CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — The Chicago River has long gotten a bad rap when it comes to water quality, but thanks to cleanup efforts led, in part, by the Friends of the Chicago River — the river’s health has come a long way over the past decade.
“Friends of the Chicago River was founded in 1979 to improve and restore the Chicago and Calumet Rivers, and our goal is that we have a healthy river that people can access, that’s safe for wildlife, and that really is a community asset and a city asset,” said Executive Director Margaret Frisbie.
Frisbie said it’s been a goal for decades to bring back fish species and other wildlife.
“You can measure how clean the river is in species of fish, so the presence of wildlife fish, beavers, muskrats, otters, [and] we see turtles everywhere,” she said. “It’s really exciting because that’s really symbolic but also scientifically shows you the difference in water qualities.”
Now, Frisbie said the big challenge is changing the perception of the river among longtime Chicagoans.
“People who have been in Chicago for a long time really associate the river with being dirty and not good for people, whereas people who are newer to the area, they see the canoes, the kayaks, the river walk, the restaurants, these beautiful downtown buildings, and they think, ‘Of course it’s clean enough,’” she said.
She added that it will require a shift in the “cultural legacy” of the Chicago River in order to get people to understand both how healthy the Chicago River is and how bright of a future the waterway has.
Frisbie hopes Chicago will serve as an example to other communities with historically dirty water ways.
“When you look at the Seine and the Paris Olympics this year, and people talking about swimming, we’re already light years ahead of the Seine,” she said. “We’re already much cleaner than the Seine. It’s thinking about what’s in the sediment, is there safe access, egress, how do you get people out of the water, as opposed to the water quality itself, which is really good.”
In fact, the first official swim in more than a century will be happening at the end of September.
On May 11, thousands of volunteers are expected to come together for the 32nd annual Chicago River Day, where organizers will have 80 locations set up for people to spend the day cleaning and sprucing up the river.
Volunteers will be invited to after parties at Blue Island Beer Company or Burning Bush Brewery from 12 – 3 p.m. Registration for the Chicago River Day can be done online.
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