The past week has been a wet one in the Skokie area! On Saturday, April 27, an inch of slushy snow fell in Skokie. The rain continued through the week with these Skokie rainfall totals received from the Cook County Precipitation Network:
- Monday, April 29, 1.23 inches
- Tuesday, April 30, 1.04 inches
- Wednesday, May 1, 0.89 inch
- Thursday, May 2, 0.42 inch
During the rains on the evening of April 30 and morning of May 1, the Village’s large interceptor sewers, measuring 84 to 90 inches in diameter, were running at about 90 percent capacity. Since April 29, Skokie Public Works crews responded to 10 basement backup calls, all of which were found to be private issues for the individual properties, with none due to a surcharging sewer condition. The Village’s principal drainage retention pond for the north Downtown Skokie area, Madison Pond, remains dry which indicates the Village of Skokie system stormwater management system was performing well.
Skokie Public Works crews also have responded to calls regarding water ponding in streets, which is typical of the Village’s stormwater drainage system, and no significant problems have been noted with the system. Many gravel alleys in Skokie held water, as ground conditions are heavily saturated.
On Wednesday, May 1, the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (MWRD) issued a press release indicating that their entire system is near capacity. Of particular note is that the McCook Reservoir, the facility that into which Skokie’s section of the Deep Tunnel drains, is at full capacity, holding 5.1 billion gallons of untreated waste water, and the main tunnel system is reported to be at full capacity.
The Skokie Public Works Department will continue to respond to requests for service, with crews out in areas of the community where street ponding and basement concerns have been reported.