Summary

From 1800 to 1876, we see dramatic changes throughout the Illinois River valley. Technological changes bring in the steamboat, steel plow, railroad, and industrialized manufacturing. This, in turn, leads to explosive population increases as workers are needed to fell trees, mine coal, construct the railroads, and work in the stockyards and factories. All of these lead to increases in sewage and runoff from the surrounding land, and all are deposited in the Illinois River or its tributaries.

By 1845, Chicago faces an environmental crisis. Its population has increased from 350 to 12,000. Cholera strikes the city in 1849, and one in thirty-six residents die. Four hundred die in 1850 and 600 in 1852. In 1854, cholera claims the lives of 6% of the population (Chicago Public Library 2004). No one knows the cause of this disease. Some believe it is air borne; others blame the new immigrants who are quarantined in a warehouse when they become ill. The connection between the sewage being dumped directly into the river and disease has not yet been made.

After six successive years of cholera and dysentery epidemics in Chicago, the legislature establishes a Board of Sewerage Commissioners in 1855. William B. Ogden is appointed the head of this Board and proceeds to examine potential solutions to the sewage problem. He poses four potential options: 1) Discharge sewage directly into the Chicago River; 2) Discharge sewage directly into Lake Michigan; 3) Pump sewage into artificial reservoirs to be used as manure; or 4) Dig a deep canal along the route of the I & M Canal, and discharge the sewage into the Illinois River (Chicago Public Library 2004). Option 1 is selected because it is the least costly, but option four looms on the horizon to pose further problems for the river in the future.

All these changes lead to a dramatic decline in the quality of the air and water across the state, although the changes are viewed as the price of progress. No governmental agencies exist to document the decline nor does any agency have the authority to impose regulations, though in the 1860s, City of Chicago officials advocate passing anti-dumping laws. The business community, however, warns that such laws would drive commerce from the city. Consequently, water quality conditions only continue to worsen.