Chicago eagle., 1901-07-20
It Does Not Remove the Sewage As It
Was Intended to Have
Done.
It Merely Drains the Pockets of the Taxpayers
and Feeds the Already Fat
Contractors,
And Also Furnishes Jobs for the Relatives and
Friends Of the Sanitary
Trustees.

Notwithstanding the fact that the
sanitary Trustees have paid out $780,
OUO.OO already on the drainage canal;
Notwithstanding the fact that the SO
called drainage canal has been In OPP
Grafton over year and half,
The city drinking water Is more un
lit for use to-day than II has ever been.
The truth of the matter is that the
drainage canal Is great big job, put
Up to
Rob the taxpayers.
Enrich the contractors and furnish
soft berths for the relatives and friends
of the trustees.
One of the best civil engineers In
the West writes as follows on the aw-
full failure of this expensive canal
from an engineering standpoint:
To the Editor: Speaking of the so.
called drainage channel. "No Contami-
nation" Is the heading of an article In
the Inter Ocean of recent date. The
editorial lays great stress on u report
Of the Illinois state Board OF Health
that the sewage of Chicago through the
drainage canal does not contaminatc
the lower Illinois river. One would i'm
againc, upon reading the editorial. that
a great. II not a wonderful. discovery
had been made. and result never he.
fore accomplished had been attained.
1t must be admitted by every fair.
minded person that, ut the present
time and also during the period pre-
,.nl
ment reducing the admitted flow from
100000 or 100000 to only 2OO,OOO cubic
feet per minute, only One-quartcr OF
Chicago's sewage had entered or now
enters the misnamed drainage canal.
and 1t Is well to bear In mind that the
great flow was at the time Of and dur
ing the most of the investigation re-
ferrcd to In the editorial. 1t must also
I've conceded that before this small pro.
portion of sewage reaches the Chicago
river 1t has been diluted at least 60 to
20 per cent.
Is th0re anything remarkable, under
the circumstances, In finding that this
one-quarter 10 to &c per cent diluted
sewage. subjected, as claimed ut pres.
ent, to a flow of 100000 cubic feet Of
water per minute. previously much
greater, and travelling distance Of l6l
miles before reaching Peoria, and
thence flowing on to the junction with
the Mississippi, In all about 322 miles.
has been so far diluted as to contain
nothing that Is communicating? POSI-
bly, the great discovery consists In find
..,.. sI..,t pet1
however, less than II per cent--Of high
Iy diluted Chicago sewage added to
the sewage of Pekin and Peoria, with
their distillerics and factories, making
those cities equal to commercial cities
of 100000 or 100000 scwage-produc'
Ing population, and to the sewage 0l
cities. towns. and villages below and
above Peoria and Pekin, before reach
ing the Mississippi, has not succeeded
In communicating the river below U'eO,
ria): and why should it, for If the one
quarter, or Is per cent of 60 or 20 per
cent already diluted Chicago sewage Is
not still further diluted in its flow of
IGl miles To Peoria, then the cry Of di-
luton by an excessive pouring of water
l. fake Of the worst kind, and posi-
bly, II is-for with the further addition
of the remaining Chicago sewage and
fun now of lake water allowed by law,
may it not result in making the Illinois
river the yllcst kind of an open sewer
and especially so, as the illinois river
below Ottawa and much oi the distance
above Is an exceedingly poor agency
for the publication of sewage polluted
water.
Chicago Is the great sinner, and Ii
bound to come to grief, and this at NJ
distant day. II seems as If the con
clusion Of the editorial based upon the
report referred TO therein. was begging
the question 10 be solved; which Is how
much water VIII have to be carried
through the drainage canal in order tC
dilute and free the water from con
tamlnatIon. VIII il not need about al
the contents of Lake Michigan wheI
the other thrcc-quarters, or 81 pei
cent Of Chicago sewage Is admitted Il
the river?
Six hundred thousand cubic feet pei
minute viii be mere bagatelle, an(
viii cut so small figure for Chicago
of 5000, 900 as sewage producing actua
population G,O00,OOO or 100000, an,
Of which the remaining sewage Il
some extent at ieast, is barely 10 pc
cent diluted, that when the full Chi
cago sewage Is added to the sewage o
the towns of the Illinois River valley
the present cry Of no contamination
will be found 10 have been prematurel!
raised.