Chicago's water problems and solutions

Abstract

The first water problem imposed by the urbanization of the Chicago metropolitan area was drainage. Early Chicago was a flat, marshy plain. Development required dry land, and this was produced primarily by draining. As Chicago grew, its prime water supply, Lake Michigan, was polluted by the wastes of its population. To protect the lake, the flows of the Chicago and Calumet rivers were reversed by a system of canals. Federal court limitations on the use of this canal system and accelerated urbanization in the 1920s led to Chicago's early adoption of sewage treatment. Today's water pollution and flooding problems have resulted in the mammoth Tunnel and Reservoir Project, one of the largest urban water resource construction projects in the world.