We're lucky that Lake Michigan water isn’t all “Erie” like that in Toledo

I experienced a sense of relief Monday morning when I learned that local officials once again proclaimed their water supply safe for drinking.


Let’s face it. The home of the Mudhens baseball team (who this season may well be better than either of our allegedly “Major League” franchises) experienced a problem this weekend that could just as easily occur in Chicago.

BOTH CITIES RELY on the Great Lakes for their fresh water drinking supply. We may make jokes about Lake Erie. But it really isn’t all that different from Lake Michigan from which we take.

The algae bloom that developed near a structure used by Toledo to draw water from Lake Erie to plants where it is treated before being put into the system where it eventually comes out of the faucets in peoples’ residences is something that could happen here.

It could easily be us someday experiencing a stretch of time when we’re alerted to NOT drink the water or cook with it, or even try to bathe in it if it turns out we’re particularly sensitive physically.

If Mayor Rahm Emanuel has any sense, he’ll do whatever it takes to reduce the odds that any such incident were ever to occur on the southwestern shores of Lake Michigan.

WE CLAIM MICHAEL Bilandic got dumped as mayor because his city let a heavy winter storm get out of control. Just envision how we’d demonize a mayor who let the lake get tainted – even for a few days.

That might well be the only circumstances under which Robert Shaw could actually win the mayoral election cycle coming up next year.

The fact is that the algae bloom that caused the problem in Toledo is a part of nature – or at least nature interacting with the human species.

A notice issued by Toledo city officials during the weekend said such bloom is caused by runoff from over-fertilized farm fields, livestock pens or malfunctioning septic systems.

WE COULD EASILY have similar circumstances occur in Chicago if we’re not careful.

In fact, there are times I think it is miraculous that the water from the Chicago River – which at one time was toxic but is now merely polluted – doesn’t routinely cause problems for the Lake Michigan water supply that the city relies on both in terms of a drinking supply and a source of revenue for the hundreds of suburbs it sells water access to.

It often is called one of the engineering marvels of modern-day society that the flow of the Chicago River was reversed so that the pollution flows downstate across Illinois and ultimately to the Mississippi River.

It is a good part of the reason why I am skeptical of those people who fear the concept of Asian Carp getting into Lake Michigan, who try to blame the river’s reversal as some sort of unnatural act that caused the potential problem, and want it reversed back to the way Mother Nature had it before there was a “Chicago” on the shores of Lake Michigan.

THEY’D HAVE A heck of a lot of contaminates wind up in our city’s drinking water supply. To such a degree that we’d be an even bigger news story than what occurred in Toledo this weekend – and which seems to have come to an end Monday morning.

The people of Toledo will soon be back to turning on their faucet if they want a drink of water. While we ought to hope we never experience such a state of affairs.

Because the levels needed to contaminate water aren’t that large – CNN reported Monday morning that one drop would be sufficient to taint a swimming pool. The part of Lake Michigan that Chicago draws water from may be much larger, but could still be tainted.

Just think how unpleasant a place Chicago would become if we had to go for a stretch of time without showering? Particularly in the midst of summer? Peee-yoooo!

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Petcoke cleanup underway, but it will be awhile before Sout’East Side is clean

The far Southeast corner of Chicago (the land where the eastern boundary is Indiana – NOT Lake Michigan) has always been a heavily industrialized portion of the city.

Chicago's southeast corner far from pristine. Photographs by Gregory Tejeda

 

It’s a place where the steel mill and other factory jobs that created the bulk of the local economy were located literally across the street. It was a place where the employees could walk to work.

HENCE, IT ALSO is a place that is far from pristine – particularly since it saw decades worth of buildup of various pollutants from back in an era when some people were inclined to think of “environmental cleanup” as some sort of alien concept.

I am a native of that part of Chicago (I am the grandson of immigrant steel mill workers whose one-time employers are now large, vacant plots of land), and my visits to the “old neighborhood” have always included being able to see things that just wouldn’t be tolerated elsewhere.

Although now, it seems they’re not even being tolerated in places like the East Side or South Chicago – as in a couple of the neighborhoods that comprise that distant part of Chicago. How distant? Try standing on the 106^th Street bridge over the Calumet River.

Look off to the north, and you can barely see the tip of the top of the Sears Tower (You call it Willis, I’m refusing to right now).

BUT THIS AREA got the attention of downtown this week when officials reached an agreement with companies that have had piles of petroleum coke along the edge of the Calumet River. That agreement by Mayor Rahm Emanuel and the Illinois attorney general’s office was to be filed with a court on Thursday, although Emanuel said later in the day he would not be willing to go so far as an outright ban in Chicago.

A whole 'nother world from the Loop

Known more commonly as petcoke, the substance is a byproduct of the petroleum-making process. It results in mounds of the substance that then gets blown about by the breezes.

Which means that people who live in the area have been stuck having to accept as fact that their homes will get covered in the petcoke dust. Some people tell stories of finding the dust all over their freshly-washed clothes (if they put them out on a clothesline to dry).

It is inevitable that they (and I, when I have reason to return to visit) have inhaled the petcoke dust. Who knows what long-term damage is being caused?

The Port of Chicago presence (off in the distance) hasn't completely devastated Lake Calumet

 

THAT IS WHAT has motivated the activist-minded residents of the area, who in turn have put their share of pressure on government officials. Which is why government officials felt inclined to do something that makes it appear as though they’re resolving the situation.

Although it should be noted that earlier this month, locals noticed that the petcoke piles were being put onto ships and being taken out of the area. The agreement reached this week says that companies in the area that have petcoke are going to have to store it indoors, and also will have to monitor the levels of air pollution around those facilities.

Which sounds sensible enough; something that should have been agreed upon a long time ago. Except that such actions create expense that reduce the financial bottom-line, and therefore are considered to be a hassle by the more corporate-minded.

Yes, I’m pleased to learn that something is being done with regards to petcoke. I have relatives who live within blocks of these piles. I’m sure they will (literally) breathe easier.

ALTHOUGH IT’S FAR from over. All those decades of industry have left more than their share of pollution. With the vacant remains of many of those factories still in place, I can’t even envision just how tainted those Southeastern neighborhoods remain.

And how much of a miracle it is that something like Lake Calumet still manages to maintain so many species of nature despite all the toxins in the area.

What would they think in Lake View?

It’s going to be a long time, if ever, that my part of Chicago will be as clean as a place like Beverly or Sauganash – where the concept of a giant pile of salt out in the open would be unheard of, yet doesn’t even capture a second glance from the locals.

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