Cleaning Streams in Cook County, IL: Forest Preserves, Water Pollution, and Interwar Environmentalism in the Chicago Region

2021 ◽  
pp. 153851322110462
Author(s):  
Natalie B. Vena
Keyword(s):  
Water Pollution ◽  
Sewage Treatment ◽  
Cook County ◽  
Public Works ◽  
Metropolitan Region ◽  
The Public ◽  
Staff Members ◽  
American Cities ◽  
Forest Preserves ◽  
Forest Preserve

In 1916, the Forest Preserve District of Cook County began acquiring land to create a natural retreat for Chicagoans in that booming metropolitan region. Since district officials acquired many properties along county streams, water pollution soon interfered with their mission of creating an urban wilderness for recreational pleasure. To address the problem, in 1931, county leaders appointed the Clean Streams Advisory Committee that collaborated with forest preserve staff members to pressure polluters to clean-up their operations and to persuade enforcement agencies to prosecute ongoing offenders. They also lobbied the Public Works Administration to earmark New Deal funding for sewage treatment in Cook County. Their efforts suggest that early activism against water pollution in American cities emerged not only from efforts to ensure clean drinking water, but also struggles to protect nature. The interwar campaign to clean forest preserve streams anticipated the goals of the federal Clean Water Act (1972) to make all American waterways fishable and swimmable. The movement also preceded the burst of anti-pollution activism that historians have documented in U.S. suburbs after WWII and laid the groundwork for postwar efforts to mitigate water pollution in Cook County.

scholarly journals HOW TO MINIMIZE URBAN FLOODING: PERMISSIBLE ARCHITECTURE AND URBAN PLANNING

Engevista ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Augusta Justi Pisani ◽  
Gilda Collet Bruna
Keyword(s):  
Public Works ◽  
Urban Flooding ◽  
Urban Floods ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Social ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Urbanized Areas ◽  
American Cities ◽  
Flooded Areas ◽  
Local Research

The floods in urbanized areas damage systemically the Brazilian municipalities during the highraining periods. The economic lost that the nation face with this phenomenon are not yet measured, althoughthrough the impacts’ extension it is possible to observe that they are affecting the South and Southeastregions during this decade. Disasters within the urban tissue are complex, as they turn the various types ofrisks in a mess, mixing the natural risks with the social ones and also with the technological and biologicalrisks. If society occupies inadequate areas like the floodplains of the rivers and change the hydrologicalregime of the river basins, they pay a higher price, both with the public works to control these floods, andwith the losses generated with floods and their aftermath. So, controlling a flood means intervene in severalprocesses and involved elements, trying to minimize their effects. The recognition and monitoring of areassubject to risk are indispensable tools to for avoiding or reducing the undesired effects and the measures thatassist the management of flooded areas are: maintenance, structural and non structural measures.This article objective is to study the potentialities of the non structural measures to combat the accidentsrelated to floods, through a local research. These measures can be adopted by the architects and urban planners and engineering professionals and collaborate in a systemic and efficient form to decrease these natural disasters damages and frequency.The first methodological procedure used for this research was the survey of actions and public worksimplemented in European, Asian and American cities during the last decade and analyze the probabilityof adapting these works to the Brazilian reality. These research findings are important subsidies for thepublic policies and urban projects development so that they minimize the urban floods, thus helping thesustainable development.

Smelling Civic Peril

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam Mack
Keyword(s):  
Water Pollution ◽  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Drinking Water ◽  
Lake Michigan ◽  
Public Works ◽  
Water Tunnel ◽  
The Public ◽  
Chicago River ◽  
The City ◽  
Commercial Expansion

This chapter focuses on the public debate over the pollution of the Chicago River between the Civil War and the 1871 effort to “reverse” its flow. The Chicago River, which served as the fountainhead of the city's commercial expansion in the second half of the nineteenth century, constituted a potent sensory nuisance; the obnoxious odors forced a raw confrontation with water pollution that sometimes left residents feeling physically ill. The river offended the eyes and tongue too, but the stenches generated the most complaint. The chapter first explores the reasons why the Chicago River's malodors offended the senses of the affluent classes before discussing how the control of odors figured in broader efforts to create a healthy urban order throughout the city. It examines two of Chicago's most substantial public works projects in the context of the stench of the Chicago River: a water tunnel under Lake Michigan for drinking water and the deepening of the Illinois and Michigan Canal to change the flow of the river.

“Manual for the Design and Execution of the Repair of Concrete Structures” of the Public Works Research Institute

2016 ◽  
Vol 54 (12) ◽  
pp. 1162-1168
Author(s):  
H. Katahira ◽  
I. Sasaki ◽  
I. Naitou ◽  
H. Sakuraba
Keyword(s):  
Concrete Structures ◽  
Public Works ◽  
The Public ◽  
Research Institute

Workforce Race Equality Standard survey in general practice: Lewisham 2019

2020 ◽  
Vol 70 (suppl 1) ◽  
pp. bjgp20X711125
Author(s):  
Sebastian Kalwij
Keyword(s):  
General Practice ◽  
Response Rate ◽  
Zero Tolerance ◽  
Diverse Workforce ◽  
The Public ◽  
Staff Members ◽  
Zero Tolerance Policy ◽  
Minority Ethnic ◽  
Equality Standard ◽  
Improve Health

BackgroundThe NHS Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES) was introduced in 2015 and is mandatory for NHS trusts. Nine indicators have been created to evaluate the experiences of black and minority ethnic (BME) staff compared with the rest of the workforce. The trust data published showed a poor experience of BME staff compared with non BME staff.AimTo introduce the concept of WRES into general practice and create a baseline from which improvement can be made. A diverse workforce will better serve its population and this will improve health outcomes.MethodWe conducted a survey among all general practice staff members, clinicians, and non-clinicians and asked open-ended questions built around four WRES indicators most applicable to general practice, over a 6-week period in August and September 2019.ResultsWe collected 151 responses out of a total workforce of around 550. The response rate between clinicians and non-clinicians was equal 50.6% versus 49.4%. The distribution of non BME staff 51% versus BME staff 49% mirrors the diverse population of Lewisham. 54% of BME staff experienced bullying from patients, their relatives, and members of the public. 25% experienced bullying from a colleague or staff member in the workplace and 22% of BME staff changed jobs as a result of this.ConclusionBME staff in general practice report high levels of racism, especially from service users. In 22% this led to a career change. A zero-tolerance policy needs to be enforced and a multi-pronged approach is required to address this.

Water Pollution and Its Impact on Environment of Society

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Thyagaraju
Keyword(s):  
Water Pollution ◽  
Pollution Prevention ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Government ◽  
Living Organisms ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Biological Entities ◽  
Micro Organisms

The present seminar paper mainly highlight  the concept of  water pollution, causes of water pollution,  Its Effects, Elements of  pollutants, Methods  used to prevent the water pollution in environment  and the mandatory initiatives taken by the concerned authorities for prevention of  water pollution. Water   is essential for survival of all living organisms on the earth. Thus for human beings and plants to survive on land, water should be easily accessible. The term “Pollution” is generally refers to addition of any foreign body either living or non – living or deletion of anything that naturally exists. The basic Sources of Water pollution causes due to Culmination into lakes, rivers, ponds, seas, oceans etc. Domestic drainage and sanitary waste, Industrial drainage and sewage, Industrial waste from factories, Dumping of domestic garbage, Immersion of Idols made of plaster of Paris, Excess use of Insecticides , pesticides, fungicides, Chemical fertilizers, Soil erosion during heavy rains and floods, Natural disasters, tsunami etc. General pollutants  which are also caused for water pollution  which include Organic, Inorganic, and Biological entities, Insecticides, Pesticides, Disinfectants ,Detergents, Industrial solvents, Acids, Ammonia fertilizers, heavy metals, Harmful bacteria, Virus, Micro –Organisms and worms, Toxic chemicals. Agricultural lands become infertile and thereby production also drops, Spread of epidemic diseases like Cholera, Dysentery, Typhoid, Diarrhea, Hepatitis, Jaundice etc. The  basic responsibility of the Government, NGOs, National Pioneer scientific Research Institutions may conduct  research oriented programs on control of water pollution by create  awareness among the public through mass media and Environmental Education on recycling units,  and  water treatment plants must be established both at domestic levels and Industry levels, Every citizen must feel responsible to control water pollution. There have been many water pollution prevention acts that have been set up by the governments of the world. But these are not enough for permanent water pollution solutions. Each of us needs to take up the responsibility and do something at an everyday at individual level. Otherwise we can’t survive in a society forever in a future. 

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