"Ripples of Reflection"

I love Chicago, a city like no other, planted in the middle of our country’s heartland. When I lived there years ago, I was lucky enough to wake up to sunrises over Lake Michigan, the water shimmering like diamonds. Having the lake nearby was magical to me because I grew up in central Illinois, surrounded by flat, open farmland as far as I could see.

I have so many other fond memories of Chicago, like taking part in the fun events and enjoying all the yummy food the city had to offer. From the blues bars to Wrigley Field and the Bears—who won the Super Bowl while I was there!—to Navy Pier and, of course, deep-dish pizza, Chicago was an exciting place to live.

Chicago is known not only as the “Windy City,” but also for the beautiful Chicago River that flows through it. The river often becomes the focus of festivities, from the activities along the Riverwalk to the dramatic green it becomes for St. Patrick’s Day! It has also played a critical role in the city’s development, providing a way to transport goods from the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River and on to the Gulf of Mexico. It is also one of the few rivers in the world whose flow was deliberately reversed—in this case, to carry water away from Lake Michigan.

The story of this engineering feat began in the early 1800s, when the city was growing quickly because of its strategic location along Lake Michigan and the Chicago River. To improve transportation and make it easier for ships to pass, engineers completed the Illinois and Michigan Canal in 1848, connecting Lake Michigan, via the Chicago River, to the Illinois River. After that, Chicago became an important transportation hub in the United States.

Then the city grew even more. Unfortunately, when it stormed, Chicago had big environmental problems. Sewage, stormwater runoff, factory pollutants, and animal waste poured into the Chicago River and Lake Michigan. This became a serious public-health threat because the lake was the source of drinking water for the city’s residents. After storms, there were outbreaks of typhoid fever and other deadly waterborne illnesses. Chicago knew it had to do something to keep its residents safe from these diseases.

So, city engineers came up with a plan to reverse the river’s flow, carrying polluted water away from Lake Michigan. In doing so, they would send the water and its contaminants downstream through a deep canal and a series of locks. This huge civil-engineering dream became a reality in 1900 with the creation of the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal. The whole idea was to dilute the contaminants with water from the lake and carry them away from the city.

The rippling effects of the river reversal, while an engineering marvel for the city of Chicago that helped save thousands of lives, proved not so good for the people and ecosystems farther south. The increased flow nearly doubled the volume of the Illinois River, flooding farmland. Pollution from untreated sewage killed fish, while fertilizer runoff contributed to algae blooms. The reversal also allowed invasive species to spread by connecting two of the world’s largest freshwater systems—the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River Basin—which had not been connected before.

Since then, many people and organizations have worked to improve things. In the 1920s, Chicago began treating its sewage, which helped the river become cleaner. It was not until the passage of the Clean Water Act in the 1970s, though, that the fish began to come back. I will share more about these efforts and improvements later in this series.

As an Illinois native, a Northwestern University graduate, a nurse, and an environmental artist, it is an honor and a privilege to use my art and writing to bring to life the environmental issues facing the Chicago River.

This painting, Ripples of Reflection, is the first in a series exploring the river’s environmental history. I painted the view from the Riverwalk, looking west from near the river’s connection with Lake Michigan and following the water into the heart of the city. As the ripples in the water reflect Chicago’s beauty, architecture, and energy, they also reflect the passage of time and the complicated impact of a river

flowing in reverse.