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The Chicago River: Life in the Anthropocene

The Anthropocene is the geological term given to our current era. Discussions are still ongoing about when it officially began but it will be observable in the geological record by an excessive abundance of chicken bones and radioactive isotopes from nuclear explosions among many other indicators. The idea is that this is an age where humans have made their mark on the Earth so much that if we were to disappear now, like the dinosaurs, our traces would be evident in the geological record. Another interpretation of this concept is one that Elizabeth Kolbert demonstrates in her book, Under a White Sky, The Nature of the Future. Her thesis is that humans have interfered so much in nature's systems that the only way forward is more solutions created by humans. It professes a very technoncentric and anthropocentric view of the future. Under a White Sky starts with The Chicago River.

Approaches to Teaching

This is the messy story of the Chicago River. As with most case studies it draws on many aspects of the ESS course and beyond. The Anthropocene is currently not in the syllabus but can be mentioned in Topic 3; invasive species is also Topic 3; Watersheds are not in the syllabus but would make sense in Topic 2 and 4. Rachel Carson and DDT is in Topic 1 and 2; Environmental Value Systems are Topic 1. Management of fresh water is Topic 4 and you could also link this to Topic 7 and Adaptation Plans.

You can use this as a way to teach some of these concepts before they are officially met in the course (I use this strategy a lot) or you can use it towards the end of the course.

Teaching Strategies might involve visible thinking routines to look at the perspectives taken to solve problems and which EVSs these link to.

I would be tempted to have small groups working together to answer these questions.

Suggested answers still to come but will be linked here.

Student Task

Using your knowledge of ESS and the information provided in this case study of the Chicago River, answer the following questions.

  1. Outline what is meant by the Anthopocene.
  2. Define what is an invasive species.
  3. State what is a watershed.
  4. Outline the most important influence of Rachel Carson on the environmental movement.
  5. Outline a technocentric solution implemented on the Chicago River to prevent Asian Carp entering Lake Michigan.
  6. Explain why local goverments needed to reduce the nutrient load in their water bodies.
  7. Outline an ecocentric solution to nutrient load reduction in water bodies.
  8. Discuss, using all the evidence in this case study and your own knowledge and environmental value system, which management strategy for the Chicago River you would implement.

Chicago River was part of the Great Lakes watershed and flowed into Lake Michigan until the late 1800s. It flows through the centre of Chicago in the Chicago Loop. It now flows backwards.

Flow of water (and sewage) from the Chicago River through other river systems into the Gulf of Mexico. Adapted from map by Shannon 1, CC by 4.0.In 1900 a massive civil engineering project was completed to divert the Chicago River so that it no longer flowed into Lake Michigan but, instead, in a reversal of its flow, entered the Mississipi watershed.

With the building of the Sanitary and Ship Canal, these two watersheds were now potentially connected, only separated by barriers to Lake Michigan.

Diverting The Chicago River Asian Carp are an invasive species that have moved up the Mississipi watershed after their first recorded introduction in 1963 by the Fish and Wildlife Service. Ironically this was on the recommendation of Rachel Carson, author of Silent Spring, the seminal book on the impact of the use of DDT as an insecticide. The idea was to control aquatic weeds such as Eurasian watermilfoil which was itself an introduced species.

Now there are electric barriers along rivers that connect with the Chicago River to try and prevent the Asian Carp entering the Great Lakes.

These are going to be supplemented with bubbles and loud noise. Some have called them the disco barriers.

Adult Grass Carp Photo by Ryan Hagerty/USFWS CC by 2.0Asian Carp are actually at least three different species. The Grass Carp, The Silver Carp and Bighead Carp.

In the 1970s with the introduction of The Clean Water Act, local municipalities were looking for ways to reduce the nutrient load of water and carp successfully did this in treatment ponds. This was a lot cheaper than updating the infrastructure of sewages treatment plants.

Silver Carp Jumping in the Illinois River Photo by USFWS - Carterville FWCOThe US government are not relying on the electric barriers that the Army Corps of Engineers have installed and employ fishermen as part of their "Barrier Defence".

Carp caught on their way to Chicago are shipped west to be ground up for use as fertiliser.

Another very controversial strategy used during the maintenance of the electric barriers was to dump two thousand gallons (c. 7570 L) of poison into the water killing 54,000 pounds (24,500 Kg) of fish.

Endangered Freshwater Mussels USFWS Public DomainThe Asian Carp have a devastating effect on the native ecosystems. They filter plankton, aquatic plants, insects and feed on freshwater mollusks such as endangered freshwater mussels. 

Other invasive species on the Mississipi side of the watersheds include:

Nile tilapia, Peruvian watergrass and the convict cichlid from Central America.

On the Great Lakes side invasive species include:

the round goby (a voracious consumer of fish eggs), sea lamprey, three and four spined sticklebacks, New Zealand mud snail, red swamp crayfish and European pea clam.

There have been many studies gathering together different stakeholders to propose solutions for Chicago.

Biologists say that the only real solution is to restore the hydrological separation between the Great Lakes and Mississipi Watersheds. This would cost many billions of dollars and involve the replumbing of Chicago - new infrastructure for sewage treatment, new shipping routes and redesigning the flood control measures. Politically, skeptics believe this will never happen. In Kolbert's book she quotes an advocate of the separation as saying, " It was a lot easier to imagine changing the river once again - with electricity and bubbles and noise and anything else anyone could dream up - than changing the lives of the people around it."

This story is still not resolved. The report recommending that hydrological separation should happen was published in 2012. A report was sent to President Barack Obama in 2016. Since then there seems to have been limited progress.

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