CLEAN WATER COMPLIANCE FINANCING - Commissioner Frank Avila Speaks

Commissioner Frank Avila hosts CLEAN WATER COMPLIANCE FINANCING with guest Metropolitian Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (MWRD) General Supertindent Richard Lanyon. This program is 60 minutes long. As a child growing up in Chicago, Richard Lanyon (BS 60, MS 61 in civil engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana, Champaign) lived just one house away from the north branch of the Chicago River and frequently played by its banks. The name of his school in the city's Ravenswood neighborhood was Waters Elementary. So it may be fitting that Lanyon grew up to become a water quality engineer who this summer took the helm of the agency charged with protecting the quality of the water supply for the city of Chicago and 125 suburban Cook County municipalities. As General Superintendent of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago, Lanyon oversees the activities of the agency's 2,100 employees and an annual budget of $1 billion. The organization's 117-year history boasts such accomplishments as reversing the flow of the Chicago River in 1900 and being named a civil engineering wonder of the world in 1955. The District's biggest current undertaking, the ambitious Tunnel and Reservoir Project (TARP), is one of the country's largest public works projects for pollution and flood control. Lanyon has spent 43 years of his career at the District, starting as an associate civil engineer and holding positions in three departments—Operations, Engineering,and Research and Development—before being named General Superintendent this June.

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Category:

Education

Tags:

• Commissioner Frank Avila
• Dick Lanyon
• MWRD