One reason for the massive 1889 annexation [of the townships & City of Lake View] was the better quality of water provision that Chicago would be able to provide the citizens of Lake View. It took decades for Chicago's water department to service the vastly increased territory after the annexations of 1889. The water department had the difficult task of integrating many small systems into one large one, as well as extending service into areas which previously had not received water. By 1902, only Rogers Park, Norwood Park, and Austin, former suburban settlements on the extreme edges of the city, remained outside the boundaries of water extensions. While no further major annexations took place, by 1990 Chicago's water department was providing water to 90 suburban communities, as well as the city itself.Lake Michigan remains the main source of water in the metropolitan area. In 1900, the Sanitary District of Chicago completed the 28-mile Sanitary and Ship canal to reverse the flow of the Chicago River away from Lake Michigan, thereby improving the quality of lake water. Canada as well as neighboring states opposed the diversion of Lake Michigan water, and Supreme Court decisions limited the amount of Lake Michigan water that could be diverted into the Sanitary and Ship Canal (1930) and the water supply for Illinois communities (1967). As a result, the amount of water which any community in the state may draw from Lake Michigan is regulated by the Illinois Department of Transportation's Division of Water Resources. Because of these legal limitations on Illinois' use of Lake Michigan water, new allocations come at the expense of existing users and contribute to the continuing highly charged debate about water in the Chicago area. - by Ann Durkin Keating
Water Works/Tunnel/Crib/Piping
by a more modern facility
view west on Montrose Avenue east of razed hospital
the last rendition below
Planned Development 2013
at the tennis courts
Folks who handled human waste or sewage may be at increased risk of becoming ill from waterborne diseases [according to the CDC]. To reduce this risk and protect against illness, such as diarrhea, use standard practices associated with wastewater treatment plant operations. These standard practices can include engineering and administrative controls, hygiene precautions, specific safe work practices, and personal protective equipment (PPE) normally required when handling untreated wastewater. – CDC
Most, but not all, pathogens of concern in drinking water are spread by the fecal-to-oral route. In 1854, John Snow demonstrated that cholera could be transmitted through the contamination of drinking water by human feces (Snow, 1854a,b). Two years later, William Budd demonstrated that typhoid fever can be spread through the same route (Budd, 1856). Approximately 30 years later, Robert Koch and Karl Eberth isolated the specific microorganisms responsible for both of these diseases, further demonstrating the connection between disease and drinking water contaminated with human feces (Koch, 1883). As a result of these and other discoveries, by the middle of the nineteenth century, public health practitioners and researchers began to focus almost exclusively on preventing the contamination of water supplies by sewage. - National Library of Medicine
Waterborne diseases are illnesses caused by microscopic organisms, like viruses and bacteria, that are ingested through contaminated water or by coming in contact with feces. These diseases are typhoid fever, cholera, giardia, dysentery, & escherichia coli (E. coli). – Life Water
The first sewer systems in
the United States were built in the late 1850’s in Chicago and Brooklyn. Initially, the gravity sewer systems
discharged sewage directly to surface waters without treatment. -
Wikipedia.
The following articles focus on how the residents and the governmental officials of old Lake View handled the issue of waterborne diseases particularly typhoid fever and cholea as it was related to the Lake View Water Works mentioned above.
Pumping waste out and pumbing water inwith the use of the Water Works caused repeative health issues.
Cholera is a life-threatening bacterial infection of the small intestine that causes severe diarrhea and vomiting. It's caused by the Vibrio cholerae bacteria, which is often found in contaminated water and undercooked seafood. Cholera can cause severe diarrhea, dehydration, and even death if the disease goes untreated. People living in places with unsafe drinking water, poor sanitation, and inadequate hygiene are at highest risk of cholera. – CDC
In my opinion, both of the waterborne diseases mentioned were a contributing factor along with the Chicago Fire of 1871 for Chicagoans to consider moving north into more sparsely populated area such as Lake View Township.
'During the nineteenth
century, Chicago suffered fearsome though sporadic epidemics of disease.
Cholera ravaged many American and European cities in the middle of the
nineteenth century, and Chicago did not escape. The threat of a cholera
epidemic provoked the creation of the Chicago Board of Health in 1835. Except
for a few years in the 1860s, when the city council refused to fund it—a
penny-wise policy reversed by a rash of contagion in 1867—the board has
safeguarded the city's health with great effort and general success ever since.
Cholera kept reappearing,
however. In 1852 and again in 1854, when it killed 1,424, cholera destroyed
young and old, often within hours of their first symptoms. Another 210 died in
1854 from “diarrhea” and 242 more from “dysentery,” either of which might actually
have been cholera. Diagnoses differed, but the symptoms were similar. No one
knew exactly what caused it, though personal and public cleanliness seemed to
help, and impure water began to be identified as the principal transmitter.
But 1873 proved to be the
low point. The aftermath of the Great Fire brought major, if gradual,
improvements in public health and, therefore, in the city's demographic
stability. Miles of sewerage drained the city more effectively, and residents
were required to “connect dwellings with sewers.” Chicago's cholera [worst] days
were over, and its death rate fell below New York's and Boston's. By 1881 the
Board of Health claimed that Chicago had the third-lowest death rate in the
world among cities over 500,000.'
Once again, Chicago’s tap water has met or exceeded all standards set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for safe, clean drinking water. This annual report details information on results above detection limits for annual certified testing of Chicago’s drinking water.
The City of Chicago Department of Water Management (DWM) purifies and delivers almost one billion gallons of clean drinking water to residents of Chicago and 120 suburbs every day.
DWM works tirelessly to keep our water clean and safe by:
Performing over 600,000
analyses per year of tap water at every step in the treatment process and
adjusting treatment protocols as necessary
Using corrosion control in
our water to minimize the risk of contaminants- including lead- leaching from plumbing.
Replacing miles of water and sewer mains to increase reliability and efficiency. Offering free water pitchers and six cartridges that are NSF-certified to remove lead and providing complete instructions for flushing water through plumbing to residents and businesses where there is water infrastructure work being done in the vicinity and offering free residential water testing by an independent certified laboratory.
