Part II
One of the big questions to which the Artemis II Mission was trying to get answers — is there water on the moon? — is because without it life as we know it is not possible.
Forest Park is fortunate because 90 blocks east of us there are 1.3 quadrillion (1,300,000,000,000,0000) gallons of it. When Jean Baptiste Point du Sable settled there 250 years ago, he could drink it right out of the lake. No longer.
Sal Stella, as director of Public Works, is not only responsible for getting rid of unwanted flood water but, as director of the Water Department for many years, he is also in charge of getting water from Lake Michigan to our faucets and making sure it is clean enough to drink. He described the process in detail for the Review.
The Chicago Department of Water Management draws water from the lake 2 miles from the shore and pumps it to both of its water treatment plants — the James Jardine Water Purification Plant on the North Side and the Eugene Sawyer Water Purification Plant on the South Side.
After the water has been treated, it goes out into the distribution system. From there, it reaches all the connections it has with neighboring communities. Forest Park’s connection is at the intersection of Austin Boulevard and Jackson Boulevard. The water travels down Jackson and goes to our two pump stations. One at Desplaines Avenue and Jackson and the other at Hannah Avenue and Harrison Street.
This fills our underground storage tanks and waits on demand from our distribution system.
Once the pumps flow the water into the system, it is treated with chlorine and enters the underground piping. This brings water to everyone in Forest Park and fills our water towers. Once the water towers are filled, the pumps shut off and the water towers take over, feeding our distribution system. This process goes on 24/7. It’s how everyone gets clean and safe drinking water to their sinks.
In a Review article that ran last December, Jessica Mordacq updated readers on progress being made in project which began in 2015 to replace the village’s lead service lines in local homes and businesses with copper ones, removing lead from drinking water.
“The village,” she wrote, “is now removing pipes running from the Buffalo Box valve at the parkway to 18 inches inside buildings. Phase one installed copper pipes from the B-box to homes and businesses south of Roosevelt Road, from Harlem to Beloit Avenue. Phase two did the same for buildings south of I-290, from Beloit to Desplaines Avenue. The third phase will take place in the 400, 500 and 600 blocks of Hannah, Thomas and Beloit.”
A communication from the village explained why replacing lead piping is important:
“The village of Forest Park is committed to ensuring the safety and quality of our drinking water. As part of this commitment, we are actively replacing lead water service lines throughout the community. This initiative is a critical step in protecting public health and modernizing our water infrastructure.”
Why replace lead service lines?
“Lead can enter drinking water when plumbing materials that contain lead corrode. Even low levels of lead exposure can be harmful, especially to young children and pregnant women. Replacing lead service lines helps eliminate this risk and ensures cleaner, safer water for all residents.”
The Southwestern states of Arizona and New Mexico are as water poor as the Great Lakes states are water rich. Some have proposed building a pipeline from Lake Michigan to the Colorado River. (“The Midwest should share the Great Lakes,” by Julian C. Barnard)
A group called Clean Water Action responded to such proposals by saying, “No way.”
“Central Asia’s Aral Sea,” the group warned in one of its online posts, “is a perfect example of what can happen when too much water is diverted from lakes. The Aral was once the fourth largest inland body of water in the world. But the Soviet Union diverted Aral water in the 1950s to grow crops. These diversions dried up 90 percent of the lake in the span of a generation.”
The story of Flint Michigan’s water problems is a cautionary tale. A report by the CDC stated, “On April 25, 2014, the city of Flint, Michigan changed their municipal water supply source from the Detroit-supplied Lake Huron water to the Flint River. The switch caused water distribution pipes to corrode and leach lead and other contaminants into municipal drinking water.
“In October 2016, Flint residents were advised not to drink the municipal tap water unless it had been filtered through a NSF International approved filter certified to lead. Although the city reconnected to the original Detroit water system that same month, the potential damage was already done and a state of emergency was declared on January 16, 2016.”
Thankfully, our Water Department has never taken clean water for granted and DPW’s lead replacement project will keep it safe.