WEBVTT

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When it is truly needed, nothing is so excruciatingly desired as water.

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Those with plenty of water don't think much about it. Those with little think of

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little else. Those with no water die. These extremes have always existed and

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they exist to this day. Never in fact has so much been written by so many on the

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importance of water and about the dire consequences of misusing water. A problem

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of expanding gravity from Los Angeles to Hong Kong, New York to Calcutta. The

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people in a certain fortunate city are happy about this new and widespread

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interest in the welfare of water because for a long long time this city seemed to

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be the only one seriously interested in protecting a natural resource of far

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greater value than all the precious ores and gems in all the world's mountains.

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For what this city has right in its front yard is the southernmost boundary

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of some one-third of the world's supply of fresh water. But this city found out

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more than three-quarters of a century ago that just being adjacent to all of

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this water was not enough, not nearly enough. So they took some very large, very

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expensive steps to protect their great natural resource. Today this city has

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fresh, clean water in great abundance for recreation and we should note that this

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is the only major metropolitan area on the Great Lakes whose residents can use

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beaches and inshore waters freely with no fear of the effects of pollution.

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This city also has ample water for navigation,

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ample water for industry, ample water for beauty,

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ample water for home use, and most fortunately of all this city has ample

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helpful water for drinking from any and all city taps.

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This very fortunate city as you may have guessed by now is Chicago, but it is much

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more than a single city in this context. It includes 114 neighbor communities to

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the north, west, and south of Chicago's borders. This growing complex of

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communities is the major population center of the Great Midwest and those

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large steps started in 1889 led directly to what has become known the world over

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as one of the seven wonders of modern American engineering.

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Now just because it's out there wide and clean and deep doesn't mean that it's

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all ours to use up, not by a long shot. As a matter of fact, we use less than a

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third as much today as we did 35 years ago and we're a lot bigger today. A

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United States Supreme Court decision in 1930 limited Chicagoland's share of

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Great Lakes water, officially called diversion, to 1,600 cubic feet per second

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for domestic purposes plus another 1,500 cubic feet per second for navigation

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and other non-domestic purposes. Fortunately there is still enough for

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everybody's reasonable needs. Presently it averages out to approximately 250

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gallons per day per capita. That's a lot more than most of us use personally of

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course, but the millions of people in Chicagoland do fill their glasses,

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pitchers, sinks, tubs, laundry equipment and various other containers at a great rate day and night.

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But sooner or later all of us get through with the fresh, pure water we

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draw out for all of these personal uses. And then what? Well you might say we just pull the plug and get rid of it. What else?

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We pull the plugs all right, but we don't get rid of it. We just start it on its way.

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It comes pouring down your kitchen drain and your bathroom drain and your laundry drain.

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And down the assorted drains of your neighbors and their neighbors and people

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you never heard of by the millions. From basement apartments to high-rises, from

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cottages and mansions, hotels and motels, office buildings, schools, hospitals,

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department stores, you name it. And whatever you name, down it comes. More than a

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billion gallons of it every day of the year.

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Put one day's total into a five-inch pipe and it would reach the moon. All of this used water doesn't

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reach the moon of course. What it does reach are the facilities of the Metropolitan Sanitary

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District of Greater Chicago, easily the world's largest used water dealer.

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The fiscal management that has so dramatically reduced the district's taxes and bonded

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indebtedness is the result of a pay-as-you-go policy adopted by the Board of Trustees more

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than a decade ago. But finances, though of primary importance, represent only one of

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many areas requiring continuous supervision by the elected trustees.

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Some of the deliberations of the Board of Trustees relate to such routine but important

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matters as petitions by outlying communities for admission to the district. Others are

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as dramatic and far-reaching as the major canal project proposed in 1965 by Colonel

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Frank W. Chesrow, president of the district. This canal would connect the Mississippi River

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to the Chicago area waterways, thereby producing great improvement in both flood control and

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navigation. The deliberations, decisions, and management by the governing Board of Trustees

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cover both the long and short-range goals of the district, all directly related to protecting

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the health and welfare of a population now equivalent to eight million people. Backing

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the Board in these endeavors is an organization of 2,100 people, engineers, chemists, bacteriologists,

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technicians, and laborers, all dedicated to the district's far-ranging responsibilities.

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Today, as on every day since its inception, the district has four major responsibilities

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specified explicitly by the Illinois State Legislature in 1889. Responsibility for Sanitation,

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the collection and disposal of all domestic and industrial wastes. Responsibility for

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contaminated storm flow. Responsibility for navigation. Today, the district's waterways

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carry more cargo than either the Panama or Suez canals. Responsibility for water protection,

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protection of the water supply of the metropolitan area is on all counts the most important responsibility

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of the sanitary district. But each of these responsibilities is in its own way vital to

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the city's welfare. The battles are far from being all one, however. The other lake states,

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Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York have brought suit again to reduce

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our diversion of Lake Michigan to what we consider an insufficient 900 cubic feet per

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second, with the added stipulation that we dump the treated effluent of this area back

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into the lake as the other lake cities do, those cities with the unusable beaches. We

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will continue to wage our battles on the legal front as we have fought them on the technological,

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financial, and political fronts to keep our special corner of a great natural resource

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pure and health giving for the millions who depend on it for sustenance.