More than four decades after the Clean Water Act required the rest of America to stop dumping disease-causing pollution into rivers and lakes, the law is catching up to the Chicago River.
The latest improvement to the long-abused waterway is tucked inside a red brick building in north suburban Skokie, where a series of open tanks glow with an eerie, greenish light as partially treated sewage quietly flows through. Arrays of ultraviolet lamps dipped into each tank kill germs left over after waste from toilets and factories has been skimmed and scoured into frothy water…Please click here to read Michael Hawthorn’s story in the Tribune.