Greetings, green viewers to today’s episode of Planet Earth: Our Loving Home featuring an interview with Commissioner Frank Avila of the Board of Commissioners of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago, USA about water quality, conservation, and protection.Commissioner Avila, a vegan, worked as a professional engineer and land surveyor for 40 years. Then in 2002 he was elected to the Board and for the past eight years has strived to provide safe water for the five-million residents of Cook County, Illinois, USA. 

Commissioner Avila also produces and hosts the TV program, “Commissioner Frank Avila Speaks,” which examines such important issues of our day as environmental protection, public health, and organic farming.

The overall responsibility is: One, we treat waste water. Two, we protect our water supply. What’s our water supply? Lake Michigan. We have to ensure that no one is polluting Lake Michigan. We manage flooding.
We have control over storm water management here in Cook County. These are the functions that we do.

HOST: As part of its mission, the Board also focuses on water conservation. In the USA, average residential outdoor water use, such as watering lawns and plants, accounts for nearly 30% of total residential water usage, with it being nearly 60% in California, USA. Across the world rainwater harvesting is gaining popularity as a way to address water shortages that nearly all nations are facing due to climate change. 

Harvesting can also prevent municipal drainage systems from flooding and protect streams and rivers from runoff pollution.

For more details on Commissioner Avila,
please visit www.mwrd.org