Chicago River Sewage

Today we can ponder what our region might have been like had we not reversed the Chicago River. It's a puzzle we're grappling with now as we contemplate carp, climate change, and a livable city for the 21st century.

No single solution can be immediately deployed that will address the many ills of the Chicago River -- or those in most of our urban waterways. What is required is steady, thoughtful and determined work.

While we could quibble with some of the letter grades assigned, Senator Kirk deserves much credit for putting together a valuable document that can help stimulate policy discussions about the health of the Great Lakes.

Today's vote by the MWRD Board of Commissioners means that soon Chicagoans can fully enjoy the Chicago River without worrying about getting sick.

Senators and other elected officials have joined the public outcry for cleaning up the waterway and restoring it to meet acceptable standards for public health and safety. But this is not just an icky sewer problem.

For years many have fought to clean up the Chicago River. One massive obstacle has prevented real action -- the regulators responsible for the Chicago Waterways, MWRD. It is time for MWRD to get in line.

Dumping effluent that contains very high levels of bacteria and other pathogens into the Chicago and Calumet Rivers is not exactly best practice in wastewater treatment. It is clear that we can do better.

We could be on the verge of significant action regarding the Chicago River. And, what do we have to thank for that, besides decades of hard work from lots of folks? Carp and courts.

The EPA has discreetly, but effectively, made their wishes for a waterway that fulfills the requirements of the Clean Water Act known in the form of a letter submitted to the Illinois Pollution Board.

The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District oversees the water infrastructure for an 800+ square mile area around Chicago. This week, a pair of stories showed the District to be the windiest folks in the Windy City.

The water rich communities of the Great Lakes region do not understand the nature and value of their most precious resource.

A chain link fence separates Bubbly Creek, a polluted backwater cul-de-sac of the Chicago River, from human contact near 35th Street and Racine Avenue...

While the city and residents have embraced the river, the governmental agency responsible for the waterway continues to turn its back to the river and consider it an open sewer.

One hundred and twenty years ago, no one asked, "What do we owe the Chicago River?" Yet today, making amends for past abuses seems to me to be the central biological, physical and moral challenge of our time.

News reports and official city press conferences tell one side of the story. Hearing first hand accounts from residents you learn a different side.

Illinois regulators want to disinfect the sewage that flows into waterways like the Chicago River. But the agency that would get that dirty job isn't ...