Challengers are hoping to unseat three Democrats on the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago’s board by focusing on fiscal accountability and questioning whether the agency should continue to discharge bacteria-laden effluent into the Chicago River.

Nine candidates, including three incumbents, are vying for six-year terms on the district’s board of commissioners.

The district treats wastewater for the city of Chicago and 124 suburban municipalities, and oversees stormwater management for Cook County. The district administers a $1.4 billion annual budget, 80 percent of which comes from property taxes.

Three Green Party candidates, all of them firmly committed to disinfecting the effluent discharged from the district’s treatment plants, are running.

John “Jack” Ailey, 62, says that, as Green Party members, he and his colleagues put environmental responsibility and social justice at the top of their agenda.

“We’re not interested in this as any kind of career move or anything like that,” says Ailey. “We want to make improvements to benefit public health and the environment of Cook County.”

A licensed electrician who worked as a steelworker for 24 years, Ailey says his industrial experience and engineering knowledge have prepared him well for the technical challenges he’d confront at the district.

He ranks disinfection as his number one priority.

“I think instituting treatment for bacteria at the three plants is a public health issue,” says Ailey.

He’d like to see the MWRD plan separate sewer systems for stormwater and sewage separated, which would yield environmental benefits.

Green candidate Nadine Bopp, 62,  also favors disinfection, as well as eliminating pharmaceuticals and other contaminants that end up combining with bacteria in the waste stream.

Bopp holds a bachelor’s degree in biology and a master’s degree in landscape architecture. She teaches classes in a wide variety of subjects, from urban planning to green architecture and botany.

Bopp says her environmental background distinguishes her from a board that is heavy with business and political science backgrounds.

“Water is a really important environmental issue on a global basis,” says Bopp. “ I feel that with environmental science and urban planning I could make a difference on the board.”

The third Green Party candidate, Rita Bogolub, did not respond to calls seeking information on her candidacy.

Republican candidates are hammering the theme of accountability.

Paul Chialdikas, one of three Republican candidates, says many members of the Democrat-dominated board have been ensconced for too long—and that’s led to complacency, he says.

“This is not a democracy,” he says.

Chialdikas, 42, says he’s outraged by last summer's patronage hiring scandal, when the district declined to advertise summer jobs and instead doled them out to children and relatives of board members and local politicians.

“That’s millions of dollars of our—the taxpayer’s—money. You’ve got to wonder, how long has that been going on?” says Chialdikas.

Chialdikas runs P.C.’s Pancake Café in Lemont and serves as commissioner of zoning and planning there.

In addition to eliminating patronage hiring, Chialdikas says the district should do a better job of educating the public about simple water conservation measures and green infrastructure solutions that can reduce run-off.

Fellow Republican David Clearwater, 38, also brings up the summer jobs program as an example of a lack of oversight.

As a manufacturing processing specialist at CIBA Vision, Clearwater says he’s focused on finding inefficiencies.

At the district, he’ll be “looking to be a voice that helps drive accountability,” he says.

Clearwater has a bachelor’s degree in environmental biology and zoology from Eastern Illinois University.  He credits a previous job sampling wastewater for Environmental Monitoring and Technologies with giving him a deep understanding of the district’s treatment processes.

Clearwater says he’d like the district to mount a more aggressive public information campaign to keep lawn fertilizer and prescription drugs from contaminating the wastestream.

Republican candidate Daniel Flores did not respond to a request for information about his campaign.

The three incumbent Democrats running for seats say their service on the board provides them with a solid understanding of the issues.

Kathleen Therese Meany, 60, says her 18 years of experience make her “uniquely qualified” to deal with the challenges that lie ahead.

Meany holds a master’s degree in public administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

She’s focused on several of the district’s capital projects, which include the Tunnel and Reservoir Project, a $3.5 billion plan to control flooding and pollution through construction of deep water storage reservoirs.

Meany ranks completing TARP as her highest priority. As chair of the MWRD’s federal legislation committee, says she’s skilled at the Washington lobbying that keeps federal funds for the project flowing.

“Given the kind of storm we had in September--we’ll see significant improvements when the project is finished,” says Meany. “I always think of TARP as being our first green initiative.”

As vice president of the board and vice chair of the finance committee, she claims a share of credit for the agency’s AAA bond rating, and $80 million in taxpayer abatements over the last three years.

Her colleague Cynthia Santos, 47, also says completing TARP tops her priorities.

Santos, who served as an administrative aid to the Chicago City Council before winning a seat on the board in 1996, says her 12 years of experience should “stand alone” as reason for her reelection.

Santos chairs the budget committee, as well as the labor and industrial relations committee.

“We’re the only agency in Illinois that doesn’t have a budget deficit,” says Santos. “I’m going to continue the tradition of sound fiscal management.”

Frank Avila, 70, is finishing up this first term.

A career engineer, Avila says he’s a perfect fit for MWRD.

$1 billion of the agency’s annual budget goes toward wastewater treatment and capital projects, says Avila. As chair of both the engineering and maintenance and operations committees he oversees much of that allocation.

“With my background as an engineer for over 40 years I feel very comfortable in that position,” says Avila, who also has a master’s degree in finance.

Ensuring successful completion of the three major plant upgrades will be his priority for the next term, says Avila.

He says he will also push for a permanent hazardous household waste collection site on district property and promote organic farming programs to reduce the agricultural chemicals that end up polluting waterways.

The host of an environmentally-themed cable talk show, Avila says he played a major role in encouraging the district to “go green” by reducing pesticide use and planting acres of prairie vegetation at treatment plants to promote water conservation.