Raw sewage and street muck: scrubbing the river after a storm

The stewards of the Chicago area waterways had an eventful night on Monday, Aug. 4 as wind and water whipped the city.  Their duties are still in demand days later as the city and suburbs recover from the storms.

Boasting nearly 100-mile-per-hour winds, spawning five tornadoes, and drenching Chicagoland -- rainfall was measured at almost two-and-a-half inches at O'Hare International Airport -- the tempest washed all sorts of nastiness into the river.  And it's still being scrubbed away.

"Clean-up efforts are going great," according to Jill Horist, public affairs manager at the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago. 

Even so, it wouldn't hurt to stay out of the water another day or two, a review of those efforts indicates.

The storm hit the district especially hard last Monday night when its pumping station at 3838 S. Racine Ave. lost power, was flooded with storm water and shut down.  But cool heads prevailed as fast action prevented further chaos upstream.

As of last Thursday, the pump mechanisms were still being dried out.

"We're going to keep the [water] levels a little lower than usual," said Horist.  "In the unlikely event of a rain event, we'll be able to take on a little more water while the pumps are being restored."

The district controls flooding on the Chicago area waterways with a system of huge pumps , tunnels and reservoirs that run deep below the city, intended to prevent the release of combined sewer overflow, one of the least-pleasant results of a big storm.

Chicago and many surrounding suburbs have sewer systems that carry storm water runoff combined with household and industrial waste.  During a storm the runoff and raw sewage are routed through tunnels into the reservoirs, to be treated later.

Raw sewage is clearly unpleasant, but motor oil, paint, road salt, fertilizer and all the other muck that coats the roads, parking lots and alleys is washed into the sewers by storm-water runoff.  The "first flush" of a storm is so polluted that it's toxic, according to Margaret Frisbie, executive director of Friends of the Chicago River.

Eighty-five percent of the time, routing the combined sewer overflow into the deep tunnels is sufficient to keep it out of the waterways, but when a storm like that of Aug. 4 hits, the system can get overloaded, and the overload has to be released.  It is not known yet exactly how much runoff was let out, but maps published by the district show overflows along the North Branch of the Chicago River, the Des Plaines River, and on the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of last week.

Frisbie saw first-hand the results of the overflows, "untreated from your sewer to our river," on the river last Thursday morning.  She said that she's concerned that the appearance of the river after a big storm "makes people think the river is not worth taking care of."

The storm also washed an enormous amount of debris into the river.  The Department of Streets and Sanitation collected 21,000 pounds of sticks, trash and other flotsam in the three days following the storm, according to Matt Smith, spokesman for the department.

"We've focused our efforts on [Wolf Point]," where the Chicago River splits into its north and south branches, a half mile west of the Michigan Avenue bridge, Smith said.  The currents are such that the majority of the debris tends to collect there.

"Whenever we have an event like this, the immediate priority has to be safety," Smith said.  An event like  Aug. 4th’s is the "equivalent of a major snowstorm, but with a lot more damage."  The department had an even busier week on land, having to deal with more than 4,000 tree emergencies and almost 400 dead traffic signals.

The Water Reclamation District and the Department of Streets of Sanitation both had boats out at Wolf Point cleaning up debris on the river last week, though their presence together was not planned.

"We don't have an official relationship on the waterway," said Horist.  The district is an autonomous government agency, with no official ties to city or county government.  "We are the guardians of the Chicago area waterways," Horist said.

"They do their thing, we do our thing," said Smith. "We work for Mayor Daley.”

“[The mayor]  expects us to keep the city clean," he noted.

The Chicago River and area waterways are getting cleaner every day now that the stormy weather has passed, but a little common sense can go a long way if you're thinking of recreational activities on the water this weekend.  It's probably smart to wait a day or two before going boating, said Horist, and if you do, "don't eat after you've gotten out of the water until you've washed your hands."