Water Quality and Health

Clean water is crucial to life and health.  According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (the CDC), controlling infectious disease through wastewater management and protecting our drinking water supply is one of the 10 most important public health achievements of the 20th century.  However, outbreaks of disease due to water recreation have been reported. US EPA programs and federal regulations have been developed to protect people who swim at beaches.  Some research has already been done showing that swimming in waters with high bacteria levels is a health risk.  We don’t know what the health risks are for activities like rowing, paddling, boating and fishing.

Lakes and Beaches

For more information about beach health and beach closings in Chicago, please visit the website of the Chicago Park District Beach Report.

For more information about beach health in Illinois, please visit the Illinois Department of Public Health Beach Information

For more information about water quality on Lake Michigan, visit the Alliance for the Great Lakes

The Chicago River and Calumet River system

The systems for keeping Chicago’s wastewater out of Lake Michigan are managed by the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago.  Swimming, jet skiing and water skiing are not allowed in these waterways, but activities such as boating, fishing, and rowing are allowed.  For more information about the waterways, visit the Friends of the Chicago River web site.

Eating fish caught in Illinois rivers and lakes

General information, 2007:
http://www.jchdonline.org/jackson/Fish%20Advisory%2002.02.07.pdf

Great lakes fish: http://www.great-lakes.net/envt/flora-fauna/wildlife/fishadv.html

The Chicago River system: http://www.idph.state.il.us/envhealth/fishadv/chicagoriver.htm

For more information on research specifics, contact us at cheers@uic.edu.