Tunnel and reservoir plan solution to Chicago's combined sewer overflow, basement flooding, and pollution

1988 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 389-396
Author(s):  
W. A. Bergman ◽  
D. H. Kapadia
Keyword(s):  
Mississippi River ◽  
Flood Control ◽  
Lake Michigan ◽  
Sewage Treatment ◽  
River System ◽  
Canal System ◽  
Stream Pollution ◽  
Continental Divide ◽  
Regional Basis ◽  
Sanitary District

In 1890, the Metropolitan Sanitary District of Greater Chicago was formed to permanently protect the region's drinking water supply from devastating contamination by sewage. The solution was to excavate a massive canal across the continental divide and to thus reverse the flow of the Chicago River, causing it to flow into the tributaries of the Mississippi River and away from Lake Michigan. Later, sewage treatment works were constructed to treat dry weather flows.Each time rainfall exceeds 8.4 mm, the combined sewers' capacities are exceeded, and they discharge directly to the canal system on the average of 100 times per year without benefit of treatment. When the sewers and canal system are overtaxed, raw sewage backs up the sewers in Chicago and 51 suburbs, flooding streets, businesses, and home basements.In order to solve these problems on a regional basis, the Sanitary District in 1972 adopted the tunnel and reservoir plan (TARP). TARP is a second river system which is being constructed by boring tunnels up to 11 m in diameter in rock as much as 100 m under the city. When the surface sewers' capacities are exceeded, the excess flows will drop into TARP. Huge reservoirs totalling 157 000 000 m3 capacity will store the sewage until it can be gradually pumped back to the treatment works. Key words: sewage, combined sewers, overflows, water pollution, water quality, stream pollution, flood control, tunneling.

Management of Water Cycle: An Approach to Urban Ecology

1992 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 221-238 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Ripl
Keyword(s):  
Rural Areas ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Water Cycle ◽  
Cooling System ◽  
Thermal Power ◽  
Sewage Treatment ◽  
Balance Sheet ◽  
River System ◽  
Soil Restoration ◽  
Environmental Damage

Abstract Densely populated urban areas, which have developed over the last century, depend heavily on centralized water supply, sewage treatment plants, and hydroelectric or thermal power generation with vast demand of cooling water. Considerable areas have been drained or sealed, and the short-circuited water cycle has been distorted. Large rivers have been converted to shipping canals with the permanent risk of accidental pollution. Technical means such as sewage treatment, air filters, emission control and lake and soil restoration measures have contributed to correct the environmental damage. However, a balance sheet for irreversible matter losses (mainly base cation charges) from the urbanized areas and the surrounding landscape into the sea shows ever-increasing trends. These losses are destabilizing the ecosystems. In this paper, management of the water cycle in urban areas, together with the coupled matter cycles, is discussed. Particular reference is given to Metropolitan Berlin, with a network of shipping canals, which move biologically treated waste, containing base cations and nutrients to the surrounding rural areas. This could create manageable productive wetlands and re-establish soil fertility. At the same time, the natural cooling system close to the urban areas will be improved by providing more areas with permanent vegetation. In addition, reduction of the present large oscillations of the groundwater table, resulting from groundwater pumping and its recharge with less polluted surface water, is contemplated. The widely used shoreline infiltration of the Havel River should then be eliminated and the severe damage of the littoral vegetation in large sections of the Havel River system be avoided.

scholarly journals Comparison of Recreational Fish Consumption Advisories Across the USA

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brittany M. Cleary ◽  
Megan E. Romano ◽  
Celia Y. Chen ◽  
Wendy Heiger-Bernays ◽  
Kathryn A. Crawford
Keyword(s):  
Mississippi River ◽  
Fish Consumption ◽  
Lake Michigan ◽  
Acute Tolerance ◽  
Health Goals ◽  
Fish Consumption Advisories ◽  
Regional Collaboration ◽  
Slope Factor ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Lower Mississippi River

Abstract Purpose of Review Our comparative analysis sought to understand the factors which drive differences in fish consumption advisories across the USA — including exposure scenarios (acute and chronic health risk, non-cancer and cancer health endpoints), toxicity values (reference dose, cancer slope factor, acute tolerance level), and meal size and bodyweight assumptions. Recent Findings Fish consumption provides essential nutrients but also results in exposure to contaminants such as PCBs and methylmercury. To protect consumers from the risks of fish contaminants, fish consumption advisories are established, most often by state jurisdictions, to estimate the amount of a certain fish species a person could consume throughout their lifetime without harm. However, inconsistencies in advisories across the USA confuse consumers and undermine the public health goals of fish advisory programs. To date, no rigorous comparison of state and national fish consumption advisories has been reported. Summary Our work identifies discrepancies in key assumptions used to derive risk-based advisories between US states, reflecting differences in the interpretation of toxicity science. We also address the implications for these differences by reviewing advisories issued by contiguous states bordering two waterbodies: Lake Michigan and the Lower Mississippi River. Our findings highlight the importance of regional collaboration when issuing advisories, so that consumers of self-caught fish are equipped with clear knowledge to make decisions to protect their health.

James C. Knox (1977) Human impacts on Wisconsin stream channels. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 67: 224–244.

2013 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 422-431 ◽  
Author(s):  
William L. Graf
Keyword(s):  
Mississippi River ◽  
Human Impacts ◽  
Professional Community ◽  
River System ◽  
Stream Channels ◽  
Early 19Th Century ◽  
Driftless Area ◽  
University Of Wisconsin ◽  
History Of ◽  
Floodplain Deposits

James C. Knox’s 1977 paper “Human Impacts on Wisconsin Stream Channels,” published in the Annals of the Association of American Geographers, was a key component of a suite of three papers by him defining the response of rivers to the introduction and management of agriculture and to climate change. In this paper he used the Driftless Area of southwest Wisconsin as a laboratory where he could define fluvial responses by their sedimentary signatures in floodplain deposits. Land-use records dating back to the early 19th century along with shorter climate records provided his understanding of the drivers of change. He found that floods increased as an outcome of land-cover change. Upstream tributaries became wider and shallower as coarse deposits limited their adjustments, while main stem channels became narrower and deeper. His paper reflected the influence of his graduate advisor and especially of prominent faculty colleagues at the University of Wisconsin from fields ranging from soils and climatology to geomorphology and history. The paper was the subject of considerable debate in the professional community, but it remains a much-cited example of Knox’s work in unraveling the Quaternary and Holocene history of rivers of the Driftless Area and by extension the upper Mississippi River system.

scholarly journals The Upper Mississippi River System—Topobathy

Fact Sheet ◽  
2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jayme M. Stone ◽  
Jenny L. Hanson ◽  
Stephanie R. Sattler
Keyword(s):  
Mississippi River ◽  
River System ◽  
Upper Mississippi River ◽  
Upper Mississippi River System

Distribution of mercury and methylmercury in the sediments of a lowland river system

2005 ◽  
Vol 461 (2057) ◽  
pp. 1335-1355 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason W Birkett ◽  
John N Lester
Keyword(s):  
Point Source ◽  
Total Mercury ◽  
Sewage Treatment ◽  
River System ◽  
Initial Increase ◽  
Surficial Sediments ◽  
Spatial Trends ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Temporal And Spatial ◽  
Temporal And Spatial Trends

Concentrations of total mercury (T-Hg) and methylmercury (MeHg) were determined in surficial sediments from the River Yare, Norfolk, UK over the period 1986–1998, to assess the temporal and spatial trends of contamination arising from a historical point source discharge. The results demonstrate that the spatial distribution pattern follows that of a distinct pollution plume in the sediments with an initial increase 2–3 km downstream from the point source discharge at Whitlingham sewage treatment works (STW) outfall. Temporally, this pollution plume remains evident, although there has been an overall decline in the mean T-Hg concentrations from 5.4 in 1986 to 1.8 mg kg −1 in 1998. The major factor for this improvement has been the reduction in discharge of metals from the STW, together with burial by a fresh overlay of uncontaminated sediments. MeHg concentrations also exhibited a dispersed pollution plume. Mean concentrations of MeHg fluctuated during the study period between 3.3 and 8.5 μg kg −1 . There has been no concomitant decline in MeHg concentrations over this period. MeHg was found to constitute less than 1% of T-Hg concentrations in the sediments. The weak correlations observed between T-Hg and MeHg concentrations indicate external environmental factors have a significant influence on determining MeHg concentrations in the sedimentary compartment.

Discussion of “Snow on Mississippi River Flood Control”

1929 ◽  
Vol 93 (1) ◽  
pp. 840-950
Author(s):  
J. P. Snow ◽  
Frank B. Maltby ◽  
Morris Knowles ◽  
Charles H. Paul ◽  
F. G. Jonah ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mississippi River ◽  
Flood Control ◽  
River Flood
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