By CHARLES B. CLEVELAND

Chicago

Joanne Alter, MSD commissioner, turns engineering ideas into everyday words

WHEN FIRST meeting Joanne Alter, there is an impulse to use that old phrase, "What's a nice lady like you doing in a place like this," because in her case the place is the Metropolitan Sanitary District (MSD) of Greater Chicago where she is one of nine commissioners (formerly called trustees).

But she turns such male whimsy aside very promptly as she displays a remarkable talent for turning complicated engineering concepts into everyday language, a fervent ardor for women's rights and a clear ability to maneuver in the battleground of politics.

She got into politics in the early 1950's as secretary to the Young Democrats. Her early idol was Gov. Adiai Stevenson, the 1952 and 1956 Democratic candidate for President and she quotes him — with her own feminist twist — for her continuing interest in politics. "He said we've got to bring up our sons — I say sons and daughters — to realize that politician is a respected term and they must be encouraged to go into government service."

Right from the start Mrs. Alter (wife of a businessman, mother of four and resident of Chicago's North Side) resisted the stereotype of women in politics — addressing envelopes, mailing brochures, organizing teas.

"I remember I went to Ald. Paddy Hauler and told him I wanted to be a precinct captain and he didn't have any women precinct captains. 1 said I wanted to run for delegate to the Democratic National Convention and he said, 'dearie, you don't have to run for delegate, I'll give you a ticket for the convention.'"

It was a far different picture in 1972. Women were pushing for a place on the county ticket and Mrs. Alter was one of those who led a delegation. The slate- makers were so impressed with her presentation they rejected her candidates and picked her to run. She became the first woman elected to a Cook Countywide office on the Democratic ticket.

There are three commissioners elected every two years for six-year terms; hers expires in 1978. At the time of our interview she was seriously considering running for lieutenant governor: "We're just beginning to get women into positions other than park and library boards, and we have to prove we're in the political races to stay."

(Mrs. Alter isn't the only woman who may use the MSD as a political springboard. Joan Anderson, a Republican, elected the same time as Mrs. Alter, has announced as a candidate for lieutenant governor.)

Mrs. Alter characterizes the MSD as the major environmental agency in the lives of the 5.5 million people who live in the district (which corresponds roughly to the boundaries of Cook County).

The job of the MSD is to take sewage — today more than a billion gallons a day — and treat it so the water can be returned to the rivers flowing downstream. Until recently a part of the solution was to take the resulting sludge and simply dump it into retaining lagoons.

Now much of it is recycled. It is produced in three basic forms. Air dried sludge — some 200 tons daily — is used as fertilizer. Previously it was a problem to dispose of it, but Mrs. Alter renamed it "Nu-Earth," the district developed a policy of distributing it free, and within five years demand by gardeners and others is expected to balance the supply.

Heat dried sludge — some 360 tons daily — is produced by subjecting sewage to high (1400 degrees Fahrenheit) temperatures. Much of this product is barged to Florida to be used on citrus groves and produces more than $6 million income annually. A third method is specially treated liquid sludge which is mainly barged to Fulton County. There some 15,000 acres of former strip mines have been leveled off, treated with sludge to rebuild the soil and are now producing corn and beans (and last year $180,000 in taxes to Fulton County).

As part of her personal goal of converting all waste into useful purposes, Mrs. Alter is trying to induce the district to undertake research to recapture methane gas and empty the old sludge lagoons and convert them, with leaves, into marketable compost.

While the MSD has sought to utilize formerly wasted sewage products, it has had to face a brand new problem - growth. Each year more farmland disappears into shopping centers and concrete and the natural sponge effect of land is lost. Result: floods.

Today even a moderate rain (occurring about 50 or 60 times yearly) over- taxes the ability of Chicago area sewers and raw sewage is dumped into the waterways. Result: pollution of the water supplies for downstate. The MSD found a unique engineering answer. Under existing river and water channels in the rock stratum some 250 feet down. the district is boring new channels up to 30 feet wide.

Three such tunnels are already operative and others are on the drawing boards or under construction. When rainfall exceeds the sewer capacity, it: is funneled into these reservoirs and held until the treatment plants can catch up.

Mrs. Alter is active on all these projects; every commissioner serves on every MSD committee, but she specializes in research and in working on the Fulton County project. One of her pet projects, however, is to get more women into politics and into administrative roles at the MSD. That's proving slower than battling pollution. Today only one out of 460 engineers at MSD is a woman. � 30 / January 1976 / Illinois Issues