Chicago Parks District Toilet Water Not Safe for Drinking

A hairy man in a black floral women's swimsuit adjusts his Goldilocks wig before he picks up his bags again.  His lipstick is smeared, but the sunbathers he meets excuse it, maybe because of his sex, or it could be his spirited bounce.

"Hey girl," he shouts as he approaches each group.  "Hey girl! You all look beautiful today!"

"Thank you," the ladies yell back.

"How do I look?"

"Oh, you look good, honey."

Toward the men, he is more physical. "You're so cute, I have to kiss you on the cheek.  Mwah! Now you'll never want to wash this cheek again."

He chats, he poses for pictures, and he moves on to talk to other beachgoers.  He's not the only compelling sight at Kathy Osterman (aka Hollywood) Beach today.  Nervous paddleboarders try to stay up on the water, fit teenage lifeguards patrol the shore, and neverending volleyball games rage across four nets. Kite-flyers try to catch a breeze.  A young woman videotapes her "ice bucket challenge" using the leftovers of a cooler.  Across the waterfront, adventurous costumes flourish.

And the restroom offers still more to see.  Above a toilet, the Chicago Parks District has posted:  "This fixture is flushed with harvested rainwater. Not safe for drinking."

Though people are unlikely to drink from toilets anyway, the notice does draw attention to the city's venture into sustainable amenities.  The award-winning bathrooms designed by Wahaso "harvest rain water for use in flushing toilets, are vented and cool
ed naturally by lake breezes, and are 100% naturally day lit through the use of solar skylight tubes."  Though the water is sanitized against microbes, the system uses ultraviolet (UV) disinfection instead of chlorine so that there is no residual for the disinfection to continue working.  Also, the water is not treated for other impurities, and the pH of natural rainwater is somewhat acidic.  However, it's still perfectly safe to flush toilets.


What's the craziest thing you've ever seen at the beach?

Bridgehouse Museum hosts lecture on water preservation

On July 24, Krista Grimm of the League of Women Voters Lake Michigan Region presented a lunch-time lecture to a group of 15 at the McCormick Bridgehouse & Chicago River Museum.  Grimm first told listeners how a wetland naturally cleans stormwater by retaining it, filtering it through soil, and allowing microorganisms and roots to transform contaminants.  However, because 90 % of Illinois wetlands have been lost, a "gray infrastructure" system is vital.  Our local one is designed to handle 2" in 24 hours.  With the recent increase in precipitation, including a record-setting storm on April 18, 2013, system overflows have been more frequent, resulting in sewage and runoff being routed to natural waterways before treatment.

To combat environmental damage, Grimm advised residents to take steps such as clearing street drains, using less toxic products, reducing water consumption during rainfall, and properly disposing of pet and hazardous waste.  She also provided more costly ideas, including native foliage, rain barrels, rain gardens, permeable paving, and bioswales (also called channels or "drainage ditches") to direct flow.  In one example, a homeowner reduced basement flooding by planting black-eyed susans and disconnecting her downspout.  One attendee found hope in this plan, because she was worried about flooding but didn't believe she could count on her neighbors to adopt any significant conservation measures.

Grimm also commended the city of Chicago for leading the nation in the number of green roofs, and for installing bioswales throughout the city.  She noted the city hall is committed to converting aging infrastructure, but saw room for improvement.  "Anything that's impervious has the potential of being made pervious."

For those interested in learning more, the League of Women Voters Lake Michigan Region created a Stormwater Action Kit.

The Case of the Missing Lake

You can still see it on a paper map or a globe, but 90% of the Aral Sea is gone (Bland 2012).  In the past, the local residents caught fish there to eat and to sell.  They would use the water to drink, wash, and cook every day.  When a family had the day off, they could take a picnic to the beach and build sandcastles or have races to see who the fastest swimmer was.  The Aral Sea was once the 4^th largest freshwater lake in the world, and treasured by the Uzbeki people (Hecht 2014).

                So where did the lake go?  Before, the water to refill the Aral Sea came from two sources, rain from the sky and the flow of two rivers, named the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya (Bland 2012).  Because the surrounding climate is a desert, the rain only added a few inches of water a year.  Therefore, the rivers were vital to the survival of the body of water.   Now the long, winding tributaries no longer touch the shore (Hecht 2014).

                The trouble began in 1960, when Uzbekistan was still a part of a big country called the Soviet Union.  Eighteen other countries, including Russia, had joined together to make this powerful group.  Together, they could build bigger farms using the latest technology that could feed and clothe more citizens.  However, these crops demanded loads of water because they were so massive and included plants that didn’t naturally grow in a desert region.  So the engineers installed pipes to take water from the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya and send them to rice and cotton plantations in Kazakhstan (Hecht 2014).  These thirsty plants took more and more water over the 50 years that followed, until the lake was almost dry.

                Now, rusty ships rest in a dusty, open desert, left behind by the fishermen who had to find new work (Bland 2012).  Some pools of water endure in spots, but they contain too much salt to support fish (Micklin 2014). Even if fish could live in these conditions, they would not be edible because of all the pesticide chemicals they would have to swim in (Hecht 2014).  Even the air is hotter in the surrounding area, with the temperature increased 1⁰C as far as 100km away (Baidya Roy, et al. 2013).

                Locals are still hopeful that the sea can come back one day.  A group of Russian scientists drilled into the soil, and they found that the lake had dried up twice before, coming back full strength each time (Hecht 2014).  This happened about 1500 and 700 years ago (Hecht 2014).  Also, a small part called the North Aral Sea has welcomed back fish life, while engineers have started projects to restore the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya (Micklin 2014).  Unfortunately, the farms are still using lots of water and no big projects are underway to protect the whole Aral Sea yet.  If the government began restoration soon, it would still be lifetimes before the lake was back to its pre-1960s levels.

                From the unlucky Uzbekis, we can learn how essential it is to conserve water.  Only a limited supply is available for the whole world.  Next time you let the water run from your tap, remember to consider that your neighbor needs it, too.