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History of Bubbly Creek
Historically, the Chicago River system was a wetland complex that flowed sluggishly east into Lake Michigan. The drainage area of the Chicago River was unique in that its boundary with the Des Plaines River to the west formed a regional watershed divide that separated the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River watershed from the Mississippi River drainage basin. One location of the regional divide, called Mud Lake, just 2 miles west of Bubbly Creek, was low and ill defined. It therefore allowed sporadic overflows to the Mississippi River basin during spring floods, which periodically connected these great basins.
This unique topographic characteristic allowed for a permanent connection between the two basins. In 1848, the Illinois and Michigan Canal, which originated at the confluence of Bubbly Creek and the South Branch of the Chicago River, was completed and created an efficient water trade route between the basins, sparking the rapid growth and development of the Chicago area. The canal is no longer in use. However, in 1984, the Illinois and Michigan Canal National Heritage Corridor was created to recognize the cultural significance of the canal. Bubbly Creek falls within this national heritage corridor.
Bubbly Creek and its tributaries were once clear, meandering creeks that slowly drained the vast marshland that occurred within its original 5-square-mile drainage area. This once-pristine ecosystem provided natural aquatic and terrestrial habitats for many fish, bird, and mammal species. Over a period of several decades, however, this pristine ecosystem was severely altered by human development. In the early 1860s, the Union Stock Yards were constructed along the banks of the South Fork, and this small stream became an open sewer and disposal site for large quantities of blood, offal (waste parts of butchered animals, such as organs), hair, and other animal wastes from the meatpacking industry. Biochemical reactions caused by decomposing animal waste continuously produce methane and hydrogen sulfide bubbles. To this day, these bubbles float to and break at the water surface, which prompted the colloquial name “Bubbly Creek.” The Union Stockyards closed in 1971 after 105 years of meat production. The impact of the Union Stockyards on the landscape and its vast physical alterations to Bubbly Creek and the surrounding area remains today.
During development of Chicago in the late 1800s and early 1900s, a vast sewer system was constructed to collect sanitary waste and storm water runoff and convey it via massive underground combined sewers to the area’s river system. A 30-square-mile area of the central and south side of the City of Chicago originally drained to Bubbly Creek by gravity. Conditions in the channel degraded to a point where a bypass connection was constructed to pump fresh water from Lake Michigan to flush the system during dry weather. In 1939, the world’s largest pump station, Racine Avenue Pumping Station (RAPS), was constructed and dry weather flows were diverted to the Stickney Water Reclamation Plant (WRP) for treatment instead of directly discharging raw sewage to Bubbly Creek. Over the years, increases to treatment capacity at the WRP have reduced the amount of overflows that occur. The construction of the Tunnel and Reservoir Plan (TARP), which encompasses a system of deep tunnels and large reservoirs used to store overflows, has drastically reduced the amount of combined sewer overflows to local rivers. Currently, the tunnel portion of the project is complete. Unfortunately, even with the TARP project completed and with construction of the McCook reservoir currently scheduled for completion in 2023, overflow capacity will still be required at RAPS, albeit less frequently, to prevent local flooding and basement backup during large storm events.
Today, Bubbly Creek is a relatively straight 6,600-foot channel that originates at the RAPS and flows north during overflow events to its confluence with the South Branch of the Chicago River. The channel is mostly lined with vertical walls made of steel sheet pile, concrete, or wood and a few areas of steep rocky soils, as shown in Figure 2. A mix of land uses is found along the banks of Bubbly Creek, including industrial plants, trucking terminals, rail yards, and construction material yards, which are giving way to new commercial and residential development. The major physical alterations caused by development have severely degraded the natural ecosystem and eliminated most of the natural aquatic and terrestrial habitats.
Figure 2 - View Looking from 35th Street |
