Essay 1 :The Future of the Chicago River

SETTING THE STAGE

“The Chicago River is the city’s most neglected natural resource. It is overshadowed by Lake Michigan, disdained by environmentalists and outdoorsman alike, neglected, fouled, and abused by industry and by all the rest of us. Nonetheless, it is the second greatest gift that nature has bestowed on this city.”

–Robert Cassidy, Chicago Magazine, 1979

Prior to settlement of the region, the Chicago River was a slow, shallow, meandering stream that drained marshes, woodlands, and prairies into Lake Michigan. After Americans settled in the area, they dredged, straightened and built seawalls along the river to better accommodate commercial shipping. With its position as the most important transportation hub in the Midwest secure, the population grew dramatically. In 1833 the population was estimated at 350, but by 1890 it was over 1,000,000.[i]

The river became an open sewer for sanitary and industrial waste. After heavy rains it overflowed its banks and carried disease into Lake Michigan and public drinking water supplies. In 1889, the Chicago Sanitary District (CSD), which later became the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (MWRD), was created to protect drinking water supplies and improve the river’s deplorable condition. Stormwater control and sewerage polices of the time called for combining sanitary and stormwater sewers. This type of sewer system directed stormwater runoff and sanitary sewage through one pipe directly to the river. As the region continued to grow however, it outstripped the river’s ability to contain the volume of stormwater and sewage

The commonly recognized solution at the time was dilution, in this case using fresh water from Lake Michigan to flush the system. The Chicago Sanitary District began working to reverse the flow of the river away from Lake Michigan in order to drain sewage and industrial waste away from the lake—the city’s drinking water source—and to accommodate commercial barge traffic. In 1910, the North Shore Channel was completed to drain sewage away from Lake Michigan in the North Branch.

In the 1920s the Chicago Sanitary District built three treatment facilities to handle the stormwater runoff and sewage discharges, and this system functioned until the 1950s, when its capacity was again frequently overwhelmed during high rainfall events. Approximately 100 times a year, rainfall amounts made the combined sewer system overflow and dump pollution into the river. During particularly heavy storms, the amount of water and sewage raised the river’s level past flood stage, which flooded basements across the city and suburbs and forced the MWRD to open the locks so that the river could flow into Lake Michigan.

To control flooding and reduce combined sewer overflows (CSOs), the MWRD developed the Tunnel and Reservoir Plan (TARP). Phase One of TARP, which has been completed, is widely credited for the dramatic water quality improvements since the first section came online in the late 1980s. Phase One represented 109.4 miles of deep, large diameter tunnels that capture the pollutant load that would normally enter the river when the system overflows. Because this “first flush” pollution contains material that has accumulated in the system since the last rain event, it is the most contaminated. Phase One of the plan captures approximately 85% of the CSOs from a 375 square mile area consisting of Chicago and 51 suburban communities>[ii].

To complete Phase Two (the reservoir portion) of TARP, three reservoirs must be constructed to capture and hold stormwater and sewage until water treatment plants can process it. This phase is designed to capture 95% of the remaining CSOs. The complete system is estimated to capture 99% of CSOs.

The O’Hare Reservoir was the first to be completed, in 1998. With a 350-million-gallon capacity, it stores the runoff from the 10-year, 12-hour rainfall event.[iii]

The Thornton Reservoir, which will serve the Little Calumet region, is being constructed in two stages. The first stage: a temporary transitional reservoir that can hold 3.1 billion gallons. This reservoir was completed in 2003. The second stage, the Thornton Composite Reservoir, will have a capacity of 7.9 billion gallons[iv] and is scheduled to be completed by 2014.

The McCook Reservoir will be finished in two stages and provide 10 billion gallons of storage. Stage One is due for completion in 2014, with Stage Two completed in 2023.

THE RIVER’S RECOVERY

Since Robert Cassidy described a “friendless river that decades of abuse and neglect had transformed from a great natural resource into an open sewer,” the water quality in the Chicago River has made a remarkable comeback. In 1984, the Illinois Pollution Control Board eliminated the fecal coliform water quality standard for water bodies classified as secondary contact (the majority of the Chicago River). Before then, MWRD had used chlorine to disinfect effluent as part of the treatment process; it discontinued this practice because of harmful effects on aquatic health. Currently, MWRD does not disinfect wastewater effluent on the Chicago River.

Another of the primary reasons water quality in the river has improved is the requirement that the MWRD operate a pretreatment program for controlling discharges from industrial and commercial facilities. In 1985, the USEPA approved the program, and it was made a component of the district’s discharge permits. This program significantly reduced the amount of toxic metals and other pollutants released into the river

One indicator of a healthy river ecosystem is species diversity. Since the early 1970s, the MWRD has conducted fish population surveys.

CHART 1

BIODIVERSITY INDEX OF FISH SPECIES IN CHICAGO AND

CALUMET RIVER SYSTEMS BETWEEN 1974 AND 2005

Source: MWRD

The MWRD data shows that as the river’s water quality has improved, the aquatic ecosystem’s biodiversity has rebounded. The number of fish species in the river has increased from 10 in 1974 to 68 in 2005.

The greater Chicago region boasts 111 freshwater fish species–85 native, 16 non-native, and 10 hybrid. Many of these species are now also present in the Chicago River. As the river’s water quality continues to improve, we hope that several once-present species may again become viable. These include the longnose gar, cisco, grass pickerel, and freshwater drum.

Longnose Gar

Freshwater drum

Source: USFWS

Likewise, the Chicago River is again providing a critical habitat for migrating birds. More than 300 bird species have been seen within the region, including threatened black-crowned night herons. The riparian or riverbank areas are being restored to improve habitat and water quality, and improved riverfront parks and public access have increased the Chicago River’s recreational fishing and paddling use.

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[i] US Bureau of the Census, 1950

[ii]USARCE Chicago land Underflow Plan Final Phase 1 GDM, Feasibility and Environmental Assessment 1986

[iii] ibid

[iv] This includes 3.1 billion gallons of non-TARP over bank flood relief from Thorn Creek.

Conserve water, our liquid asset

Here is a letter from Debra Shore that was printed in the Chicago Sun Times

Since today is World Water Day, let's conduct a thought experiment: Imagine a day without water. Brush your teeth in the morning with toothpaste and saliva. (No rinsing!). No shower, no bath, no washing your face. No flushing the toilet. No coffee or tea. No pop, no milk, no juice (the major ingredient in all these? Water). No chats by the water cooler. No shampoo at the gym. No rocks for the Scotch, no dip in the pool. You get my drift? Our dependence on water links us -- happily, mysteriously -- with much of the rest of creation. The very fiber of our being is, in fact, liquid: We humans are approximately 70 percent water. And while we can live for a month or so without food, we can survive a mere five to seven days without water. So why are we so cavalier about the single element upon which our lives utterly depend? I had a friend who lived for a time in Santa Fe. She kept a bucket in the shower and captured the water as she waited for it to warm up enough to shower, then used this to water her garden. A perfectly reasonable practice -- and one that seems entirely foreign to most of us. We who live near one of the world's great lakes are truly fortunate. Most of us have access to ample fresh water. But this may not always be the case. Even in our region, some communities dependent on groundwater are experiencing localized water shortages. And in fast-developing areas on the fringes of the metropolis, the problems of water supply will only grow. As a recent article in the New Yorker stated, ''If a large bucket were to represent all the seawater on the planet, and a coffee cup the amount of freshwater frozen in glaciers, only a teaspoon would remain for us to drink.'' Yet we who live near the Great Lakes are still the lucky ones. With efforts to conserve, we can enhance our supply and meet future needs. Chicago is poised to have a robust economy for the rest of this century due to its access to freshwater and transportation infrastructure. But the rest of the world will be watching. Will we in the Chicago region be responsible stewards of this irreplaceable resource, or will we be wasteful?

Debra Shore, commissioner,

Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago