Quote:
Originally Posted by Kngkyle
- This one is pretty far fetched and probably not even possible, but it would be extra cool and unique - tubing down the Chicago River. Obviously the water is too polluted in it's current state, but if they allowed more Lake Michigan water through the locks to essentially 'flush the toilet' could the water between Lake Shore Drive and Wolf Point be clean enough for swimming? Doing this would likely require a high water level on the lake - which right now is at a near record high and up almost 4 feet from 2013.
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The wastewater going into the Chicago River is now disinfected and well below the recommended guidelines for swimming. The bigger issue is pollutants in the sediment along the bottom/sides, which may not go away naturally for centuries unless the river is thoroughly and completely dredged.
There are also CSO events where raw sewage flushes into the river during rainstorms, but those should decrease as Deep Tunnel comes online.