Urbanization has not historically been too kind to the health and well-being of rivers. It’s a rough irony that something so important to the foundation of human society – rivers flowing through major population centers – has been negatively impacted by the very groups that rely so heavily on them. You won’t find many cities without some kind of water body nearby. And very often it’s these rivers, lakes, bays, and estuaries that give cities their foundations and in many cases, determine their destinies. Rivers naturally provided cities young and old a source of food, water, sanitation, power, defense, and commerce.
History and perception of the Chicago River
Chicago is a prime example of a city where three water bodies – Lake Michigan and the Chicago and Calumet rivers – shaped its development. However, that’s not exactly the reputation of the Chicago River. Chicagoans and all of Illinois think a bit differently about this river, with words coming to mind like “green” for the St. Patrick’s Day river dye, and “dirty” for the runoff and trash that are sometimes dumped into the river. Let us challenge those ideas and look a little deeper at this river - the significant history in its reversal and its value to the people and future of Illinois.
Chicago lies at the center point between two massively important waterways, the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River – the aquatic crossroads of North America. After travelling across the Great Lakes, paddling along a few miles of the slow, meandering Chicago River, Native American explorers would then be faced with dragging their canoe across 3 miles of a shallow, muddy lake to finally reach Portage Creek. This creek provided direct natural access to the Mississippi River and the rest of the continent, with all its opportunities and marvels. As native peoples were forced out from this space, which held great significance and brought together cultures from across the region, this landscape would change dramatically.
Challenges of growth
As the modern city of Chicago grew in the early 1900s, so did its challenges. To accommodate its growing population, the city dumped its waste into the Chicago River which flowed into Lake Michigan – the city’s source of drinking water. This practice caused many illnesses due to contaminated drinking water. Engineers proposed and implemented several solutions to this challenge, but none so monumental and effective as reversing the flow of the Chicago River. This solution would carry waste away from Lake Michigan and instead into the Des Plaines River. This gave birth to the Chicago Ship and Sanitary Canal which flows into the Des Plaines River, connects to the Illinois River, and finally heads to the Mississippi River near Grafton. While this solution worked incredibly well to solve the public health crisis, the reversal of the Chicago River had major impacts on downstream ecosystems. The city of Chicago, its surrounding suburbs, and the state of Illinois are working to address those challenges today.
Opportunities for restoration
Why is it now our responsibility to solve this problem? Rivers and riparian zones are biodiverse hotspots due to their cadence of seasonal flooding and meandering flow along the landscape, bringing with it a variety of unique habitat types. Along rivers, seasonal and year-round wetlands, sloughs, floodplains and maybe a bog or two exist. These are special places where plants are plentiful, water dwellers can access land, and land dwellers can access the water. Above, many species of birds utilize these unique ecosystems.
The opportunity to reclaim urban rivers for people and wildlife has never been greater. Chicago, Baltimore, Toronto, New York, and countless other cities are exploring solutions that will use human engineering aptitude and city design for the good of people and nature. At the Wild Mile, one such project in Chicago directed by Urban Rivers, artificial floating wetlands provide native plants a platform to grow and thrive, supporting all other manner of organisms alongside it. We’ve seen bass and snapping turtles mating (amongst themselves, not with each other), a bald eagle being chased by crows, an otter frolicking on a snowy boathouse dock, and beavers the size of hogs. It’s an incredible place restored from an old industrial canal and built into a new floating park where nearby communities, once kept away from the river, now get a chance to learn and explore in a wilder, cleaner place. Chances are, there are plenty of opportunities for your own river to have a brighter, wilder, cleaner future, and if those opportunities don’t exist yet, it’s time to get out there and create your own!
This article was written by Phil Nicodemus, Research Director with Urban Rivers.
Resources to learn more
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Everyday Environment is a series of blogs, podcasts, webinars and videos on exploring the intricate web of connections that tie us to the natural world. Want to listen to us chat about this topic? Check out the podcast episode on this topic to hear more from the Everyday Environment team about the Chicago River.
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