On Jan. 17, 1900, a group of exhausted workers and nervous commissioners stood on the banks of the Sanitary and Ship Canal and watched as the dam at Lockport was lowered, making the final connection between Lake Michigan and the Des Plaines River and reversing the flow of the Chicago River. In that instant, when lake water began flowing through the canal into the Des Plaines River, Chicago's future as a robust metropolis was assured.
This grand act preserved the integrity of Chicago's drinking water supply -- Lake Michigan -- by sending sewage downstream instead of into the lake, and it protected the city's residents from diseases caused by poor sanitation. Ultimately, the Sanitary District (now called the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District) would build treatment plants throughout Cook County, including the world's largest, at Stickney, and would undertake another massive engineering project -- the Tunnel and Reservoir Plan, known as Deep Tunnel -- to reduce pollution caused by stormwater overflows.
But the diversion of water from Lake Michigan caused by the river's reversal means we take more water from the lake than we put back. We pull a billion gallons a day from Lake Michigan for residential and industrial use -- sometimes more -- and return almost none of it. At the same time, we take the billions of gallons of rainwater that fall each year on Cook County and hustle nearly all of it into our sewers, where it becomes contaminated. We pay to treat it and then send it downstream where it eventually becomes New Orleans' problem.
The Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission predicts the region's overall population will reach more than 10 million people by 2030. More people means a greater demand for our water supply. Those of us who have access to Lake Michigan for our drinking water will come under increasing scrutiny for our water use from those who don't. Are we acting as responsible stewards of this precious resource, or are we wasteful?
The challenge for us is to begin to think about and to talk about stormwater -- all the rain and snow that falls on our region -- as drinking water. The 35 inches that fall on Cook County each year amount to more than 500 billion gallons of fresh, clean water. There are only two places our drinking water comes from: surface water, primarily Lake Michigan, or from the ground. And those sources are replenished by rain.
So the task before us is nothing less than a dramatic change in the way we think about and talk about and manage our freshwater resources. Every time we think about stormwater management, let's think about drinking water management instead. Every time we talk about managing stormwater, let's talk about managing drinking water.
Today we treat rainwater as if it were a misbehaving student: We send it to detention. We send it to detention until we can figure out how to get it away from us permanently.
Let me suggest that there is another path. The sustainable cities of the future will be those that are most successful at changing their own culture, that make the transition from viewing stormwater as a problem to viewing rainwater as a liquid asset to be captured, treasured, saved and not squandered.
Clearly we can have a profound influence on our environment, for good and for ill. Fortunately, the water reclamation district is poised to be a national leader in the area of water resources management, as it so often has been in the past. It is rich with energetic, creative, thoughtful employees and has benefited from sound, smart direction from the board.
I believe we have a chance here, a rare moment in time, when together we can set the course for generations -- toward a sustainable, harmonious, healthy relationship with nearby nature -- or not.
In a very real sense, it is what we do in our lifetimes that will determine whether we have succeeded. We can change the culture. We can act as caring stewards. We can treat and manage water as a priceless liquid asset.
Debra Shore is a commissioner of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District.
