Chicago Wilderness Reports — Water: The Quality Test

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WATER
THE QUALIT Y TEST
IS OUR WATER CLEAN? WHAT DOES “CLEAN” MEAN?
IMPROVING WATER QUALITY IS A COMPLEX AND URGENT GOAL.
by Jerry Dennis
In this special report, Chicago WILDERNESS examines
freshwater quality for people and nature.
Chicago W ilde r ne s s Re por
g e c i a l r e p o r t w a s m a d e p o s s i b l e b y a g r a n t f r o m t h e G r a n d V i c to r i a F o u n d a t i o n.
T ht iss.or
sp
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IN N AT URE, WATER IS NE V ER
FOUND IN PURE FORM. IT IS SUCH
A N EFFECTIV E SOLV ENT THAT IT
PRIES APART THE MOLECULES
OF MOST OTHER SUBSTA NCES.
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Photo opening page: Dave Jagodzinski. Opposite page, top: Lynda Wallis; right: Peter Dring. This page, top: from Wilkinson, 1879; bottom (2 fish): Dan Kirk
the best
indicator of water quality is human health
and prosperity. Historians have noted that
the success of a civilization is always dependent upon its ability to satisfy the need for
abundant, clean, safe water. It’s an ancient
struggle. Remains of central water-supply
and waste-water systems have been uncovered at the site of Nippur, a Babylonian
community more than 5,000 years old.
Sanskrit writings dating from 2000 B.C.
describe how to disinfect water by boiling it
in copper cauldrons, exposing it to the sun,
filtering it through charcoal, and cooling it
in earthen vessels.
Four thousand years later, we continue to
boil water to disinfect it, and our treatment
plants — even the most advanced of
them — expose contaminated water to the
ultraviolet radiation and cool it to make it
more palatable and less hospitable to bacteria. In our quest for pure water we continue
to eliminate odors and unpleasant tastes
with activated carbon filters, which are
made from charcoal.
In nature, of course, water is never found
in pure form. It is such an effective solvent
that it pries apart the molecules of most
other substances, attaching their positive
and negative ions to its own. This molecular trick is vital to the survival of living
things, allowing us, for example, to absorb
oxygen from the air in our lungs and nutrients from our food and transport both
through our bloodstreams. But it also makes
water subject to easy contamination. Every
raindrop sponges gases and minerals from
the air as it falls, and when it reaches the
ground it absorbs a little of everything it
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IN THE EYES OF MOST PEOPLE,
touches — every leaf and particle of soil,
every fragment of limestone, iron, and
asphalt. As many unwary travelers have
found to their dismay, water can be clear to
the eye and still be poisonous. Or it can be
muddy and harmless.
Mention contaminated water and many
of us probably think first of pollution from
pesticides and industrial chemicals, or from
untreated sewage. But many other factors
contribute to water problems, including
stormwater and agricultural runoffs, erosion
and sedimentation, changes in the levels of
pH and dissolved oxygen, and others. Any of
those factors, alone or in combination, can
have lasting harmful impact on humans.
And, of course, they also affect plant and
wildlife communities. Nearly half the endangered and threatened plants and animals in
THE QUALITY OF ILLINOIS STREAMS IN 2006
Support for Aquatic Life
Support for Public Use
( 85 stream miles assessed )
(1,108 stream miles assessed )
100%
Fair
Fair
50%
Good
Good
Poor
0%
Illinois EPA quality ratings in terms of percentage of stream miles.
Chicago W ilde r ne s s Re por t s .or g
the U.S. live in water at least part of their
lives or depend heavily on aquatic foods for
sustenance. Rapid urban development and
its attendant consequences for river systems — siltation, damming, and chemical
pollution — have been especially damaging
to such endangered and threatened fish as
the eastern sand darter, blacknose shiner,
northern madtom, and most native freshwater mussels.
On the Chicago River
One bright morning last August, Margaret
Frisbie, executive director of Friends of the
Chicago River, invited me to join her in a
canoe for the 7th annual Chicago River
Flatwater Classic. I knew about the river,
or thought I did — fouled by a century and
a half of abuse, crammed with chemical
Egyptian hydro-glyphics
Above: Image of the earliest known water
clarifying apparatus, excavated from the walls
of 15th and 13th century B.C. Egyptian tombs.
Stream quality & fish advisories
The chart at left, based on data from the
Illinois EPA, shows that only 38 percent of
Illinois streams fully support indigenous
aquatic life, while only 25 percent fully
support public water supply uses. Water
quality is degraded by agricultural runoff,
municipal point sources, resource extraction,
habitat modification, urban runoff, and storm
sewers. Fish in virtually every surface stream
and lake in Chicago Wilderness contain
moderate to high levels of potentially harmful
chemicals and metals.
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THE CHICAGO RIV ER IS E V ERY Y E AR BECOMING
MORE POPUL AR A MONG CA NOEISTS, K AYAK ERS,
A NGLERS, A ND OTHER RECRE ATION AL USERS.
wastes and sewage, assaulted by every
human dream of control over nature, from
channelization to dams to diversion.
But that morning as I walked across
Clark Park toward the North Branch of the
river, a young black-crowned night-heron —
an Illinois endangered species — soared low
across the water, reared up on its wings, and
landed at the river’s edge 50 feet from me.
The water was far from clear, but neither was
it clogged with toilet paper and condoms,
as I had feared it might be. It smelled, not
unpleasantly, like freshly turned earth. On
the opposite bank, two anglers sat on lawn
chairs, their rods propped against forked
sticks. As I watched, a rod tip dipped, and
an angler jumped to it and pulled hard
against a large fish. In moments he had it
to the net, then on the bank, and a carp
flashed golden in the sunlight.
At the park’s canoe landing I met
Margaret and Kristie Willis, managing
editor of the Friends’ newsletter The River
Reporter, who made a seat of cushions in the
middle of the canoe. We pushed off into
slow current and joined a flotilla of canoes
and kayaks paddled by an estimated 450
paddlers from throughout the Midwest.
Some were there to race, the rest to paddle
casually the 7.25 miles to Ping Tom
Memorial Park in Chinatown.
It was soon apparent that Margaret and
Kristie are profoundly committed to the
river. Margaret grew up canoeing with her
father on Chicago-area rivers and lakes, and
has watched many of those waters become
healthier in the 25 years since the founding
of Friends of the Chicago River. As we paddled and drifted, she pointed out that the
Chicago River is every year becoming more
popular among canoeists, kayakers, anglers,
and other recreational users. She explained
that the frothing and sudsy areas of turbulence we passed in several places at the river’s edge were not dreadful outpourings from
A river improved?
Things may look better in the region’s
rivers (such as the Des Plaines, at left),
but are appearances deceptive? The
Illinois EPA gave failing grades to three
tributaries off the North Branch of the
Chicago River. What does this mean for
wildlife such as the endangered blackcrowned night-heron seen below?
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THE CHICAGO RIVER: A LOOK BACK
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Photos opposite page: left, Lynda Wallis; right, Jerry Goldner
industry, as I assumed, but aeration systems
placed in the river by the Metropolitan
Water Reclamation District (MWRD) to
boost the dissolved-oxygen content of the
water. (This makes the water more hospitable to aquatic life and prevents unpleasant
odors.) Townhouses at Kinzie Park, which I
assumed were only the ordinary gentrification of a riverside neighborhood, Margaret
identified as signs of economic health —
indisputable evidence that river frontage
is growing more desirable as the water
becomes cleaner.
I started seeing the river as Margaret and
Kristie did: as an underappreciated asset.
Migratory and resident birds thrive in the
lush riparian zones along the river and its
tributaries, and dozens of species of fish live
in water that once supported little but sludge
worms. Where the North Branch meets the
Main Stem at the north end of the Loop,
the river bursts with the vitality of a city at
its best. There’s brisk traffic in pleasure
boats, water taxis, barges, ferries, and large
open-topped excursion boats crowded with
craning tourists on “architecture tours.” And
no wonder: Chicago’s most famous buildings
look their best from the water, their towering mirrored walls shimmering with
reflected waves and river colors. Here, where
the earth-tinted North Branch meets the
clear, blue Main Stem — Lake Michigan,
funneled — the river is brilliant, fresh, vital,
and inhabited by trout. Everyone in the
canoes around us was suddenly grinning.
A few miles down the South Branch we
pulled up to the docks at Ping Tom Park.
Under awnings set up for the event, we gathered with other paddlers over music, food,
and beverages to discuss the trip just finished and ideas for the future of the river.
Later, on a bus chartered for the trip back to
Clark Park, I fell into conversation with Bob
Menard, a 52-year-old resident of McHenry
County, and his daughter, Kristin, 21. Bob is
a Chicago native who grew up near the
river. “When I was a kid,” he said, “there was
no pleasure-boating on the South Branch of
the Chicago River. None. Nobody even
thought of it.”
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The reversal of the Chicago River prevented raw sewage from contaminating
the city’s drinking water supply, thus assuring Chicago’s future as a robust
metropolis. But that act has had major consequences for the health of the river.
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The Beginning of a City, 1834
A channel is cut through a sandbar blocking
the mouth of the Chicago River, creating a
navigable harbor for ships. Growth is rapid.
Reversing the River, 1894 – 1900
To solve the increasing threat of disease, the
Chicago River is reversed, sending polluted
water to towns and cities downstream.
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The Great Chicago Sewer, 1871
Sewage from homes and industry is dumped
directly into the Chicago River, leading to,
among other things, cases of typhoid fever.
The Treatment, Present
The Calumet Water Reclamation Plant is one
of seven facilities in Cook County that treat
sewage for millions of residents, reducing
pollution in area waterways.
Photos clockwise from top: Municipal Reference Collection, Chicago Public Library; courtesy The Newberry Library, Chicago;
©MWRDGC2002-7; History of Chicago, Chicago Public Library; A.T. Andreas History of Chicago, Chicago Public Library
For Bob Menard and anyone else with
a sense of history, most of the waterways in
the greater Chicago area certainly seem
improved. No longer is the Lake Michigan
waterfront an offensive and debris-clogged
breeder of typhoid and other diseases. The
breathless (and premature) civic optimism
that inspired downtown swimming marathons after the reversal of the Chicago
River in 1900 has given way to a new, more
cautious optimism that aims to make the
river safe for swimming within our lifetimes. Anyone who remembers the North
Branch of the Chicago River and the Little
Calumet River as recently as 1977, when
they supported only a few species of fish,
or who has seen the improvements in water
quality that began 30 years ago with the
Clean Water Act and the first implementation of the Tunnel and Reservoir Plan
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(TARP), will almost certainly agree that
the waters now are “not bad” or “better
than they were.”
But is “better than they were” good
enough? And how much better are they?
More importantly, have they improved
much at all? A recent report from the
Illinois Environmental Protection Agency
gives failing grades to water quality in three
tributaries of the North Branch of the
Chicago River — the Middle Fork, West
Fork, and Skokie River. Patricia Werner,
Watershed Planner for the Lake County
Stormwater Management Commission says,
“Those rivers used to be rated as fair, but in
the last few years they’ve been downgraded
to poor.” How poor? They’ve fallen to the
lowest category, “not supporting” of aquatic
life and any recreation that involves contact
with the water.
The degradation of those rivers and
many others in Wisconsin, Illinois, and
Indiana — and, indeed, throughout the
United States — is in large part a consequence of rapidly growing suburban development. From road salt running off highways
to lawn fertilizers making their way down
storm drains, our creeks, rivers, wetlands,
and groundwater are at the receiving end
of what we need to maintain our modern
American lives. Ed Karecki, environmental
contaminants biologist at the Chicago field
office of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,
makes the point that industrial waste and
dumping, which for many years was the
most notorious point-source of water pollution, is so carefully regulated today that it
is no longer the threat it once was. The biggest threats to aquatic ecosystems now,” he
says, “are runoff from urban and suburban
environments and chemical compounds
(such as pharmaceuticals). All our vehicles
dripping fluids, the pesticides and fertilizers
we dump on our lawns, the ordinary runoff
from parking lots and highways — those
non-point sources are not subject to as much
regulation, but they have a big impact.
And antibiotics that enter our waterways —
people flushing unused prescription drugs,
for instance — cannot be removed in the
treatment process,” Karecki adds. “If people
could reduce those things alone it would
make an enormous difference in the health
of our waters.”
The Canaries in the River
One who probably agrees that “better” is not
good enough is Roger Klocek, senior biologist at the Shedd Aquarium. Klocek is an
expert on freshwater mussels, which have
proven to be good “indicator species” of
water quality.
“They don’t tend to move around much,”
Klocek says, “so their presence or absence
from a particular portion of a river, stream,
or lake gives a good long-term indication
of the health of the body of water. Also,
because their shells have visible growth
rings, they can be analyzed for age, then
“THE FIRST QUESTION E VERYONE IS GOING TO ASK IS WHE THER
MUSSELS ARE WORTH IT. WHE THER THE Y ARE OR NOT,
THE QUESTION IS, SHOULD WE USE OUR BEST INDICATOR? ”
— ROGER KLOCEK
backtracked to determine years in which
they absorbed heavy-metal pollutants, for
instance.”
The status of mussels in most places in
North America suggests our waterways are
in trouble. Nearly 72 percent of the 297
mussel species native to the continent are
extinct or in danger of becoming extinct.
The Illinois Department of Natural
Resources (IDNR) reports that more than
half of the 80 native species in Illinois are
threatened, endangered, extirpated, or
extinct.
The Des Plaines River system, which
once supported at least 34 species, now has
almost none. In 1900 the upper Illinois was
With age comes knowledge
The rings of these paper pondshell and white
heelsplitter mussels can be used as time
indicators to determine when heavy metal
pollutants were present in streams and rivers.
Photo: John Quail/FOCR
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Growing Problems
with Groundwater
In many places, the only source of water
is underground. In fact, it’s been estimated
that 98 percent of the world’s supply of
liquid freshwater is beneath the surface.
Despite the great reliance on Lake Michigan
for Chicagoland’s drinking water, the ten
counties in Illinois with the most private
wells are all in the northern and northeastern part of the state. As we noted in the
prior report on water supply (CW, Winter
2007), groundwater reserves in the Chicago
Wilderness region have declined dramatically in the past century. Equally disturbing
are the numbers of contaminated private
and municipal wells. In the Chicago suburbs
of Downers Grove and Lisle, for instance,
hundreds of private wells were contaminated with chemical spills from nearby
industries, forcing homeowners to connect
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to the Downers Grove public water supply.
At least 100 wells in the Hillcrest subdivision in largely rural Wauconda was found to
be contaminated with toxic chemicals that
leached into groundwater from an old sand
and gravel quarry that had been used as a
landfill. In Lowell, Indiana, where excess
natural fluoride was discovered in municipal
wellwater, residents were forced to drink
only bottled water or risk permanent brown
mottling of their teeth. Radioactive tritium,
known to cause cancer and birth defects,
entered private wells near the Braidwood
nuclear plant in Will County as the result of
22 leaks since 1996. A court injunction last
May ordered Exelon Corporation to monitor
area wells for contamination in the nearby
village of Godley. When an additional 244
wells were tested, only one showed significant levels of tritium, but 16 were found to
be contaminated with high levels of nitrates,
RECENT GROUNDWATER CONTAMINATIONS
Wauconda
Lake County
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Wauconda
Landfill
Cook County
Kane County
Lisle
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Downers Grove
Chicago
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Plainfield
Manufacturing
Plants
Kendall County
Lake County
Braidwood
Lowell
Godley
Will County
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Braidwood
Nuclear Plant
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Kankakee County
Newton County
A spate of recent contaminations, highlighted above, have made life miserable for
people in some communities. Contaminants include naturally occurring barium and
arsenic, as well as nitrates, pesticides, heavy metals, and volatile organic compounds
that have entered the ground from industrial sites, landfills, and leaking fuel tanks.
Photos 1 and 3: Lake County Health Department; NukeWorker.com
home to 38 species, but after the reversal of
the Chicago River sent floods of raw sewage
and industrial waste down the river, their
numbers plummeted until, by 1969,
researchers failed to find a single mussel.
Almost everywhere else in the Chicago
Wilderness area, mussels are in decline.
Today, Klocek says, mussels in most
area streams are threatened by streambank
development, particularly sedimentation
from careless road and construction projects. “I see really disturbing things,” he says.
“In Long Run Creek [a small headwater
stream near Lemont], we did some water
sampling in a stretch where there was one
nice house being built. The house was
about ten feet above the level of the creek,
and it had no barriers erected to prevent
runoff. We sampled the bottom and found
22 inches of sediment covering the bottom.
And, of course, no mussels there; they
couldn’t survive it. Some thin-shelled species can climb to the top of loose sediment,
but we found none. The plume of sediment
from that single house extended downstream about 220 feet. Even a modest development could eliminate all the mussels
from a large section of creek,” Klocek adds.
“We have laws to prevent that kind of
siltation,” Klocek says. “Straw bales and silt
fences are supposed to be put up at every
new construction site. But not every homeowner knows about it. And they might
have no idea how much damage is being
done.”
The region’s mussels are also under
attack from an unexpected threat: ammonia, which is found in varying levels in
wastewater effluent. At an EPA-sponsored
conference in 2006, ammonia was identified
as contributing to the decline of many
aquatic organisms.
“This is so controversial,” Klocek says.
“But the evidence is good that juvenile
and larval mussels are the best indicators
of ammonia toxicity because they are ten
times more sensitive than any other organisms and should therefore be used to set
new water-quality standards. Today’s ammonia standards are too high. If EPA used
mussels to determine new ammonia standards they would have to completely
revamp their national water standards. It
would cost hundreds of millions of dollars
to upgrade sewage treatment plants. The
first question everyone is going to ask is
whether mussels are worth it. Whether they
are or not, the question is, should we use
our best indicator?”
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Wetlands like this one at Lockport Prairie tend to suffer more from pollution when surface and groundwater meet.
IT’S BEEN ESTIM ATED THAT 98 PERCENT OF THE WORLD’S
SUPPLY OF LIQUID FRESHWATER IS BENE ATH THE SURFACE.
which are byproducts of sewage and agricultural fertilizers and are especially hazardous
to infants. Another 24 wells were contaminated with E. coli or coliform bacteria, both
of which can indicate sewage leaking into
groundwater. Until a permanent solution is
found, the Braidwood Generating Plant is
pumping tritium-tainted water from the
ground and “recycling” it through the
plant’s cooling system.
Several years ago in Plainfield, which is
one of Illinois’ fastest growing communities,
community wells became contaminated
with radium, a naturally occurring radioactive substance linked to bone cancer. In
2004, after spending $8 million to build
water storage towers, pumping stations,
and a 20-inch pipeline two miles to
Bolingbrook, the community began purchasing water for its 20,000+ residents from
the Illinois American Water Company, a
private company that buys treated Lake
Michigan water from Chicago and sells it
to outlying communities.
Contamination of groundwater presents
a variety of complex challenges not found
on the surface. Groundwater usually flows
slowly, depending upon its depth, its volume, the types of rocks and soils it flows
through, and other factors. Water that falls
as rain or snow and infiltrates a shallow
aquifer can circulate back to the surface in
a few years, but water in deep aquifers can
be trapped between layers of impermeable
rock or clay for thousands of years.
This glacially slow circulation means
that groundwater cannot flush itself clean
of impurities with anything like the rapidity
of surface water. As a result, contaminants
often become hundreds of times more concentrated than in a stream or lake. Because
of water’s effectiveness in dissolving and
absorbing other materials, it is often naturally rich in minerals such as iron and calcium. Unfortunately, it can be equally rich
with inorganic ions of nitrate, chloride, and
heavy metals; pesticides; and viruses, bacteria, and parasites. Some contaminants, such
as barium, radium, chloride, and arsenic,
occur naturally in soils. Others leach into
aquifers from industrial sites, landfills, animal feedlots, agricultural fields, and septic
tanks. One particularly insidious category
of contaminants are volatile organic
compounds, or VOCs, which are common
components of gasoline, solvents, paints,
cleaners, and degreasers. VOCs often infiltrate groundwater near commercial and
industrial sites, fuel tanks such as those at
gas stations, and landfills. Contamination
can also occur when rapid groundwater
withdrawal creates a “cone of depression”
in the water table, triggering chemical
reactions when sandstone and other underground mineral deposits are exposed to
oxygen.
Getting rid of the contamination in
groundwater can be extremely difficult
and expensive. Sometimes the water can
be pumped to the surface, treated, then
pumped back underground. More often,
because contaminants remain attached to
soil particles, there is little choice but to
abandon the aquifer and hope that natural
biological, chemical, and physical processes
will eventually cleanse it.
Another complication arises because
groundwater and surface waters are usually
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Photo: Lori Vallelunga
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Barium
Calcium
Chloride
Radium
Arsenic
Iron
not separate bodies. Streams are fed from
springs and other groundwater outflows,
while aquifers are continuously replenished
by surface waters. Thus what’s good or bad
for the surface is good or bad for the ground,
and vice versa.
Wetlands tend to be the meeting place
between surface and groundwater systems,
and thus can suffer from the ill health of
either. Biologists have been reminding us for
years that the importance of wetlands cannot be overestimated. They perform such
essential functions as recharging groundwater, filtering nonpoint-source runoffs, stabilizing shorelines, and controlling erosion.
They’re also biologically critical, providing
nursery areas for wildlife and aquatic life,
and in many urban and suburban areas
remain the only sizeable habitats for natural
plant and animal communities. Although
they account for less than 5 percent of the
land surface of the United States, they are
vital to more than a third of the nation’s
threatened and endangered species. The
many varieties of wetlands in the Chicago
region — including sloughs, prairie potholes,
Chicago W ilde r ne s s Re por t s .or g
GROUNDWATER CONTAMINANTS
Point and nonpoint sources of contamination find their way into aquifers via infiltration.
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Runoff from farm fields carries nitrogen
and phosphorus from agricultural fertilizer
as well as pesticide residues into streams
and rivers. The huge “Dead Zone” in
the Gulf of Mexico results from massive
amounts of nutrient pollution flowing
down the Mississippi from thousands of
miles away.
Underground storage tanks can leak
petroleum products into the soil, which
eventually contaminate the underground
water supply.
Rain and snow wash salt, oil, and other
contaminants into the sewers or waterways.
Treatment plants cannot remove all harmful
chemicals from wastewater. Some of
these chemicals, found in pharmaceutical
wastes and industrial products, can act
as endocrine disruptors and can produce
harmful effects on aquatic life in very tiny
amounts.
Stormwater carries animal wastes,
pesticides and fertilizer residue from
suburban neighborhoods into our
groundwater and sewers.
Landfills can leach toxic chemicals, fecal
bacteria, and many other contaminants if
they are not properly sealed.
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Manufacturing plants discharge numerous
harmful byproducts — lubricants,
solvents, metals, corrosives. The
Clean Water Act, EPA regulations and
enforcement, and local citizen action
have resulted in much cleaner waterways
over the last 30 years. “The Fox” gained
local notoriety in the 70s for his efforts to
expose illegal dumping in his beloved Fox
River. (See CW, Spring ’02.)
Dissolved pollutants in the atmosphere
can be carried hundreds or thousands of
miles from industrial and municipal centers
before being deposited as precipitation.
Contaminated shallow groundwater will
usually flow to the surface at springs and
in wetlands, transporting contaminants
to surface waters many miles from their
sources. Deep aquifers can contain
naturally occurring contaminants such as
barium, radium, chloride, and arsenic.
Septic tanks separate solid human waste
from liquid. The effluent percolates
through a drainfield where most bacteria
are destroyed. But leaking septic systems
or soils that drain poorly allow untreated
bacteria into the environment.
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This majestic egret depends on healthy wetlands to survive, but the phragmites plants it is flying over are a sign of degraded habitat.
bogs, fens, marshes, vernal pools, and wet
meadows — are home to 860 native plant
species and more than 100 species of birds
(35 of which are absolutely dependent upon
wetlands). These habitats are both biologically diverse and extremely vulnerable.
Progress Being Made
The good news is that virtually every problem confronting water resources in the
Chicago Wilderness region is being corrected, monitored, studied, or otherwise
addressed. Effective projects range from the
five cascading waterfalls (known as
Sidestream Elevated Pool Aeration stations)
that the Metropolitan Water Reclamation
District operates in parks on the south side
of Chicago to raise dissolved-oxygen content in the Cal-Sag Channel and the Little
Calumet River, to a demonstration project
to restore the Skokie River where it flows
through the Chicago Botanic Garden.
Perhaps most encouraging are the dozens of
citizen watchdog groups working to protect
and restore every major river system.
In McHenry County, three of northeast
Illinois’ healthiest rivers — the Fox,
Kishwaukee, and Nippersink Creek— have
been monitored for a half-dozen years by
volunteers and paid staff as part of the
Sierra Club’s Water Sentinels Project. The
group’s monthly monitoring of the three
rivers, nine of their tributaries, and a lake
supplements data collected by state agencies
like the Illinois EPA and DNR, which have
classified the rivers and streams as “Class
A,” supporting diverse populations of fish,
mussels, and aquatic insects.
Cindy Skrukrud, clean water advocate
for the Sierra Club’s Illinois Chapter, began
working on the Water Sentinels project in
2001. Skrukrud, who has a Ph.D. in biochemistry and lives in a house overlooking
Nippersink Creek, says the project was
intended to take a “snapshot” of three
streams that have not yet been altered much
by development. Her group hoped it would
also raise awareness about the quality of the
streams.
When the Water Sentinels’ monitoring
project report was published in 2004 as
“Time to Choose: The Future of McHenry
County’s High Quality Streams,” it
increased local awareness of the need to
preserve the integrity of the streams.
Residents were surprised to learn that both
the Fox — which provides the primary water
supply for the fast-growing communities of
Elgin and Aurora — and the Kishwaukee
met water quality standards that fell within
the EPA’s definition of “pristine.” Nippersink
Creek was of slightly lower quality, but still
very good. A red flag was raised, however,
regarding high levels of phosphates in waters
adjacent to the outlets of wastewater treatment plants.
The Sierra Club and other organizations
took the report to the Illinois Pollution
Control Board and, with it and other data
as ammunition, succeeded in getting an
interim phosphate and nitrate standard
established for new and expanded treatment
plants. Previously, Illinois had no standards
at all for nutrient discharges, despite their
many harmful effects on aquatic systems.
The interim standards will be of particular
benefit to places like McHenry County,
where development is certain to increase,
and the number and capacity of treatment
plants will expand to meet it.
“The streams we’ve been monitoring
are on the cutting edge of sprawl,” says
Skrukrud. “Now the future is a little
brighter for them.”
A brighter future is also the aim of a
study recently completed by Friends of the
Chicago River. The study summarizes the
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< W A T E R :
T H E
Q U A L I T Y
T E S T >
CHICAGO IS ONE OF THE ONLY M A JOR CITIES IN THE COUNTRY
THAT DOES NOT DISINFECT MOST OF ITS TRE ATED SE WAGE.
Photo: Jerry Goldner
Chicago W ilde r ne s s Re por t s .or g
plants in northwest Cook County. After
studying methods of disinfection, the district is investigating the possibility of using
either ultraviolet radiation or ozone treatment in various plants (the study results are
available online at mwrdgc.dst.il.us).
Furthermore, he says, “The four plants that
discharge to the Chicago Waterway System
are not required to disinfect, and doing so
would cost about $540 million in capital and
over $20 million annually to operate and
maintain. Those costs are significant and
are not presently affordable given all our
other priorities.”
Todd Main argues that disinfecting effluents and improving water quality in general
would have economic benefits that offset its
costs. Recreation on and along the Chicago
River has grown steadily in recent years,
and is sure to increase as the water becomes
cleaner and safer. For their study, Friends
documented more than 10,000 canoe and
kayak trips on the Chicago River in 2005, a
significant part of paddle-sports’ $7 million
economic impact in northeast Illinois.
Recreational fishing would have even
greater benefits. “There are 720,000 anglers
in the Chicago area,” according to Main.
“Just those who fish the area rivers and
streams spend $94 million a year in the fourcounty region for licenses, gear, transportation, lodging, and food. The fishing is
getting better every year, and the spending
is going up at the same time.” Finally,
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
Conduct a personal audit of your water use and look for ways
to reduce pollution from your home and yard. The Web site
h2ouse.org has a nifty calculator, and the EPA site is full of
good information.
Here are some ideas:
1
2
3
4
5
6
Recycle or dispose properly of oils,
paints, solvents, antifreeze, expired
medications, and other potentially
harmful contaminants. Clean up and
dispose of spilled materials instead
of hosing them into streets and drain
systems.
Use environmentally safe laundry
detergents, dishwashing detergents, and
household cleaners, especially those
without phosphates.
Keep litter, pet wastes, lawn clippings,
and other debris out of street gutters
and storm drains.
Apply lawn and garden chemicals
sparingly. Fertilizer applications timed to
avoid rainstorms can reduce the amount
that ends up in waterways.
Plant trees and groundcover to stabilize
erosion-prone areas.
Use native landscaping plants that are
adapted to the local climate and need
little or no watering or fertilization
to thrive. Deep-rooted species offer
the additional benefit of directing
rain and snowmelt underground,
filtering pollutants and replenishing
groundwater supplies.
7
8
9
10
11
Wash your car on the lawn. Washing
a car in a paved driveway or street
sends soapy water, engine oil, and salt
residues down storm drains to area
waterways. A lawn serves as a filtering
system and buffer.
Apply salt and other de-icing materials
sparingly in the winter months.
Have septic systems inspected and
pumped every 3–5 years to ensure
proper operation.
Write your senators and representatives
and ask them to fully endorse the Clean
Water Act to ensure protection of all
streams and wetlands.
Get Involved. You can learn more and join
clean-up and monitoring projects with
such fine organizations as the Sierra
Club, Friends of the Chicago River,
Friends of the Kishwaukee River,
Friends of Nippersink Creek, and
Friends of the Fox River by visiting
chicagowildernessmag.org/issues/
spring2007/water.html.
Photo: California Department of Water Resources
progress made in cleaning up the Chicago
River and its tributaries during the past 25
years and gives particular attention to what
needs to be done during the next quartercentury. Policy director Todd Main says the
first goal outlined in the study is to encourage the MWRD to complete the TARP reservoirs. Although the 109 miles of deep
tunnels already in operation serve as a significant reservoir themselves, capturing
about 85 percent of combined sewage overflows (CSOs) in a 375-square-mile area of
Chicago and 51 suburbs, CSOs continue to
flood area waterways with untreated or partially treated sewage. MWRD estimates that
when Phase II of the $3.4 billion project is
completed, the tunnels and its three reservoirs (O’Hare, Thornton, and McCook) will
prevent 99 percent of CSOs.
The study’s second goal, Main says, is to
grapple with the problem of disinfecting
effluent. Chicago is one of the only major
cities in the country that does not disinfect
most of its treated sewage. “If you look at E.
coli numbers downstream from treatment
plants,” says Main, “the numbers are off
the charts.”
The third goal is controlling stormwater,
such as the remaining 1 percent of CSOs.
“Computer models predict that the Chicago
area is unlikely to receive a greater volume
of precipitation in coming years,” Main says,
“but will probably see storms of greater
intensity. Because TARP was designed in
the 1960s, long before climate change was
predicted, it may not be able to accommodate major storm events. CSOs are caused
by too much water in the system,” he adds.
“We’re urging Cook and Lake Counties to
adopt a multiple-solution palette that
includes green roofs, bioswales, downspout
disconnections, rain gardens. We want to
slow the velocity and volume of stormwater
entering the system.”
Most of those goals are consistent with
governmental initiatives to conserve and
protect water resources, but Richard
Lanyon, general superintendent of MWRD,
says that disinfecting effluent is a more difficult problem. According to Lanyon, the
district already complies with state standards for disinfection, and part of the year,
at least, chlorinates at three treatment
<
S P E C I A L
R E P O R T
>
No-dumping signs
A simple prompt reminds people of the
connection between stormwater systems and
natural systems.
Photo: Lynda Wallis
according to Main, the million birders in
the metro area generate an industry worth
$257 million per year, a figure that will
surely increase if river corridors were made
more attractive to birds and the humans
who watch them.
Clean water and its recreational uses
translate to increased property values,
potentially the largest economic boon.
“We looked at the property values of almost
9,000 properties in the city along the river,”
says Main. “In the 1960s, property values
declined the closer you got to the river.
Now river-edge property is at a premium.
We found it is increasing in value 3 percent
faster than property away from the river.
“There is an economic impact here,”
Main stresses. “The future strength of our
economy is tied in with the environment.
When you look at the factors that make a
city dynamic, the top three that people are
looking for are cost of living, work force,
and quality of life. When you make investments in quality of life, it reaps benefits.
That’s a big reason that Chicago led the
nation in 2005 in corporate relocations.
The clean river equals a strong economy.”
Of course strong economies depend not
only on human activities, but on healthy
and diverse communities of plants and animals. Wild creatures are often at greater risk
than humans from degraded environments
because they are in constant contact with
them. The continuing decline of frog and
salamander populations and the increasing
numbers of abnormalities among them are
almost certainly linked to pesticides and
other pollutants that have made their way
CHICAGO WILDERNESS SPECIAL REPORTS
What is Chicago Wilderness?
Chicago Wilderness Magazine is a quarterly
magazine that celebrates the rich natural heritage
of this region and tells the inspiring stories of the
people and organizations working to heal and
protect local nature. chicagowildernessmag.org
Chicago Wilderness, the Consortium, is an
unprecedented alliance of 203 public and private
organizations working together to study and
restore, protect, and manage the precious natural
ecosystems of the Chicago region for the benefit
of the public. www.chicagowilderness.org
Chicago Wilderness, the Region, is some of the
finest and most significant nature in the temperate
world, with a core of roughly 300,000 acres of
protected natural lands harboring native plant
and animal communities that are globally rare.
Visit us online
Visit us at chicagowildernessmag.org to read past
issues, subscribe, or to send a subscription as a
gift. Learn about the nature that surrounds you
everyday in your yard, parks, and nearby preserves.
About the author
Jerry Dennis, who lives near Lake Michigan in
Traverse City, Michigan, has written numerous
books and articles about nature and the outdoors
including The Living Great Lakes, Searching for
the Heart of the Inland Seas. While researching
this article last summer, Jerry competed in the
Flatwater Classic Canoe and Kayak Race on the
Chicago River. His first report, on water supply,
appeared in the Winter’07 issue of Chicago
WILDERNESS.
Special Report
This special report was made possible by a grant
from the Grand Victoria Foundation.
The supplement was printed on recycled paper. We are committed to making a better
environment for the future.
into water systems. Endangered species such
as the Blanchard’s cricket frog, the silvery
and spotted dusky salamanders, Illinois mud
turtle, broad-banded watersnake, little blue
heron, black rail, and yellow- and blackcrowned night herons are all in danger from
contaminants that might not be an immediate threat to humans.
Those contaminants are virtually everywhere and their pathways are insidious.
The World’s Water 2006 –2007: The Biennial
Report on Freshwater Resources, produced by
the Pacific Institute, reports that a study of
178 streams in urban and agricultural
regions throughout the United States from
1992 to 2001 detected organochlorine pesticides such as DDT in 97 percent of all water
samples taken, despite most of those pesticides not being used for several years before
the study began. In urban streams, 94 percent of fish sampled were found to contain
one or more organochlorine compounds in
their tissues. And more than half of the
shallow groundwater samples taken in urban
and agricultural regions revealed pesticide
contamination.
How can we accommodate such information? Many people, of course, can’t; we’re all
one or two headlines away from pulling the
blinds and hiding under our beds. But if
there is one lesson to be learned from environmental history, it is that small victories
can make enormous differences. Regulation
and legislation are necessary and powerful
tools, but mixed groups with varied interests, working together, can make sure that
everyone’s voice is heard, especially those —
like freshwater mussels, stream darters, and
herons — that have no voice of their own.
Anyone can see that water quality in the
Chicago region is better than it was — and
almost everyone agrees that it is not nearly
good enough. On the Chicago and Des
Plaines rivers and along the Lake Michigan
shoreline, at the water filtration plant in
Evanston and the sewage treatment plant in
Schaumburg, in downtown governmental
offices and suburban nonprofit lunchrooms,
I’ve met dozens of people who are convinced
that “good enough” is not an option. Todd
Main of the Friends of the Chicago River
insists that with effort and determination
we can make “something magnificent: A
clean river.”
It seems to me that there’s a lot of optimism in the air.
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