84    POLLUTION CONTROL PROGRAM FOR THE "TASTE OF
CHICAGO" LAKEFRONT FESTIVAL
Kenneth J. Kendrick, Industrial Waste Engineer
Allen G. Giedraitis, Pollution Control Officer III
Cecil Lue-Hing, Director of Research and Development
Arthur J. Sherman, Industrial Waste Manager
The Metropolitan Sanitary District of Greater Chicago
Chicago, Illinois 60611
INTRODUCTION
Every summer, many festivals are held in Chicago to bring people together, to listen to music,
laugh, talk, drink and especially, eat. Chicago is noted for its many ethnic foods: Polish, Italian,
Greek, Chinese, Mexican, ... the list goes on and on. And all of it is good. Almost every neighborhood in the city has its own festival. There are also larger festivals that are organized and located
along Chicago's lakefront.
The largest of all the lakefront festivals is the "Taste of Chicago". The festival's main theme is the
ethnic diversity of foods in the Chicago area. The festival is held during eight days of music, food and
fun on 305 acres of urban parkland over the Fourth of July holiday. The site of the fest is Grant Park,
located between the downtown "Loop" area and Monroe Harbor on the lake. It is a beautiful place
from which to view the city and the lake. The city's skyline, created by such famous architects as Mies
Van Der Roe, Louis Sullivan, Daniel Burnham and others, is in sharp contrast to the blue expanse of
Lake Michigan.
Normally, the park has its share of visitors and tourists, but during the Taste of Chicago, the park
explodes with people. Total attendance for the 1987 Taste of Chicago surpassed two million. The
highlight of the fest was on July 3, when the park was jammed with people that had come to hear
Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture being performed by the Grant Park Symphony Orchestra and watch the
massive fireworks display over Lake Michigan. In the lake and adjacent Monroe Harbor, thousands
of boats converged on the area to view the fireworks. The Chicago Police Department estimated 1.1
million people were in the park on that day.
With more than a million people in Grant Park and thousands more on Lake Michigan, the task of
controlling pollution to the lake is a formidable and necessary one.
HISTORY
Lake Michigan is the source of drinking water for approximately six million people in the Chicago-
land area. It was not always so well protected as it is today. One hundred years ago, as today, Chicago
depended on the lake for its drinking water. Back then, the Chicago River flowed into Lake Michigan.
Sewage treatment was unheard of and heavy rains flushed out the gutters of the city, into a sewer
system that discharged directly into the river and then into the lake. Outbreaks of typhoid, cholera
and other waterborne diseases were common. One year, almost 10% of the population died due to the
contamination of their drinking water.
In 1889, the citizens of Chicago called upon the legislature of the State of Illinois to create the
Sanitary District of Chicago, the predecessor to the Metropolitan Sanitary District of Greater Chicago
(District). The District built a canal, approximately 160 feet wide, 24 feet deep and 30 miles long
which connected the Chicago River with the Des Plaines River. This massive earth moving project was
designed primarily to reverse the flow of the Chicago River in order to protect Lake Michigan.
Completed in 1900, this project not only almost completely eliminated the outbreak of typhoid, but
was the key element needed to ensure Chicago's role as the Gateway to the West, and "hog butcher to
43rd Purdue Industrial Waste Conference Proceedings, © 1989 Lewis Publishers, Inc., Chelsea, Michigan 48118.
Printed in U.S.A.
751