On 10/31/07, David Hillman <hillman@planet-torque.com> wrote:
> On Wed, 31 Oct 2007, pethier@comcast.net wrote:
> > It worked well. With our efforts and that of others in Minnesota, the
> > river is now cleaner here than it had been in generations. The fish are
> > back and the eagles are back to eat the fish. I have seen eagles over
> > my own neighborhood. (There are also peregrine falcons which nest on
> > tall buildings and eat pigeons, but we can't take credit for them.)
>
> Chicago also has peregrine falcons, but unlike other cities mentioned,
> we still use our river as a toilet. In fact, there's a drain immediately
> underneath the dock where I board the Water Taxi everyday, and if it has
> rained within 12 hours, the stench is overpowering. This is, of course,
> the whole reason why the Chicago River flow was reversed 107 years ago.
> How, exactly, we continue to get away with pumping raw sawage into the
> Mississippi ( via the Illinois and Des Plaines ), I don't know.
The Chicago area is in the process of spending a lot of money
(something on the order of $10 billion, over 30 or 40 years) to build
a bunch of large tunnels to hold the water. The first stage, about
100 miles of tunnels 300 feet belowground, and aobut 15 feet in
diameter, plus some assorted resevoirs is done now, the rest is
supposed to be done in the next decade or so....
--
David Scheidt
dmscheidt@gmail.com
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