NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Bubbly Creek

Bubbly Creek is the nickname given to the South Fork of the Chicago River's South (Main) Branch. Originally a wetland, channels were dredged to increase the rate of flow into the river and dry out the area. Meatpackers used fat (as lard), hides and flesh (as meat), but blood and entrails usually found their way into the nearest river.^[1] The South Fork became an open sewer for the Chicago stockyards, especially the Union Stock Yards. It received so much blood and offal that it began to bubble methane and hydrogen sulfide gas from the products of decomposition.^[2]. Two heavily polluted streams that joined to create the south fork were filled in, and their courses can still be seen today in the configuration of streets and rail lines in the area. By the 1990s the only living metazoans in the creek were huge numbers of bloodworms feeding on the estimated two meters of rotting blood in the bed of the hypoxic creek^[3]. A program to oxygenate the water by continuously injecting compressed air into the creek has met with limited success, so that the creek's odor and bloodworm population is much reduced, and fish now venture there. Downtown buildings line the Chicago River The Chicago River is 156 miles (251 km) long, and flows through downtown Chicago. ... A subtropical wetland in Florida, USA, with an endangered American Crocodile. ... // For other uses, see Dredge (disambiguation). ... A slice of bread spread with lard was a typical staple in traditional rural cuisine of many countries. ... Image of a sewer pipe // Function Sewers transport wastewater from buildings to treatment facilities. ... Nickname: The Windy City, The Second City, Chi Town, City of the Big Shoulders, The 312, The City that Works Motto: Urbs In Horto (Latin: City in a Garden), I Will Location in Chicagoland and Illinois Coordinates: Country United States State Illinois County Cook & DuPage Incorporated March 4, 1837 Government... A stockyard is a place for the sale and shipping of livestock. ... ÃŠÃŠÃŠÃŠThe Union Stock Yard & Transit Co. ... Human blood smear: a - erythrocytes; b - neutrophil; c - eosinophil; d - lymphocyte. ... Scrapple sandwich at the Delaware state fair Offal is the entrails and internal organs of a butchered animal. ... Methane is a chemical compound with the molecular formula CH4. ... Hydrogen sulfide (hydrogen sulphide in British English), H2S, is a colorless, toxic, flammable gas that is responsible for the foul odor of rotten eggs and flatulence. ... â€œSpoilageâ€ redirects here. ... Phyla Subkingdom Parazoa Porifera (sponges) Subkingdom Agnotozoa Placozoa Orthonectida Rhombozoa Subkingdom Metazoa Radiata Cnidaria Ctenophora - Comb jellies Bilateria Protostomia Acoelomorpha Platyhelminthes - Flatworms Nemertina - Ribbon worms Gastrotricha Gnathostomulida - Jawed worms Micrognathozoa Rotifera - Rotifers Acanthocephala Priapulida Kinorhyncha Loricifera Entoprocta Nematoda - Roundworms Nematomorpha - Horsehair worms Cycliophora Mollusca - Mollusks Sipuncula - Peanut worms Annelida - Segmented... Blood worm or bloodworm is an ambiguous term and can refer to: A midge larva The polychaete Glycera This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... hypoxic This page meets Wikipedias criteria for speedy deletion. ...

Coordinates: 41°49′33″N, 87°39′27″W Map of Earth showing lines of latitude (horizontally) and longitude (vertically), Eckert VI projection; large version (pdf, 1. ...

References

^ Grossman, James R., Ann Durkin Keating and Janice L. Ruff (eds.), Encyclopedia of Chicago, "Meatpacking", pp. 515-7, University of Chicago Press, 2004, ISBN 0-226-31015-9
^ Upton Sinclair (1906). The Jungle. "Bubbly Creek" is an arm of the Chicago River, and forms the southern boundary of the Union Stock Yards; all the drainage of the square mile of packing-houses empties into it, so that it is really a great open sewer a hundred or two feet wide. One long arm of it is blind, and the filth stays there forever and a day. The grease and chemicals that are poured into it undergo all sorts of strange transformations, which are the cause of its name; it is constantly in motion, as if huge fish were feeding in it, or great leviathans disporting themselves in its depths. Bubbles of carbonic gas will rise to the surface and burst, and make rings two or three feet wide. Here and there the grease and filth have caked solid, and the creek looks like a bed of lava; chickens walk about on it, feeding, and many times an unwary stranger has started to stroll across, and vanished temporarily. The packers used to leave the creek that way, till every now and then the surface would catch on fire and burn furiously, and the fire department would have to come and put it out. Once, however, an ingenious stranger came and started to gather this filth in scows, to make lard out of; then the packers took the cue, and got out an injunction to stop him, and afterwards gathered it themselves. The banks of "Bubbly Creek" are plastered thick with hairs, and this also the packers gather and clean.
^ http://www.wetlands-initiative.org/BubblyCreek.html

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