Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal (at the time named the Chicago Drainage Canal) being built

The Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal is the only shipping link between the Great Lakes (specifically Lake Michigan by the Chicago River) with the Mississippi River system, by way of the Illinois and Des Plaines rivers. The canal also carries Chicago's treated sewage into the Des Plaines River. Before completion of the canal in 1900, the sewage of Chicago was dumped into Lake Michigan, the city's drinking water supply. The canal is part of the Chicago Wastewater System, operated by the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago. The system has been named a Civil Engineering Monument of the Millennium by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). The Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal is 30 miles (48 kilometers) long, 202 feet (62 meters) wide, and 24 feet (7.3 meters) deep. Prior to its building, the Illinois and Michigan Canal connected the same waterways for boat travel. The Great Lakes from space The Great Lakes are a group of five large lakes on or near the United States-Canadian border. ... Sunset on Lake Michigan Another sunset along the lake. ... Downtown buildings line the Chicago River The Chicago River is 156 miles (251 km) long, and flows through downtown Chicago, Illinois. ... This article is about the river in the United States. ... This article is about the river in the U.S. state of Illinois. ... This article needs to be wikified. ... The Murray River in Australia. ... Sewage treatment is the process that removes the majority of the contaminants from waste-water or sewage and produces both a liquid effluent suitable for disposal to the natural environment and a sludge. ... 1900 (MCM) was an exceptional common year starting on Monday. ... Chicago (officially named the City of Chicago) is the third largest city in the United States (after New York City and Los Angeles), with an official population of 2,896,016, as of the 2000 census. ... Sunset on Lake Michigan Another sunset along the lake. ... Drinking water Drinking water is water that is intended to be drunk by humans. ... The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago is a government agency created in 1889 to protect the water quality of Lake Michigan, the major drinking water supply for the Chicago, Illinois area. ... The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) was founded in 1852 to represent members of the civil engineering profession worldwide. ... The location and course of the Illinois and Michigan Canal. ...

Early Chicago sewage systems discharged directly into Lake Michigan or into the Chicago River, which itself flowed into the lake. The city’s water supply also came from the lake, through water intake cribs located offshore. Inevitably, sewage infiltrated the water supply, leading to typhoid fever, cholera and dysentery. A cholera epidemic in 1854 killed more than 5% of the city’s population. Deaths from typhoid fever averaged 65 per 100,000 population a year between 1860 and 1900. The water cribs were moved farther out into the lake, but this effort did not stem the epidemics. Chicago (officially named the City of Chicago) is the third largest city in the United States (after New York City and Los Angeles), with an official population of 2,896,016, as of the 2000 census. ... Sewage is domestic, municipal, or industrial liquid waste products disposed of via a pipe or similar structure. ... Sunset on Lake Michigan Another sunset along the lake. ... Downtown buildings line the Chicago River The Chicago River is 156 miles (251 km) long, and flows through downtown Chicago, Illinois. ... This about the disease typhoid fever. ... Cholera (also called Asiatic cholera) is an infectious disease, caused by bacteria that are typically ingested by drinking water that is contaminated by improper sanitation, or by eating improperly cooked fish, especially shellfish. ... Dysentery is an illness involving severe diarrhea that is often associated with blood in the feces. ... In epidemiology, an epidemic (from Greek epi- upon + demos people) is a disease that appears as new cases in a given human population, during a given period, at a rate that substantially exceeds what is expected, based on recent experience (the number of new cases in the population during a... 1854 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... 1860 is the leap year starting on Sunday. ... 1900 (MCM) was an exceptional common year starting on Monday. ...

By 1887, it was decided to reverse the flow of the Chicago River through civil engineering. Engineer Rudolph Hering noted that a ridge about 12 miles from the lake shore divided the Mississippi River drainage system from the Great Lakes drainage system. A plan soon emerged to cut through that ridge and carry waste water away from the lake, through the Des Plaines and Illinois rivers, to the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico. In 1889, the Illinois General Assembly created the Metropolitan Sanitary District of Greater Chicago (now the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago) to carry out the plan. 1887 (MDCCCLXXXVII) is a common year starting on Saturday (click on link for calendar). ... The Falkirk Wheel in Scotland. ... This article is about the river in the United States. ... The Great Lakes from space The Great Lakes are a group of five large lakes on or near the United States-Canadian border. ... This article is about the river in the U.S. state of Illinois. ... Gulf of Mexico in 3D perspective. ... 1889 (MDCCCLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... The Illinois General Assembly convenes at the Illinois State Capitol in Springfield. ... The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago is a government agency created in 1889 to protect the water quality of Lake Michigan, the major drinking water supply for the Chicago, Illinois area. ...

The canal, linking the south branch of the Chicago River to the Des Plaines River at Lockport, was completed in 1900. The rate of flow is controlled by the Lockport Powerhouse, sluice gates at Chicago Harbor and at the O'Brien Lock in the Calumet River, and also by pumps at Wilmette Harbor. Two more canals were later built to add to the system: The North Shore Channel in 1910, and the Calumet Sag Channel in 1922. Lockport is a city located in Will County, Illinois. ... 1900 (MCM) was an exceptional common year starting on Monday. ... The Lockport Powerhouse is a dam used by the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago to control the outflow of the Sanitary and Ship Canal and limit the diversion of water from Lake Michigan into the Des Plaines River. ... -1... 1922 (MCMXXII) was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ...

Construction of the Ship and Sanitary Canal was the largest earth-moving operation that had been undertaken in North America up to that time. It was also notable for training a generation of engineers, many of whom later worked on the Panama Canal. World map showing North America A satellite composite image of North America. ... A canal tug making its way down to the Caribbean end of the canal waits to be joined by a ship in the uppermost chamber of the Gatun Locks. ...

Water diversions from the Great Lakes system are now regulated by an international treaty with Canada and by governors of the Great Lakes states.

It is also worth noting that that Standards of the Tubular Exchangers Manufacturers' Association (TEMA) once listed a fouling factor of 0.008, but recent editions have omitted this as no heat exchangers take cooling water from the canal.

River's refusal to cooperate

Recently, researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign built a numerical model of the Chicago River system. The resulting three-dimensional, hydrodynamic simulation successfully proved the likelihood that density currents are causing the bi-directional wintertime flow in the Chicago River. At the surface, the river was flowing east to west, away from Lake Michigan, as expected. But deep below, near the riverbed, water was traveling west to east, toward the lake. A summary of the research team's findings were published in the Spring/Summer 2005 edition of the CEE Alumni Association Newsletter. The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, also known as UIUC and the U of I (the officially preferred abbreviation), is the flagship campus in the University of Illinois system. ...

External Links

• [1]

	City of Chicago
	Geography | History | Government | Places and Landmarks | Colleges and Universities | Public Schools | Sports | Community Areas | Neighborhoods | Counties of Chicagoland | Economy | Parks