Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1893-06-22


Illinois With the additional water we viii
furnish. the illinois. for that - miles. can be
gwen III Feet OF water at q minimum IN chac-
mel I'D feet wide AT the-bottom--
AZ what cost. Mr.. Cootey.,
AZ cost OF =. COCOON And eight months in
tne year we can make It IA feet depth That
ABOUT covers the period Of navigation We are
closed by way Of the lakes five months
what about the section OF the Illinois from
Joliet down to La SalIer.
That Is rock-bound and more of a problem
IMAM the Is miles below. The descen. is 20
Feet II win require four or FIVE locks have
got every survey made on that part OF the river
10 correspond with the contemplated depth Of
water below. il viii cost sI5OOOO0 to fix this
part OF the Illinois from the end of our canal to
Ia sale People have overestimated the cost
Capt Marshall laid out a projected improve
mens on this rock-hound portion of the Illinois.
He thought il would cost ss3 600 600 to improve
It for IA feet of water. But he put the levels
oown to save property. He made the cost
t4-oVrUO greater to save s6000O9 worth of
property Il would be better to lose 800 OoO in
land and pay for il. and make the canal - Oo0-
uo cheaper wouldn't 1t: Peopie have talked
aoouf the Chicago part Of the work costing from
S0.00OO 10 SoO0O00. 1 made estimates in
1877 which run within 10 per cent OF what the
contracts are now being executed for Based
on our knowledge OF contracts let we count on
getting through for ssI 900 900 between Chicago
and Joliet don't undertake to say that that
Is all we shall spend This will lie the cost of
the so-called main channel from the Chicago
river TO the point were we can discharge the
water. one-half Of the way through solid rock.
IL Is the expenditure We are obliged to make
before we can get any results. After that will
come the questions OF further improvements
at this end. such as widening for harbor
purposes. other connections besides the
river with the lake and so on This
Continued Mr. Cooley, is about a true state
ment OF the situation. The money we will have
TO spend TO get to Joliet is about what it viii
cost to make corresponding improvement for
navigation from Joliet to St Louis I look I'D
on IA feet as useful development The days
OF feet of water from lake to gulf have gone.
BY the time we reach St. Louis. with 10 feet of
water as minimum all OF the way down from
Chicago. the Lower Mississippi Improvement
plans ought to be far enough along to give cor
responding depth all of the way to New Or
leans 1t has come now to be question simply
OF how much we want to spend We can have
more water IL we want to spend the
money for it. We are figuring now a depth
of % feet across the divide to the Illinois Be
fore we finish we shall probably have % feet of
water In our canal It is only a matter of time.
think. until sentiment will demand more than
II feet from Chicago to the gulf"
VIII the lake stand it,
L don't think it will make any appreciate
difference in the level Of the lake II we could
lower the lake a foot it would do far more good
than harm The benefits would be greater than
the cost Of dredging some of the harbors.-'
You can't say much about the drainage as
pecty"
I'VE have got past that All of the discus
sion now is on the developments of the COM
mercial side That drainage controversy has
turned out curiouSIy. We have found that the
best plans for the commercial purpose are also
the best for drainage. That fact is not SO well
understood
You had a good deal of trouble to convince
al,
cago wouIdn-: hurt thems-
Yes. hut think we have overcome ali fears
of contamination The fact is that when our
canal Is carrying 6)O.0U cubic feet minute the
conditions below viii not be as bad as they are
now The pumps at present transfer about 40
90 cutie feet OF water a minute from the Chi
caSo river TO the Old canal The canal is very
sluggish II is about as bad as the river. II
carries out only two or three times the amount
OF water pumped into the city daily The dis
charge by the canal Will be fifteen
times what 1t Is by the pump
ing system That means diIption of
the sewage As il is now We can never de-
tect the sewage by chemical analysis lower
down than Ottawa. the Illinois. and Or
dlEar1ly II doesn't show a. Norris dom say
what is true chemically is true biologically-
The germs may travel farther before they die
Typhoid germs. for instance. are very per
sistent- At the present time il takes thirty
days for water to travel from Chicago to St
current viii be increased Even then il viii
take lake water from Se-en to ten days to
reach Grafton Illinois river water is not pota-
BILE anyway That river drains swamps and
marshes. like the Observation-Disclosures of thou
sands of acres II Is full OF deronnposed mat
ter. 1t is so highly charged from these natural
sources that the free oxygen is only from ore
third to one-1aif what il is in Lake Michigan.
1t naturally stagnates and Is full Of malaria
There passes the city OF La Sale from ten to
twelve times the of m
held in solution by the Illinois that il is pro-
duced by the whole city of Chicago. When We
turn out 60060O cubic feet per minute into the
Illinois it will be = contribution actually purer
than the natural condition of that river. 1
have gone over this ground again and again.
and think can prove pretty good alibi
the question Of pollution OF rivers By city
drainage Our rivers are the sewers of the
country They receive the teachings of all de-
composing and decaying matter To suppose
that the amount of such materials added to
these streams by the people who live on the
fodder is greater than that produced by the
fodder itself is all nonsense. These bot
tom lands and cities in Illinois from Joliet to
Grafton will be vastly improved in sanitary
sense. The Illinois viii be 4 live stream It
gets down now to n flow of from 10 900 TO 10000
cubic feet minute. We will add 20 il permanent
II 6000pO cubic feet minute Fish viii thrive
in il. and there viii he no danger to the small
10y who sits on the bank with line and hook
In the present condition fish can't live above
the mouth of the Eankakee. In the Chicago
river the oxygen of the water is so far destroyed
that there isn't yestige of life left. / have
had samples examined from the top middle
bottom and all parts of the stream Not SO
much = small angle-worm live II IL.
When the new canal is doing its work don't
suppose you will be able to detect the sewage
of this great city in the water except for a
slight grayish tinge of the water. 1 haven't
any doubt that fish will be able to come up from
the Mississippi TO Lake Michigan and make
the round trip without discomfort This stream
through the canal viii be. as I said before. the
purest tributary of the Illinois river"
It is about time the government was being
stirred up to begin its share of the work. the
Chicago people think. They intend to start the
campaign of education by = big convention at
Peoria this winter. The first thing will tie the
removal of the locks and dams on the Illinois.
This is necessary to let out the 10000 cubic
feet when ii begins to flow. 1t means the COM
plete undoing of a work upon which the state
of Illinois and the government have expended
great mistake. to turn the Illinois into slack
water. Everybody sees 1t now.
The new canal ignores the old canal. It fol-
lows the Des PLANES valley. as that does. but
il takes virgin ground 1t moves the DeS
PLANES river from about 10 miles OF its pres
ent course and dykes its own banks to dispose
of the local flood drainage. What viii become
of the old canal nobody seems to care An
in vestment of over Sl0000.0O0 will be about as
valuable as q last years olrd-neSt when the
new canal opens for boats.
What this work means in the households OF
Chicago no stranger can appreciate Drinking
water has been sold in Chicago for several
years. It is piped all of the way from Wiscon-