It's nice they're finally telling all of us, including the tourists:
While Mayor Richard M. Daley and other civic leaders promote the Chicago
River as the city's second lakefront, signs are going up that provide a stark reminder of the waterway's sewage-choked history.
The river is the cleanest it has been in decades. But people riding the popular downtown tour boats or canoeing the concrete-lined channels soon will see warnings above each of the 241 pipes that pour untreated human and industrial waste into the river's murky flow after heavy rains.
Posting the signs marks the beginning of a campaign to draw attention to Chicago's chronic sewage overflows, which are hampering efforts to make the river clean enough for the surging number of people drawn to it for recreation. More than 10 billion gallons of bacteria-laden wastewater and storm runoff spilled from the pipes last year alone.
At 37 locations along the river, the district will caution that overflow pipes "may discharge sewage contaminated rainwater during and after rainfall." The warnings will be more explicit at 204 other locations maintained by the city, noting the discharges "may contain bacteria that can cause illness."
Posted by Dave at April 25, 2005 01:25 PM