided through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) and will advance 26 stormwater management projects throughout the county, with a focus on supporting under-served communities.
DoTH worked with key partners, including the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (MWRD) and the Cook County Department of Emergency Management and Regional Security (EMRS) to select the 26 projects from previously unfunded/underfunded Stormwater Partnership applications, the Cook County Hazard Mitigation Plan priorities and other known locations where funding is critical to moving projects forward.
Projects included in the agreement will advance planning, preliminary engineering, design engineering and construction phase projects. MWRD will be the lead agency for 16 of the 26 proposed projects, while the County will either work directly with communities or in-house to implement the remaining projects.
Three of the municipalities receiving funding participated in the press conference.
Maine Township received $1.5 million for a flood control project to address regional flooding, including residential structure flooding.
The Villages of Crestwood and Midlothian along with Bremen Township received $1.5 million to replace existing culverts, make channel improvements and expand exiting and construct new detention facilities to address local flooding.
The Village of Schiller Park received $500,000 for the extension of storm sewers to remove stormwater runoff from the existing overburdened combined sewer that serves the impacted roadways and direct it to an existing storm sewer to reduce residential structure flooding.
