July 10, 2015 -- In the wake of new regime changes in Ukraine, a delegation of Ukrainian leaders and water treatment experts recently visited with officials from the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MWRD) of Greater Chicago to share knowledge and discuss water management issues. The visit was part of a brief U.S. tour involving Andrii Levus, member of Ukraine Parliament, and members of the SPR-Group, a Ukrainian company specializing in the design, construction, reconstruction, and upgrading of wastewater treatment facilities on a turnkey basis.
Despite recent tensions in Ukraine, the SPR-Group reconstructed 12 water treatment plants that manage all phases of the treatment process under one roof to treat up to 119 million gallons of water per day. Using environmentally friendly, cutting-edge technology, the team developed reliable, cost-effective, fully automated, odorless and silent facilities to manage water treatment on a small scale, providing a unique comparison to MWRD, which handles the largest water treatment plant in the world at the Stickney Water Reclamation Plant, where 1.44 billion gallons of water are treated daily.
Levus also visited the U.S./Ukraine Working Group Yearly Summit hosted by the Center for U.S.-Ukrainian Relations in Washington, D.C., and met with members of Congress and other officials at the White House. As part of its trip, the SPR-Group visited Michigan leaders and water treatment facility experts in the region as well as leaders in the Ukrainian-American community. The meetings were intended to prompt discussion about the SPR-Group's business model for water treatment and its vision for positive change in Ukraine.
Levus noted that out of the post-Soviet Union countries, Ukraine is the leading nation for potential technical innovation. Between ongoing conflicts with Russia and dealing with the consequence of previous leadership, the future of the country is largely dependent on establishing relationships in the U.S. Considering the major presence of ethnic Ukrainians in Chicago, Levus encouraged the MWRD to work with the Ukrainian delegation to promote water quality issues in the Ukraine.
In the Ukraine, the other challenge is investing in infrastructure to improve water quality and eliminate algae blooms. MWRD President Mariyana Spyropoulos explained that the District is in the process of building the world's largest wastewater phosphorus recovery system with the potential to return 10,000 tons of usable phosphorus per year and eliminate it from waterways. The delegation met with MWRD Chairman of Finance Frank Avila for a tour of the Stickney plant in Cicero, Ill. Commissioner Avila worked with Paul Bandriwsky, vice president of the Illinois Division of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America, to arrange the tour.
See also:
"MWRD earns several Peak Performance Awards for water treatment compliance"
"MWRD now accepting applications for Sustainable Landscaping and Biosolids User Awards"
###
