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Cleaning the Chicago River, and Chonkosaurus [1]

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Date: 2023-05-12  

Yes I bite

Take a break from all the depressing news on politics, and look at a success story over 30 years in the making after the Clean Water Act starting poking states into cleaning up their act.

In the early 1900’s Chicago reversed the direction of the Chicago river so it wouldn’t flow into its drinking water (from Lake Michigan )…sending its open sewer of human waste downstream for other communities to deal with… but now the rivers is starting to see the results of its clean up : meet Chonkosaurus the giant native Illinois snapping turtle in all his glory.

Chonkosaurus hanging out — trust me you want to look at this video of this large snapping turtle.

From the Guardian

The 156-mile Chicago River became a dumping ground for industrial waste by the early 20th century. Over the years, it was so polluted that it caught fire several times. This pollution led to decreased levels of biodiversity in and around the river. Since 1979, the environmental group Friends of the Chicago River has been working to improve the health of the Chicago River system. The group regularly cleans trash from the river such as plastic bags, disposable packaging and bottles. Another culprit for the pollution in the river is Chicago’s combined sewer system which allows stormwater and wastewater to run through the same pipes. During storms, which are increasing in frequency and severity due to the climate crisis, treatment facilities are overburdened, dumping untreated sewage into the river.

Clean water act :

After the clean water act Illinois EPA (IEPA) started its assessment of the river – after its recommendations, two new treatment plants were started. By 2015 two new waste treatment plants were online (Calumet and O’Brien)

As technology advanced, additional pipes were laid to reroute the rain and wastewater to treatment plants where it could be filtered before entering local waterways.

IN 2015 the Illinois Department of Natural Resources completed a two-year-long project of releasing 195,000 baby channel catfish into the river system and creating 400 nesting cavities made of permeable concrete tubes, which mimic submerged logs.

Although channel catfish are native to the region, until recently they have been in limited in numbers due to poor water quality and lack of habitat. Two of the biggest contributors to the river’s degradation: phosphorus and nitrogen, which reach the river through, among other things, human waste, and cause algae to grow like mad.

At first, the nutrients help the algae to grow over abundantly, and the fish can eat more. But then the algae becomes so much, then it dies and decomposes, taking the oxygen out of the water. It’s like putting food into an aquarium—if you put too much in, you have problems.”

Right now, Chicago is dealing with an aquatic buffet where the food is rotting. So the new catfish will deal with the algae as part of the river restoration.

How ever there is too much algae still , and to prevent the fish from suffocating, a new type of system that removes algae from the river was put in at O’Brian, the removed algae is turned into fertilizer and sold. Giving the Catfish a chance to do their thing.

There have been signs of otters, turtles and other native fish coming back to the Chicago River, but it is not yet deemed safe for swimming in by humans.

Honestly I just want to write about the turtle… but the environmental stuff is cool to!

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/5/12/2169037/-Cleaning-the-Chicago-River-and-Chonkosaurus

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