The Rising Problem of Stormwater Infrastructure Inequity
An uncommonly strong complex of thunderstorms, classified as a derecho, battered Illinois in mid-July, with 31 confirmed tornadoes and some areas recording more than seven inches of rainfall in 24 hours. As a result, Chicago’s already overburdened stormwater infrastructure was once again pushed to its limit.
“Rainfall and extreme weather events such as the storms from July 14–15 will increase in frequency and intensity,” says Matthew Shapiro, professor of political science at Illinois Institute of Technology and the principal investigator for a group of researchers from across the university studying equity among Chicago’s stormwater infrastructure system. “Each time a storm occurs, the resultant flooding will reflect the inadequacies of our existing stormwater infrastructure.”
It was the second time in less than a week that flooding had overwhelmed the city’s stormwater infrastructure. The City of Chicago had asked residents to reduce their water usage on July 9 as the remnants of Hurricane Beryl passed through the city.
Stormwater infrastructure varies across the city, with Chicago’s South Side, in particular, dealing with more out-of-date infrastructure than other areas. In these especially flood-prone areas, the impact of repeated, excessive rainfall on an outdated infrastructure system is already being felt.
The cost isn’t just financial, either. In the hours following the derecho, hundreds of thousands of people around Chicago were without power, hundreds of flights out of O’Hare and Midway International airports were either canceled or delayed, and portions of the Eisenhower Expressway were closed due to flash flooding. Simply put: our stormwater infrastructure can’t handle storms that are now becoming more and more regular.
“Flooding in our streets, rivers, and basements—and their corresponding environmental and health consequences—will not be sufficiently addressed without radical changes in green stormwater infrastructure,” says Shapiro, adding that the inequities in stormwater infrastructure across the city only exacerbate problems. “We have compiled evidence that socioeconomic factors are strongly related to flood-prone and green stormwater-deficient infrastructure areas.”
