Sarah Bury
Sarah Bury (Democratic Party) ran for election to the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago in Illinois. Bury lost in the Democratic primary on March 17, 2026.
Bury completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2026. Click here to read the survey answers.
Elections
2026
See also: Municipal elections in Cook County, Illinois (2026)
General election
The primary occurred on March 17, 2026. The general election will occur on November 3, 2026. General election candidates will be added here following the primary.
The candidate list in this election may not be complete.
General election for Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (3 seats)
Incumbent Precious Brady-Davis (D), incumbent Eira Corral Sepulveda (D), and incumbent Beth McElroy Kirkwood (D) are running in the general election for Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago on November 3, 2026.
Candidate | ||
 | Precious Brady-Davis (D) | |
 | Eira Corral Sepulveda (D)  | |
 | Beth McElroy Kirkwood (D) | |
| ||||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Democratic primary
The candidate list in this election may not be complete.
Democratic primary for Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (3 seats)
Incumbent Precious Brady-Davis (D), incumbent Eira Corral Sepulveda (D), and incumbent Beth McElroy Kirkwood (D) defeated Sarah Bury (D) in the Democratic primary for Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago on March 17, 2026.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Precious Brady-Davis | 28.7 | 389,769 |
| ✔ | | Eira Corral Sepulveda | 27.7 | 375,993 |
| ✔ | | Beth McElroy Kirkwood | 24.5 | 331,956 |
 | Sarah Bury | 19.1 | 259,485 | |
| Total votes: 1,357,203 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Shavonda Fields (D)
Republican primary
The candidate list in this election may not be complete.
Republican primary for Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (3 seats)
Frank Rowder (R) ran in the Republican primary for Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago on March 17, 2026.
Candidate | ||
| Frank Rowder (Write-in) | ||
| ||||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Endorsements
Bury received the following endorsements. To send us additional endorsements, click here.
- 48th Ward Neighbors for Justice
- A City That Works
- KO Illinois (Sway viewpoint group by Ken Obel)
- LGBTQ+ Victory Fund
- Network 49
- Northside Democracy for America
- Our 40th
- Resist and Repeat (Sway viewpoint group by Resist and Repeat)
- Sierra Club Illinois
- Todd Squad Endorsements (Sway viewpoint group by Emma Todd)
- United Northwest Side
- Women for Liberty and Justice for All
Campaign themes
2026
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Sarah Bury completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2026. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Bury's responses.
| Collapse all
- Flood Prevention & Infrastructure Equity
I grew up in a house on the southwest side that flooded every time it rained. Yes, my family lost possessions but also living space, time and money. The walls and foundation in our furnished basement were impacted by water and mold damage. The walls had to be demolished, and the foundation had to be reinforced.
When the sewer system gets overwhelmed, water is pushed into people's homes, businesses and streets. We have to give the water somewhere else to go. We need equitably distributed green space, especially in neighborhoods that have little to no such previous investment, often Black, Brown, immigrant, and working-class neighborhoods. Every community deserves protection from flooding. - Clean Water I studied environmental law in law school and have been protecting the environment for over a decade. Much of Cook County has a combined sewer system, so storm and waste water go to the same pipes. When the system is overwhelmed, the MWRD releases untreated waste and storm water directly into our waterways to relieve pressure. This pollutes our waterways, threatening environmental and public health. We have to give the water somewhere else to go. Nature-based solutions can hold rain where it falls and give the system time to process storm and waste water. The MWRD must also monitor pollutants like microplastics and PFAS, make related data publicly available, and lobby to reduce these pollutants at their sources.
- Good governance My master's degree in environmental politics taught me to meet communities where they are and to listen because they know their neighborhoods best. The MWRD needs to have meaningful communication with residents. During the pandemic, the MWRD offered remote public comment, but then cancelled it. Like other government agencies, their meetings are inaccessible to residents both due to timing and location. I hope to bring remote public comments back, have meetings with residents and local leaders in their communities, and hold virtual office hours for residents. The MWRD should also work toward more language accessibility, transparency, accountability, and equity measures.
I am committed to equity and ensuring that infrastructure investments and environmental protections reach communities historically overburdened by pollution and flooding. Transparency and public participation matter; residents deserve to understand how decisions are made and to be a part of that decision-making.
Maria Hadden (49th Ward Alderwoman)
Sierra Club
AFGE Local 704 (EPA Workers United)
Network 49
48th Ward Neighbors for Justice
Our 40th Ward Chicago
Northside Democracy for America
United Northwest Side
Women for Liberty and Justice For All
LGBTQ+ Victory Fund
Girl, I Guess Voter Guide
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
Campaign website
Bury's campaign website stated the following:
PRESERVING & IMPROVING
WATER QUALITY
Normally, the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MWRD) routes sewage and rainwater through treatment plants to remove large debris and grit from sewage until it is safe to be released into the Chicago River. When the sewer system becomes overwhelmed during heavy rainfall, however, sewage and rainwater bypass treatment plants altogether–as a result, untreated sewage is released directly into the river. While the river doesn’t normally flow into Lake Michigan, every time it rains, the river is at risk of flooding. To prevent this, the MWRD sometimes opens the barrier between the lake and the river–this results in untreated sewage also polluting Lake Michigan.
Green spaces can absorb rainwater where it falls and hold the water instead of immediately sending it into the sewer system. By alleviating the burden on the sewer system, we can reduce or eliminate discharges of untreated sewage into the river. As a result, water quality would improve and move us closer to our goal of making the river swimmable, while also protecting the water quality of the Great Lakes, which contains one-fifth of the world’s fresh surface water. Green space also has other co-benefits for communities, including a cooling effect and mental health benefits.
The map to the left is from the MWRD site. Click on the map to follow the link to learn more about these outfall locations. https://mwrdgc.maps.arcgis.com/apps/SimpleViewer/index.html?appid=89424a32f7304532b47c9017fa0f9fa2
FLOODING &
WASTEWATER MANAGEMENT
Many of the sewers in Cook County accept both wastewater and rainwater. When it rains, the sewers get backed up and many people experience basement and street flooding because the combination of rainwater and sewage has nowhere else to go.
Sarah grew up in a home that flooded every time it rained. The loss of reliable space and storage meant something to her family. Eventually, the finished basement where she once pulled books off built-in shelves and did laundry had to be torn down, and the foundation of the house needed additional reinforcement. Flooding can destroy cherished positions, require immediate and sustained attention and take a toll on people’s bank accounts. We cannot let basement backups be our back up plan.
“In a house full of kids, the loss of reliable space and storage meant something to my family.”
Green spaces can absorb rainwater where it falls instead of sending it into the sewer system. We must strategically distribute these projects across the county in such a way that they alleviate basement and street flooding in all areas, with a focus on areas with a higher propensity for flooding. Flooding is hyper local, and green infrastructure is also hyper local as well as scalable and available in a range of cost levels.
(Click the picture to go directly to the Center for Neighborhood Technology report.)
https://cnt.org/sites/default/files/publications/CNT_PrevalenceAndCostOfUrbanFlooding2014.pdf
AGENCY TRANSPARENCY & ACCOUNTABILITY
MWRD board meetings are held in the middle of a weekday in a neighborhood without street parking. Before the pandemic, constituents could only make public comments if they attended the meetings in person. It took a pandemic to change this. During COVID, the MWRD live-streamed meetings and allowed for remote public comment. Once the pandemic was declared to be over, the MWRD shifted to allowing remote public comments to be submitted in writing, and the comments would be read aloud during the meeting. Then, the policy shifted to allowing public comment to be submitted but the comments no longer read aloud during the meeting.
As a commissioner, Sarah would supplement the monthly meetings with evening and weekend events in Cook County communities because the MWRD should meet community members where they are. Remote public comment should be easier to access.
While significant updates have been made to the MWRD website in the last five years, it still appears to be in transition. The website should be easier to navigate, including on a mobile device.
Sarah has identified good governance principles in environmental agreements, pursued compliance with a transparency provision of the municipal separate storm sewer system permits issued to municipalities in Cook County as a Sierra Club volunteer, and championed public participation in various non-profit groups from the role of a board member. Sarah would apply these experiences to working with the MWRD.
COMMUNITY EDUCATION & OUTREACH
An agency with a $1.4 billion budget and nine elected commissioners should be widely known and understood, yet many county residents are unfamiliar with the agency and confuse the MWRD with drinking water agencies.
Sarah has done public education and outreach as part of her non-profit board experience, ranging from teaching about water pollution using the watershed model pictured on the right to creating a pamphlet explaining the role of government in drinking water and storm and waste water management. She also has a podcast about local climate solutions. As an organizer, Sarah has the skills to connect with residents, and as commissioner, she would continue to draw on these skills.
Climate change curriculum could complement the climate change mitigation and adaptation happening in school yards across the county. A bill passed in recent years mandated climate change curriculum in Illinois schools. This bill is an opportunity to teach students and community members about wastewater and stormwater. The MWRD is investing more in the Space to Grow program, which transforms flood-prone concrete playlots into green spaces where children can play. Sarah would support that investment.
— Sarah Bury's campaign website (March 6, 2026)
See also
2026 Elections
External links
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Candidate Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago |
Personal |
Footnotes
