Treating wastewater that flows into area rivers and protecting Lake Michigan as a clean source of drinking water requires a huge amount of energy.

Like wastewater treatment facilities around the nation, the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago is looking for ways to reduce energy usage in the face of soaring costs and concern about global warming.

"Our biggest bill is our ComEd bill," says district spokeswoman Jill Horist. "Although we do generate some energy-electricity at our Lockport Powerhouse, which we sell back to ComEd, it's not nearly enough to be self-sufficient."

The district's projected expenditure for electricity alone is $37.7 million for 2008. That's 18 percent of its maintenance and operations budget.

At its meeting tomorrow, the MWRD board will consider funding a project to develop a sustainable energy management program that will guide its efforts to reduce its electricity bill, as well as harmful emissions.

The meeting will take place at 10 a.m. at 100 E. Erie St.

"This study will basically provide a 'decision support system,'" says Horist. "It will provide decision-making tools to help us identify which strategies and technologies would be cost beneficial and ecologically sound."

The district is currently considering a number of new strategies to conserve and capture energy in order to reduce costs, says Horist.

One technology involves turning treated waste into fuel cells that can help power plants.

The gas that is created when solids are separated out from the wastewater - called "biogas" - is another potentially rich source of energy. It's possible that captured biogases could be put to use to power vehicles, says Horist.

The matrix provided by the study would help determine the life-cycle costs of such technologies, as well as their ecological footprint, officials say.

"At the end of the day this project will help provide tools to water management professionals to try and balance their objectives and determine their overriding priorities," says Sam Evans, principle electric engineer and chairman of electricity procurement for the district.

The study will be funded jointly with the Water Environment Research Foundation. The foundation is the research arm of the Water Environment Federation, a not-for-profit technical and educational organization for the water quality industry.

The foundation will be collaborating on the study with the American Water Works Association Research Foundation and Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization.

The water reclamation district will pitch in $10,000 toward the total cost of the project, estimated at over $300,000.

The project is expected to take 26 months and wrap up by March 31, 2010.

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