It’s time to do our part as water-loving citizens of Chicago.
The Mayor and other intrepid city planners want to implement new standards that would reduce the amount of bacteria in the Chicago River and create an environment in which fish can thrive (and people can avoid staph infection). From yesterday’s Tribune:
Unlike most other major cities… Chicago doesn’t disinfect its wastewater to remove disease-causing bacteria and other pathogens.
Yes, gross.
As with everything, there’s a hitch — the new purifying techniques are potentially expensive. Very expensive. And some are worried the benefits don’t outweigh the costs:
“We’re not convinced there are enough people using the waterways to merit spending this money,” said Richard Lanyon, the district’s research director.
That’s right — it’s our fault. We’ve steered clear of the bacteria-infested river because we worry about silly things like e-coli, and now our city planners think we don’t care about the river.
Well that ends right here. It’s time to take the plunge into a body of water with pollution levels 400 times higher than the Delaware River in Philadelphia. We need to show our love, chronic diarrhea be damned!
Following this line of reasoning: will we need to contract Bird Flu so the government knows we really do want a vaccine?