Drought Making It Easier To Clean Up Local Waterways

By Chuck Sudo in News on Aug 1, 2012 3:40PM

A river cleanup crew near Bubbly Creek. (Chuck Sudo/Chicagoist)

Here’s a benefit to this year’s drought: city and county workers and environmentalists have had an easier time cleaning up local waterways. The lack of rain has made it easier to spot garbage in the water, since river levels are down.

WBBM-AM’s Bernie Tafoya spoke with Paul klonowski, volunteer coordinator for the Lake County Forest Preserve District river stewardship group and a volunteer himself.

“We’ve pulled out computer parts; pulled a bathtub out of the DuPage River earlier this year. Toilet bowls, kitchen sinks - no doubt, you name it, it’s been pulled out of there,” Klonowski said.

We were witness to a Metropolitan Water Reclamation District crew skimming away at the Chicago River near Bubbly Creek a couple weeks back and they had no shortage of garbage to scoop. This doesn’t mean that all of a sudden the river will dry up and we can finally remove the final steer carcasses from the river. It’s going to take more than a drought and a few cleanup crews to make the river and CAWS swimmable.