History of the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal

ITS EARLY HISTORY

This region was the aboriginal homeland of many Indigenous nations including the Potawatomi, Odawa, Ojibwe, Peoria, Kaskaskia, Myaamia, Wea, Sauk, Meskwaki, and Ho-Chunk. 

The area was also alive with ancient oak woodlands and abundant wildlife including fish, turtles, beavers, otters, owls, deer, elk, and black bear.  

In 1673 the Kaskaskia, a tribe of the Illiniwek, showed the portage (aka Mud Lake) to French explorers Louis Jolliet and Father Jacques Marquette. They too recognized the value of the connection which 175 years later led the way to the Illinois & Michigan Canal (built 1836-1848) which inspired the explosive growth of Chicago. Growth which contributed to the growth of a great metropolis and the resulting pollution and degradation of the land, Lake Michigan, and the local river systems too. 

A BIG SOLUTION

In 1889, civic leaders formed the Chicago Sanitary District

(now MWRD) to address the problem of the sewage and industrial pollution which flowed in the Chicago River and thus Lake Michigan. Their solution was to dig the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal which would reverse the Chicago River away from Lake Michigan to preserve Chicago’s source of drinking water and improve public health. Opened in 1900, the Canal moved water and waste away from Lake Michigan and toward the Illinois and the Mississippi Rivers. And, while it protected the public from typhoid and cholera, the Canal faced opposition, stirred controversy, contributed to negative cultural impacts, and opened the door to other problems as well. 

Still when the massive 28-mile canal, which starts at Damen Avenue in Chicago and flows southwest to Lockport where it joins the Des Plaines, opened, its impact was immediate and it was heralded as an engineering marvel.

The Canal, along with the Cal-Sag Channel completed in 1922, formed a permanent connection between the Mississippi and Great Lakes basins. It was a strategically located waterway which attracted industry and commercial enterprise which continue to thrive to this day.

A PLACE OF NEED AND OPPORTUNITY

The Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal flows through five congressional districts, three counties, 13 municipalities and multiple districts represented in the Illinois General Assembly. It is an area of importance for addressing the Chicago region’s pressing community and environmental climate resiliency challenges as the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal sub-watershed includes dense urban neighborhoods and working-class suburbs with environmental justice need, surrounding industrial districts, and regionally significant preserves.

Census and USEPA EJSCREEN data shows that many of the municipalities are majority communities of color who face poor health outcomes, lower incomes, lack of access to parks, poor air quality, and other disparities. Key municipalities in the project area include disadvantaged communities highlighted by the Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool making the area ripe for watershed based ecological restoration. 

Simultaneously it is adjacent to some of the most ecologically significant habitat in the region including the 15,000 acre Palos Forest Preserves system which is celebrated as an International Urban Dark Sky Place.

BOLD PAST, BRIGHT FUTURE

Since the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal was completed, it and the entire river system have transformed since its early workhorse days. While it remains an important space for shipping and commerce, water quality has improved dramatically supporting nearly 80 species of fish including those at the larval stage.

Public recreation has increased in the form of amenities such as The Forge in Lemont and the Centennial Trail which runs from Willow Springs to Romeoville. Forest preserves and parks serve community members away from industrials zones and opportunities for ecological restoration abound along the entire reach and broader watershed.