Facility tour shuttle buses will depart from Gate 3 of the South Building at McCormick Place.
TOUR DESCRIPTIONS
T1 - Collection Systems Tour: Chicago’s Deep Tunnel
1:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Tour participants are required to bring valid photo identification (U.S. state driver’s license or foreign government passport) to tour site.
The Chicago Deep Tunnel is the combined sewer overflow (CSO) long-term control plan for the city and 125 municipalities with combined sewers. The project includes tunnels, pumping stations, and reservoirs. In this tour, you will visit the largest pumping station, 107 m (350 ft) below grade, and the construction site of a 56 775-L (15 000-gal) reservoir where the following activities will be taking place: (1) overburden removal (earth moving equipment, conveyor), (2) rock mining (large mining trucks, rock crusher, rock conveyor), (3) grout curtain (drills and grout plant), (4) slurry wall (installation of bentonite clay slurry wall in a trench), and (5) rock wall stabilization (installation of rock bolts in the final reservoir walls).
T2 - John G. Shedd Aquarium
1:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Opened in 1930, the Shedd Aquarium is the oldest original public aquarium building in North America and one of the preeminent aquariums in the world. Shedd has a rich history of engaging and inspiring its guests through award-winning animal exhibits, impactful conservation and education programs, and housing a world-renowned animal collection. The 26,000 animals at Shedd are naturally the stars of the aquarium, but the facility has its own interesting story as well. This tour takes you behind the scenes at Shedd and will include a look at the many filtration systems, including the reef tank filtration unit, the operations and maintenance of the brine tanks, a look at the skid-mounted life-support systems, a tour through the operations center that houses the controls used for water quality management, and a walk through the water quality laboratory.
T3 - Chicago River Tour
1:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Narrated by Libby Hill, author of the book titled The Chicago River, this boat tour will travel along the Chicago River through the heart of the city and the lock connecting the river to Lake Michigan. In addition to enjoying Chicago’s magnificent skyline, the tour will describe the engineering projects that transformed this once sluggish river into the only navigable connection between the Great Lakes and Mississippi River watersheds. Also, ride the boat underneath a “water arc” and visit a “fish hotel”.
T4 - Industrial Tour: Abbott Laboratories Wastewater Pretreatment Plant
9:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
Tour participants are required to bring valid photo identification (U.S. state driver’s license or foreign government passport) to tour site.
Founded in 1888, Abbott is a global, broad-based health care company that is headquartered in north suburban Chicago. Bulk pharmaceutical manufacturing and research and development work is conducted at Abbott’s North Chicago facility. Process wastewater generated from these activities is managed at the on-site, 7.5-L (2-mgd) (design average flow) wastewater pretreatment plant. This plant uses three distinct biological treatment processes: anaerobic digestion of high-strength waste, activated sludge to reduce carbonaceous waste, and nitrification/denitrification to manage ammonia. The influent has an average biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) concentration of 2000 mg/L and chemical oxygen demand (COD) of 6000 mg/L. The average BOD level in the effluent is less than 10 mg/L and the COD is less than 200 mg/L. The effluent is discharged to North Shore Sanitary District’s (NSSD) publicly owned treatment works. The visit will include an overview of Abbott’s North Chicago facility and a detailed tour of their wastewater pretreatment plant.
T5 - Jardine Water Purification Plant
9:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
Registration for this tour will close by October 6. Tickets will not be available for purchase on conference site.
The Jardine Water Purification Plant is the largest capacity water filtration plant in the world. Drawing water from offshore cribs in Lake Michigan, the pumping station supplies almost 3785 ML (1 bil. gal) of water per day to consumers in north and central Chicago. The facility includes pumping stations, chemical application and mixing basins, and a final filtration process composed of 48 dual graded sand and gravel filters. The tour will include current and historical purification processes (the plant began operating in the 1850s).
T6 - Chicago Center for Green Technology
1:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
The Chicago Center for Green Technology (CGT) is the third building in the United States designed according to the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system. The facility is occupied by Chicago businesses committed to providing sustainable environmental products and services. It is a model for green design and alternative building materials, resource and energy conservation, and education. The CGT focuses its conservation efforts on water, land, air, and energy. The water conservation system is a four-part system that serves to reduce the amount of water flowing into sewers, which prevents water pollution and eases pressure on the sewer system itself. The tour covers all initiatives active at the CGT.
T7 - Stickney Water Reclamation Plant
1:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Tour participants are required to bring valid photo identification (U.S. state driver’s license or foreign government passport) to tour site and must be able to climb a 350-step stairway.
With a design average flow of 4540 ML/d (1200 mgd), the Stickney Water Reclamation Plant is one of the largest wastewater treatment facilities in the world. It serves 2.38 million people residing in a 673-km2 (260-sq mile) drainage area. Within its 230- ha (570-ac) site, you will visit the first pumping station built in 1930 and the new state-of-the-art biosolids heat drying palletizing facility built in 2007, where you will find gravity and aerated grit chambers, fine screens, primary settling tanks, aeration tanks, final settling tanks, heated digesters, dewatering and thickening centrifuges, a biosolids hauling railroad, and the biosolids palletizing plant. A sophisticated computerized process monitoring and control system is used by plant operators to operate the facilities at peak efficiency around the clock.
T8 - Chicago Center for Green Technology
9:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
The Chicago Center for Green Technology (CGT) is the third building in the United States designed according to the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system. The facility is occupied by Chicago businesses committed to providing sustainable environmental products and services. It is a model for green design and alternative building materials, resource and energy conservation, and education. The CGT focuses its conservation efforts on water, land, air, and energy. The water conservation system is a four-part system that serves to reduce the amount of water flowing into sewers, which prevents water pollution and eases pressure on the sewer system itself. The tour covers all initiatives active at the CGT.
T9 - Stickney Water Reclamation Plant
9:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
Tour participants are required to bring valid photo identification (U.S. state driver’s license or foreign government passport) to tour site and must be able to climb a 350-step stairway.
With a design average flow of 4540 ML/d (1200 mgd), the Stickney Water Reclamation Plant is one of the largest wastewater treatment facilities in the world. It serves 2.38 million people residing in a 673-km2 (260-sq mile) drainage area. Within its 230- ha (570-ac) site, you will visit the first pumping station built in 1930 and the new state-of-the-art biosolids heat drying palletizing facility built in 2007, where you will find gravity and aerated grit chambers, fine screens, primary settling tanks, aeration tanks, final settling tanks, heated digesters, dewatering and thickening centrifuges, a biosolids hauling railroad, and the biosolids palletizing plant. A sophisticated computerized process monitoring and control system is used by plant operators to operate the facilities at peak efficiency around the clock.
T10 - John G. Shedd Aquarium
1:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Opened in 1930, the Shedd Aquarium is the oldest original public aquarium building in North America and one of the preeminent aquariums in the world. Shedd has a rich history of engaging and inspiring its guests through award-winning animal exhibits, impactful conservation and education programs, and housing a world-renowned animal collection. The 26,000 animals at Shedd are naturally the stars of the aquarium, but the facility has its own interesting story as well. This tour takes you behind the scenes at Shedd and will include a look at the many filtration systems, including the reef tank filtration unit, the operations and maintenance of the brine tanks, a look at the skid-mounted life-support systems, a tour through the operations center that houses the controls used for water quality management, and a walk through the water quality laboratory.