Several of the things that have have stuck with me from my "green" deckhand days of 1973 don't have anything to do with the "romance" of the River that I came to think of of as the Mark Twain syndrome. I lost that romance in the first few days. I found I was ill-prepared for the hard work, the hours, and the characters I found myself bound to on a small steel box. But, those stories are for another time, what really hit me that summer of '73 is how dirty our Rivers were. Transiting the locks of Mpls with condoms hanging on the lock walls where I had to work assaulted my sense of propriety. Having to wade or breaststroke through the brown "suds" at Lockport Lock downriver from Chicago was more than a job-site nuisance. As a point of reference, I was walking on an empty barge going into Lockport almost 10' off the water and the "suds" were over my head. Navigating the waters and participating with my fellow boat inmates flushing toilets, that went directly overboard and dumping all kinds of effluent from our "box' into the Rivers. When called on it, the old-timers would say the River cleans itself after a few miles. From what I saw, maybe it did in Mark Twain's time, but not in those days! As the years went on, we were forced to clean up our act and most were glad we did, but I never really saw much of an improvement to the River. One day, after picking up a barge mooring cable attached to a pipe on the bank south of the Pigs Eye Sewage plant and wondering where I could wipe off the smelly black goo, I got my answer from my pilot.I asked him, "How do we allow this to happen, we had to clean up our mess, what about this mess? He pointed out something that we never think much about, but it is basic to our existence, especially in a metro area. "Greg, everyone wants to turn on their faucets and see water appear and they want to flush their toilets and see that disappear and they don't really care how that happens. Now, there are way more of them than us and that is what you call political power!" In the years following, we have to thank our cheese-head neighbors and their willingness to use the courts to force Pigs Eye to clean up what was once the biggest polluter on the Upper Mississippi.. No agency initiatives or NGO (Non Government Agencies) campaigns, have been as effective in restoring the River's health than spending money at Pigs Eye. In the 1970s, according to my professors in the infant Environmental Studies program at St. Cloud. ( Now that was a bunch, philosophy professors searching for footing in a new world!) There was zero oxygen in the River downstream of Pigs Eye for almost 5 miles. Today, that stretch of the River has been declared the greatest trophy walleye fishery in the State by our DNR.
Part of the process of cleaning up Pigs Eye was separating the storm sewers from the sanitary sewers. In the old days both our storm and sanitary sewers ran to Pigs Eye. During big rain events, the impermeable surfaces of our Metro Area overwhelmed the capacity of the sanitary pipes and that excess flow would be diverted to the storm sewers running to the River. Thus, that interrupted journey to Pigs Eye produced my prophylactic companions hanging on the Lock walls. That has stopped, but one positive aspect of connected storm and sanitary is now missing. When we didn't have big rain events, all water, storm and sanitary was sent to Pigs Eye and treated, poorly but treated. Now, the effluent of almost 3.5 million people, minus their sanitary, flows directly to the River. Most people don't dump their used oil down the storm drains anymore, but those vehicles we drive, do leak and the salt we use so that we are able to drive over the speed limit 24 hrs after a snow storm, that gets to the River too. The detritus of our urban greenspace and suburban flora, grass clippings and leaves, they go to the River.
Maybe we should have asked the question before and possibly could ask the same question today:
Seeing as we have instituted processes that clean up our human waste before it gets to the River much better than the past, maybe we should reconnect all of the sewers and treat all of our water. The down side of that would be during major rain events, some raw sewage would be discharged. Warnings could go out and possibly today's healthier River could do what the old timers said it did, clean itself after miles. This is a bit tongue in cheek, today I know what the old timers were describing was "The solution to pollution is dilution" and we now know that isn't something we want to use as a tool. That being said, we have to think of new ideas to help get better water quality and we need to have the discussion. Wisconsin might want to weigh in too. But, if we hurry, they may still be occupied with "What happened to Aaron?"
In my next posting, continuing Rivers as Storm Sewers, I will discuss what I think is the biggest threat to our River-the problem of Excess Water and don't believe everything you hear from our government and others that it is all the farmers fault. Think of the need to find a smaller group to pick on, not unlike cleaning up boat discharges while the discharges of millions of people overwhelm a River.
Part of the process of cleaning up Pigs Eye was separating the storm sewers from the sanitary sewers. In the old days both our storm and sanitary sewers ran to Pigs Eye. During big rain events, the impermeable surfaces of our Metro Area overwhelmed the capacity of the sanitary pipes and that excess flow would be diverted to the storm sewers running to the River. Thus, that interrupted journey to Pigs Eye produced my prophylactic companions hanging on the Lock walls. That has stopped, but one positive aspect of connected storm and sanitary is now missing. When we didn't have big rain events, all water, storm and sanitary was sent to Pigs Eye and treated, poorly but treated. Now, the effluent of almost 3.5 million people, minus their sanitary, flows directly to the River. Most people don't dump their used oil down the storm drains anymore, but those vehicles we drive, do leak and the salt we use so that we are able to drive over the speed limit 24 hrs after a snow storm, that gets to the River too. The detritus of our urban greenspace and suburban flora, grass clippings and leaves, they go to the River.
Maybe we should have asked the question before and possibly could ask the same question today:
Seeing as we have instituted processes that clean up our human waste before it gets to the River much better than the past, maybe we should reconnect all of the sewers and treat all of our water. The down side of that would be during major rain events, some raw sewage would be discharged. Warnings could go out and possibly today's healthier River could do what the old timers said it did, clean itself after miles. This is a bit tongue in cheek, today I know what the old timers were describing was "The solution to pollution is dilution" and we now know that isn't something we want to use as a tool. That being said, we have to think of new ideas to help get better water quality and we need to have the discussion. Wisconsin might want to weigh in too. But, if we hurry, they may still be occupied with "What happened to Aaron?"
In my next posting, continuing Rivers as Storm Sewers, I will discuss what I think is the biggest threat to our River-the problem of Excess Water and don't believe everything you hear from our government and others that it is all the farmers fault. Think of the need to find a smaller group to pick on, not unlike cleaning up boat discharges while the discharges of millions of people overwhelm a River.
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