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| The Chicago Harbor Lock as it appears today (U. S. Army Corps of Engineers Photo) |
Found on the pages of The Chicago Tribune
on June 11 of 1952. . .
Word came from
Washington, D. C. on this date that the House Public Works Committee had approved
legislation to increase the flow of diverted Lake Michigan water into the
Chicago River to 3,500 feet per second.
Representatives Sheehan and Kluczynski said they would now concentrate
their efforts on getting the Rules Committee to approve the measure for early
consideration by the House of Representatives.
Anthony A. Olis,
the President of the Chicago Sanitary District, said of the victory, “For years
it was assumed that because of the Supreme Court ruling there was no further
hope of increasing the diversion rate.
We set our sights at a rate of 3,500 cubic feet a second, and sought
action by congress. Even tho the
increase voted is not as great as we asked it shows what can be done.”
It was hoped that
the greater diversion rate would help to clean up waterways of the Mississippi
watershed while having marginal effect on lake levels. Mr. Olis hoped that the move would help
the Chicago River to “become the sportsman’s paradise that it was many years
ago.”
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| Construction of the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal (Google Image) |
Plans were afoot
for an even more ambitious plan.
Albert J. Meserow, the counsel for the Protection of Great Lakes
Property, Inc. said that his organization would be asking the senate to boost
the diversion rate to 10,000 cubic feet per second, which was what the Sanitary
and Ship Canal was designed to handle when the digging started back in 1892.
After the Chicago
River was reversed in 1900 through the 1920’s water diversion from Lake
Michigan increased steadily to a maximum of 8,500 cubic feet per second (285
cubic meters per second). This
raised the alarm in Canada and states that bordered the Great Lakes, and, not
surprisingly, they protested.
In 1924 Wisconsin,
Michigan, and New York, later joined by every other state bordering the
Great Lakes, brought suit against Illinois in the Supreme Court. The complaining parties alleged that
the diversion of lake water in Chicago had lowered the levels in Lake Michigan, as
well as Lake Huron, Erie and Ontario by more than six inches, “harming
navigation and causing serious injury to the complainant states’ citizens and
property.” [Great Lakes Environmental Law
Center, Wayne State University]
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| Charles Evan Hughes (Google Image) |
Secretary of State
Charles Evan Hughes, a former Supreme Court Justice, led a special
investigation of the problem and found that Chicago’s diversion of the river
had lowered the level of Lakes Erie and Ontario by five inches and Lakes
Michigan and Huron by six inches, causing damage “to navigation and commercial
interests, to structures, to the convenience of summer resorts, to fishing and
hunting grounds, to public parks and other enterprises, and to riparian
property generally.”
The Supreme Court
found in favor of the complainant states, and referred the case back to Mr.
Hughes for his recommendation, which was to implement a phased reduction in
Chicago diversion, allowing the city time to build adequate sewage treatment
facilities to compensate for the reduced flow of the waterway system.
The only practical
way of reducing the flow of Lake Michigan water into the Chicago River was to
build a lock, and on September 7, 1938 the lock was finished, and the diversion
of lake water was severely limited.
The lock was begun in 1935 and, financed with the aid of a Public Works
Administration loan, cost $2,500,000 to build. It measured 600 feet long, 80 feet wide and 24 feet deep.
The hoped-for
diversion bill that was looked upon with such optimism in 1952 was not
approved. It wasn’t until June,
1967 that the states bordering the Great Lakes signed a pact that allowed 3.200
cubic feet per second of lake water to be diverted into the Chicago River. The Chicago Sanitary District was to
use nearly half of that amount for sewage treatment.
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| Chicago Lock, separating Lake Michigan & the Chicago River (Google Image) |
Today, the Chicago
diversion of lake water consists of three related components. First, and most obvious, 62 percent of
the diversion provides the water supply for 5.7 million thirsty residents of
northeast Illinois. The second
component, about 18 percent, consists of a direct diversion of lake water into
the Illinois River and Canal system for the purpose of optimizing river
navigation and improving water quality in the Chicago metropolitan area. Finally, the third component, about 20
percent, consists of storm water runoff that would otherwise flow into the Chicago River
and on into Lake Michigan, but which now flows westward into the Mississippi
watershed.
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