New Chicago waterways sewage treatment years away

From Chicago-

Standing on the lip of the murky Calumet Sag Channel in Blue Island, the Rev. Rodney Reinhart blows a ram horn to heal the waters.

“Let us pray to end pollution and for the renewal of life in our environment and our created world,” said Reinhart, the pastor of St. Joseph’s and St. Aiadan’s Episcopal Church in Blue Island.

Gathering with about 15 supporters Sunday afternoon, Reinhart prayed for a world with less pollution and cleaner natural resources.

While Reinhart and his supporters are trying to fix the Chicago waterways spiritually, Chicago’s Metropolitan Water Reclamation District board recently voted to clean up the water with science.

In as few as eight years, the district hopes two sewage treatment plants will have the technology to decontaminate all 250 million gallons of treated sewage that is pumped into the Chicago waterways daily.

Samuel Dorevitch, a visiting associate public health professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said Chicago is one of the only cities nationwide that continues this practice.

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