Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1895-08-23
The Chicago Drainage Canal.

A Brief summary of the Essential Facts
about an Enterprise that Would be
Called "Audacious" Anywhere Except
i'm the Western Metropolis.
The magnitude of the enterprise which
the people of Chicago have in hand in dig
| ging drainage canal for the disposal of
the sewage of that city, and which is to
| turn the waters of Lake Michigan into the
| Illinois river, and thence into the Missis-
sippi, is not generally understood by the
people of the East. Within the past three
years the city of Chicago has spent ten
million dollars on the work of digging this
canal, and ten million dollars more will be
required. The completion of the enter
prise is looked for within the next two
years.
This is not to be a canal with locks to
regulate the flow of water, but an open
channel 100 feet wide at the bottom and
Is feet deep, with plans for deepening it
still more in the future. The new river is
to be about 80 miles long extending from
the South Branch of the Chicago river at
Robey street, Chicago, to Lockport, ILL.,,
not far from Joliet, and on the Desplaines
river, tributary of the Illinois river,
which emptes into the Mississippi short
distance above St. Louis. When first
opened the canal is to discharge 10000
cubic feet of water per second, which is
about five per cent of the amount now
flowing through Niagara river. The guam
tty of water to be discharged is fixed by
the legislature of the state with a view to
protecting the valley of the Illinois from
contamination. When the population of
the city shall exceed 100000 the uuan-
tty of the discharge is to be increased in
proportion to the excess. The amount of
the original discharge is so great that the
engineers estimate that it will raise the
low-water mark of the Mississippi one foot
at ST. Louis.
The accomplishment of such an enor-
nous enterprise is rendered possible by the
peculiar physical geography of the Great
Lakes Lakes Michigan and Huron are
practically on the same water level, about
$50 feet above the sea, while Lake Erie is
only eight feet lower. Lake Superior is in
an independent basin 20 feet higher. The
basin of the lower three of these lakes is so
delicately poised that only four feet of rock
and two of gravel at Chicago prevent them
from spilling over into the Mississippi val
ley at high water. The rock bottom of
the Niagara, where it leaves Lake Erie, is
only 30 feet lower than the rock shelf
which forms the barrier west of Chicago.
An elevation of SO feet at Buffalo, or de-
preston of the same amount at Chicago,
would reverse the drainage and make the
four upper lakes tributary to the Misss-
sippi. What nature could do so easily the
engineers are to do in part by the eXpendl-
ture OF the vast sums put at their service
by the city.
There is much apprehension on the part
of the lower lake cities as to the effect of
the withdrawal of this water from Lake
Michigan. Various estimates as to the eff
feet of the projected diversion of water have
been made by engineers. One of these es-
Inmates is that diversion of per cent of
the water flowing into Lake Erie would
lower the level of that lake nine inches.
The Chicago engineers are of the opinion
that the reduction would be from three to
five inches. Those who urge that there
should be thorough investigation have in
mind not only the drainage canal as it has
been planned, but the fact that the ulterior
object which Chicago has in view is to in
sure ship-canal, through which the larg-
est ocean steamers shall reach the port
of the city, is prominently kept in view.
The completion of the dranage-canal will
mark the practical accomplishment of that
long-cherished dream. The engineers in
charge freely talk of diverting Is or 20 per
cent of the water of the great lakes into
the Illinois, so as to give such continuous
volume to both that stream and the Miss
sissippi as to make both navigable at all
times to the largest steamers.
The possibilities of the economical ad-
vantages which this enterprise will open
up for Chicago and The people along the
1000 miles to the Gulf of Mexico are mag
niticent and beyond accurate calculation.