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