looming out on lake michigan are the remnants of antiquated water cribs
connected to the decaying tunnels that once ran underneath the lake itself
and not far from the shoreline is the famous chicago water tower these are landmarks people
associate with the waterworks of the windy city however there are also landmarks that deal with
the aspects of fresh potable water with that in mind did you ever wonder about the history
of the system of waste disposal or how the millions of toilets flushing across chicago are
accommodated well as it turns out cleanliness and sanitation are rooted deep in chicago's history
so much so that the city itself changed to fit its sanitary needs this is the story of
chicago's sewer system i'm your host ryan socas and you're watching it's history
as we've mentioned in a previous episode of its history chicago's initial placement as a city was
both a blessing and a curse on the plus side its placement on lake michigan gave it access
to trade across the great lakes and eventually thanks to the erie canal to the atlantic ocean
it also offered access to the great lakes enormous fresh water supply which it would use to expand
to metropolitan heights however its first settlers constructed the city on what was basically a swamp
it was extremely close to the water table to the point that its streets turned into mud at
the slightest rainfall another consequence of its placement was that the standard method of
waste disposal at the time was simply to throw waste into nearby bodies of water usually rivers
like the chicago river however due to the flow of the chicago river that wastewater ended up going
directly into lake michigan which also happened to be the standard location of water collection
the chicago river itself was little more than a two foot creek at this point it usually ran
very slowly in dry weather but after rainfall or snowmelt it flooded into an enormous height
whisking all the refuse the city people had collected into the lake in which it emptied
at the time this was generally not thought of as an issue let alone even really a concern it was
just one of the ways that people would typically dispose of waste the public generally did not even
understand germ theory so this was just how things went however with the present-day hindsight one
can quickly see how throwing raw sewage into the city's drinking water supply was a horrendously
bad idea diseases communicated from contaminated water are known as waterborne pathogens most
notable of these diseases was cholera which soared through the city's population in the 19th century
every epidemic claimed hundreds of lives if the city was lucky thousands if it was not 1854 saw
a cholera outbreak that claimed the lives of 1424 people but cholera was by no means the
only killer between 1854 and 1860 1 600 people lost their lives to dysentery from 1858 to 1863
fatalities were seen to scarlet fever by this time illinois state legislator realized how
deadly a lack of sanitation was leaving waste disposal entirely in the hands of its people
just led to more death 1852 saw them take decisive action empowering sewage commissioners with the
ability to install sewers in the most densely populated areas of chicago and carve out sewage
ditches in the remaining locations unfortunately there was a big problem with this plan
with chicago being as low to the water table as it was there quite literally wasn't any room to put
in new sewers in response the city council decided to take drastic action in the name of sanitation
they ordered the elevation of the entire city anywhere from 4 to 14 feet
depending on the location the workers employed to carry out these elevations place jacks underneath
every building needing lifting and turned the jacks in unison as not to damage any structures
applying sewer systems and other water pipes with these jacks in place was a curiosity to the public
buildings were not even closed or evacuated during the process many businesses remained
open during the elevation and installation of sewer connections with most residents
not even noticing any physical changes thanks to the raising of the city chicago was positioned
to be one of the first american cities to have a complete sewer system during the process of
raising the sewer commission built the sewer pipes atop what was once the streets as the workers
raised the buildings around it these main sewer lines angled downward allowing gravity to direct
the refuse into intended disposal locations the lifted buildings permanently eased access to the
underside of the structures making the connection to the sewers a trivial matter with the new lines
earth packed in around the pipes made up the new roads most of the dirt actually came from the
dredging of the chicago river solving two issues at once it pulled up the earth needed to raise
the buildings to whatever elevation necessary and widen the river to accommodate more incoming waste
with the dirt set the city eventually paved new roads on top of it even with the introduction
of the sewer system chicago's pollution issue continued to worsen the city's growth introduced
industrial waste which was dumped directly into the chicago river one example of note
was the meat packing waste which poured so much rancid meat into a fork of the chicago river
that the water began to constantly bubble as the decomposing leftovers from the slaughterhouse
released gases thus this branch of the river gained the nickname bubbly creek much
to the dismay of the sanitary activities everywhere else meat packing was not the only
industrial culprit in polluting the chicago river most industries including tanneries and
distilleries dumped into the north branch of the chicago river and the calumet river in fact iron
and steel mills created enough waste to provide the materials necessary to extend the lakefront
of southeast chicago and northwestern indiana as at that point chicago was polluting their
own water on a previously unheard of scale the chicago river rapidly became a vile
vomit inducing sight with all these factors however something happened around the 1850s
that shaped how chicago disposed of its waste forever the river began to flow backwards causing
endless controversy but doing wonders for the water of lake michigan so now let's take a look
at how the chicago sewer system actually works and what remains of its original installations
at the start of the system is lake michigan the primary water source for the whole of the city
several methods exist for drawing water from the lake such as the old water cribs which now only
have two active locations the water cribs draw water from the stone protrusions at the lake's
surface and send the water down into the tunnels bored beneath the lake towards the city several
pumps in the canals around chicago's rivers also draw on clean water from lake michigan and the
rivers that use it as a source from there drinking water travels through about 4 300 miles of water
mains connecting it to the various buildings of chicago the citizens then use the water however
they need be it for drinking cleaning cooking or other tasks after that any excess water or
wastewater goes down the drain into the 4 400 miles of sewers the old sewer systems constructed
during the raising of chicago quickly maneuvered the waste down into the disposal locations
discussed earlier at one time the waste was simply sent downstream but today it's obviously treated
like most other sewer systems in america the pipes first laid in the raising of chicago are still in
place today while those pipes still remain some now route in new paths to take waste into canals
rather than just the lake at the same time wholesale expansion has not occurred since
the connection of all the city's buildings to the system but links to private properties have
and as these are private lands they aren't part of the network meaning the 4 400 miles of sewers
are in reality much much larger but there isn't a realistic way to know the exact
number the last time the sewers of chicago were easily accessible for expansion and installation
was during the rising of chicago and the jacks used to elevate the buildings are still present
underneath many structures well they don't serve much of a purpose now that the structures are just
standing on solid earth again they technically remain down there you see there wasn't a good
reason to remove them as taking them out would only disturb the buildings that had now found a
new standing elevation this system is by no means perfect one of the biggest problems facing chicago
in modern times is that the vast majority of the pipes laid during the 1850s were primarily led 400
000 lead service lines remain in active use today and about eighty percent of chicago's
homes continue to use lead pipes over two-thirds of homes tested voluntarily responded with
positive results for lead should this issue go unattended it could potentially cause hazardous
water contamination issues much of the wastewater produced by the city still finds its way into the
chicago river but now it is much more sanitary considering the reversal of the river the various
canals and their pumps kept the wastewater out of lake michigan that's not to say chicago only
dumps their waste into the waterways it also uses several water treatment methods to turn wastewater
back into water fit for consumption amongst these methods was tarp which we covered in depth in our
previous video containing the quantity of human filth produced in a city as vast as chicago
is an unimaginable challenge think about it basically every food product for sale will someday
end up in the water chain but in a far less edible form indeed times have changed and those
toxins don't end up directly back into the water source but still when waste water discharges into
the chicago river its bacteria counts spikes to dangerous levels however since it's a movable body
of water these spikes get filtered out relatively quickly but still the river itself will never be
clean enough for fishing or swimming it also does not help when you have careless citizens
dumping their own waste directly into the river independent of the sewer system such was the
case with the dave matthews banned chicago river incident now i don't normally do this but today
we will read directly from wikipedia on august the 8th 2004 over the kinsey street bridge in chicago
illinois a tour bus belonging to the dave matthews band dumped an estimated 800 pounds of human waste
from the bus's septic tank onto a passenger sightseeing boat on the chicago river below
the resulting controversy led to more than 300 thousand dollars in settlements donations and
fines the article continues that during war months the chicago architectural foundation offers a boat
tour of buildings along the chicago river the boats have open roof seating where passengers
sit for the duration of the tour most chicago bridges feature riveted grading which is used
for its strength and anti-slip properties riveted grading also allows rain and other liquids to
pass through removing need for a complicated drainage system the incident took place on sunday
august the 8th 2004 at 1 18 pm bus driver stefan wuhi was alone on the bus on his way to a downtown
hotel when he emptied the bus's septic tank as it crossed the metal gate of the kenzie street bridge
earlier passenger boat chicago little lady left navy pier at its 1pm scheduled boat
tour departure while passing under the bridge the boat received the full contents of the tank on the
seats of its open roof terrace roughly two-thirds of the 120 passengers aboard this tour boat were
soaked the boat immediately returned to navy pier where all passengers were issued a refund
five passengers went to the northwestern memorial hospital for testing according to
the illinois attorney general passengers aboard included people with disabilities the elderly
a pregnant woman a small child and an infant the filing also described the incident further
the liquid waste was brownish yellow in color and had a foul offensive odor the liquid human
waste went into passengers eyes mouths hair and onto clothing and personal belongings
many of which were soaked some of the passengers suffered nausea and vomiting as a result of
exposure to human waste now i'm sorry if i've made your stomachs curl but i think this weird
story illustrates some important realities and challenges when it comes to governing wastewater
think about it if in modern day one of america's most well-behaved clean-cut preppy corporate bands
could be associated with a bus driver that dumps their waste directly into the river of
chicago you really have to wonder what people who don't even pretend to have a clean image
get away with the dave matthews band paid dearly for this incident but it was only because they
were caught how many buses might have dumped their waste directly into the river and gotten away with
it perhaps my point here is that one bad apple truly can poison the well which is disgraceful
when considering what an effort has been made to have fresh water in the first place thousands of
miles of pipes the literal lifting of an entire city boring tunnels underneath one of america's
greatest lakes and the reversal of a major river the windy city never ceases to amaze so don't
miss our chicago playlist and subscribe to its history for more this is ryan socash signing off