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| Chicago River Walk Construction (Curbed Chicago) |
I swear – I never
will get used to how quickly time goes by.
As I wound my way
up and down the river yesterday, conducting a couple of tours for the Chicago
Architecture Foundation with the First
Lady crew, it became almost impossible to make myself heard above the
staccato clang of sheet piles being driven on the south side of the river
between Wabash and Dearborn Streets.
The work, well
underway now, is part of the massive River Walk project that in the next 18
months or so will turn the south side of the river, especially the section from
Wabash to Lake Street into a tourist magnet.
When finished, the design will yield five themed areas that are expected
to pull 2.8 million visitors to a section of town that was formerly hidden from
view and inaccessible.
And that is what is
so hard to believe. Because on this
date, June 3, in both 2010 and 2011 The
Chicago Tribune carried stories about the river that were far less
flattering than the glitzy new tourist attraction we are watching rise today.
In 2010 the Obama
administration doubled down on a pitch the State of Illinois had already made
about cleaning up the river. The Feds
were not content with simply providing standards for water quality. The U. S. Environmental Protection Agency’s
stated in a letter to top Illinois officials that the Federal Clean Water Act
required all waterways to be eventually clean enough for recreation “In and out
of the water.” [Chicago Tribune, June 3, 2010]
And what was the
response of local officials. Louis
Kollias, the director of monitoring and research for the Metropolitan Water
District of Greater Chicago, said, “We think the river is clean enough for how
it is used today. Why should we be
spending millions of dollars to do this?”
Sort of missed the
point, didn’t he? A point, after all,
which the E. P. A. said was to STOP using the river the way it was being used.
Mayor Daley joined
the outcry, in a mixture of mockery, sarcasm and delightful Daley-isms, the
Mayor cried, “Go swim in the Potomac.
We’re trying to make this river every day cleanable, more cleanable.”
Exactly a year
later, on June 3, 2011, The Tribune
reported that the Illinois Pollution Control Board had handed down a 58-page
order demanding that the Chicago River, the Cal-Sag Channel and the Little
Calumet River be made safe for primary
contact, a term that set a standard for human beings being able to use the
river recreationally, including taking a swim, without fear of morphing into
alien life forms.
Two weeks later the
board of the Water Reclamation District ended Chicago’s hold-out as the only
major United States city that skipped the final germ-killing step in the
treatment of its waste water before it was released, by accepting the mandate
of the E.P.A. and the Illinois Pollution Control Board and approving a bond
issue to clean up its act.
That was just three years ago! Today with barges crowding
the construction site for the River Walk and pile drivers slamming away at the
barriers for the recreational zones that will serve to strengthen the beauty of
this city in a garden, it’s hard to believe so much has happened so fast.
Every day we’re
getting cleanable, more cleanable. It’s
something to feel good about.
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1 comment:
It is wonderful when a plan comes together and everyone wins. This is good for the river, great for Chicago and anyone who plans to visit this vibrant city. Thanks for sharing this happy story.
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