By Patrick Lockhart
The
American Midwest of the 1930’s was a very interesting place to live.
Technological advances were shattering the old standard of living, breaking
ground for an entirely new way of life. The nation was shakily getting to its
feet after being knocked out by the Great Depression, causing many of the
cities in the Midwest to be destinations of opportunity and a better life for
thousands all across the United States. With these fascinating changes came the
occasional challenges. One particularly notable advancement was attention given
to pollution and the environment around this time. Beginning in 1936, the state
governments of Illinois and Indiana began an effort to stop pollution into Lake
Michigan, joining dozens of other movements across the country.
The Region, particularly Lake County, was a
relatively quiet and serene area during the 1930’s and 1940’s. For the most
part, the local economy relied on farming and agriculture, with a large
majority of residents being farmers. Oftentimes, the most exciting and
troublesome news was in regards to farming disasters, such as the 1923 flood,
or locusts coming in droves to feast on crops.[1] Aside from this, politics
were the most popular form of entertainment, whether it was through public
debate, radio chats, or candidate visitations to the area.[2] Yet aside from fertilizer
runoff into rivers, nearly the entirety of the water pollution came from the
larger cities in the region that resided on or beside rivers and streams that
fed directly into Lake Michigan. Hammond, Gary, Whiting, and East Chicago were
very populated urban centers that influenced much of the daily lives and news
of those in Lake County. The times leading up to the pollution were extremely
exciting. The population boom of this area was the largest by far in the
Midwest, despite the continuation of the Great Depression, and stood out as a
rapidly growing stretch of urban expansion in the eyes of the rest of the
county. Technology was being mass produced and eagerly consumed, with radios,
automobiles, and even air-conditioning and electricity sweeping through
Indiana, becoming household necessities.[3] Manufacturing and
industrial jobs dominated the economy of the cities, with the larger factories
and plants of Chicago attracting thousands more to the area every year. The
grueling work weeks were separated by flurried weekends of church festivals,
parades, and the occasional travelling act making its’ way through the Midwest.
Times were tough, however, and most entertainment was extremely cheap, if not
entirely free.[4]
Lake pollution had existed since Chicago was
first built. In the beginning of the city’s growth, the Lake was used merely as
a waste disposal area and method of shipping goods to other ports in the
region. However, as Chicago’s population rapidly grew in the 1800’s and early
1900’s, wells and fresh water rivers did not cover the drinking needs of
Chicago. As the city limits continued to expand, so did the need for fresh
water. Unfortunately, around this same time, the amount of human waste pumped
into the lake increased substantially. [5] Human waste and sewage
contaminated the water, making it dangerous and risky to drink. In the late
1800’s and early 1900’s, outbreaks of Typhoid fever increased alarmingly. Each
year, nearly 1% of the Chicago population was killed due to these outbreaks. At
this point, city officials in Chicago attempted to control the problem through
creating “cribs” out into the Lake, attempting to channel the sewage into small
areas of contamination in an effort to keep the rest of the water clean and
free of pollution. Next came the idea of building a canal to control the sewage
flow. The Illinois State Legislature eventually passed the funding for
construction, though after a lengthy political battle. This immediately lowered
the typhoid rate in the city. This solution stood for a couple decades, until
the Supreme Court ruled in 1933 that cities must treat sewage before allowing
it to dump into bodies of water, in a case between New Jersey and New York that
involved similar pollution circumstances that Chicago had previously faced. It
was at this time that Chicago’s Sanitation Department turned to more scientific
methods of sewage treatment in order to take further precaution. Through
processes such as coagulation, sedimentation, filtration, and chlorination,
typhoid rates were made even less common, with only 1 case per 100,000
residents. Michigan City, Indiana followed suit, and multiple smaller cities in
the region took to their neighbor’s example and opened sewage treatment plants. However, Gary, Whiting, Hammond, Hobart,
some parts of East Chicago, and Chesterton do not have adequate (if any) sewage
treatment plants. What is more concerning is that the municipalities that did
have the treatment plants had flaws in their programs, which oftentimes
resulted in waste and untreated water leaking back in to Lake Michigan and that
untreated water being pumped to the city.
Health officials in Chicago, upon learning of
the water conditions in the Lake through samples, immediately contacted the state
of Indiana to inform them of their concerns. The Illinois State Legislature was
working on the issues of Chicago pollutions. At the urging of Illinois Attorney
General Otto Kerner, Illinois Governor Henry Horner set up a conference with
Indiana Governor Paul McNutt to discuss passing anti-pollution legislation on
corporations and cities in the Chicago area that were dumping in the area. McNutt
came away from the meeting with an entirely new perspective in regards to the
gravity of the issue, and began working with Democrats in the Indiana
Statehouse on drafting up the bills that Governor Horner had recommended. In
1936, the Indiana General Assembly passed the Anti-Pollution act, which called
for the immediate end to all municipal and corporate pollution into all lakes,
rivers, and streams without first having the water treated. Almost immediately,
corporate powers were up in arms over the constitutionality of the measures.
However the Indiana Supreme Court sent the legislature the go-ahead on
informing all those responsible of their new duties. [6]
At this point in time, concentration of
executive power at the state and federal levels was an entirely new concept.
Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States, had just recently shown
the strength and scope of the Executive office with his New Deal programs. This
concept had not yet trickled down to state levels, so it is understandable that
this order by the state to local cities was not heeded quickly or prioritized
in any way. As 1937 was slowly melting away, no action had been taken by the
charged cities to build water treatment plants, let alone even authorize their
building plans. The private sector, ironically, complied much more quickly and
efficiently. In September of 1937, the Indiana Department of Commerce and
Industry publicly came out against Gary, Hammond, and Whiting on their
inactivity and little progress on addressing the issue.[7] Pressure on the cities in
this region persisted, and public attention to the problem was brought to a
full front later that month when Michigan Attorney General Raymond Starr filed
lawsuits against South Bend and Mishawaka in a U.S. District Court of Appeals
for their continued pollution of the St. Joseph River, violating both Indiana
and Michigan law. [8]
Similarly, health experts in Chicago unabashedly called out the state of
Indiana for a failure to enforce the laws it had already passed, claiming that
the sewage treatment plants should be started as Chicago began efforts to
filter the pollution out of East Chicago drinking water. Oscar Hewitt, Chicago
Commissioner of Public Works, wrote to the Chicago City Council and expressed
his unhappiness at the inability of the Indiana Government to control the
municipal and local governments in spurring them to act on the issue. Chicago
was due to have all pollution issues dealt with by the end of 1938, while Gary,
Hammond, and Whiting had not decreased their waste output one bit. [9] This pressure was felt by
Governor McNutt, who began taking steps to speed up the progress of Northwest
Indiana cities in stopping pollution. He set a deadline with the Indiana Board
of Health for January 1, 1939 for completion of such plants. He then travelled
to Washington, D.C. in an attempt to secure funding from the multiple New Deal
agencies offering grants for just such projects. After the U.S. Congress
appropriated a billion dollars to renew projects under the Public Works
Association (PWA) McNutt secured a grant through the PWA that would allow some
of the cities in the Chicago area to begin constructing the waste treatment
facilities, with 45 cents per dollar of the project cost covered by the federal
government. Yet even with such aid from
the state and federal government, local politics ultimately had the last say in
decisions such as this. Oftentimes, the cost of such projects was used as an
excuse to put it aside and worry about it another day. Yet oftentimes small
details prevented any progress whatsoever from taking place.
Hammond, Indiana around this time faced a
political split in regards to starting construction of a sewage treatment
plant. Despite leading the way in regards to planning when it came to sewage
treatment facilities, the City Council of Hammond split over taxation issues in
regards to the revenue required to start the project. The potential deadlock
led to a further issue. The January 1 deadline was approaching, and as of then
there was no actual fine or punishment if municipal governments did not comply with
the demands of the Legislature and Governor. This could potentially show a
weakness in the state government, which would not only take away legitimacy and
authority, but also draw criticism the Illinois government as well. [10]
Eventually, the municipalities of Gary, Whiting,
and Hammond had all passed ordinances and laws allowing for the construction of
sewage treatment facilities. This was in mid-1938, however, and with
construction of these amenities taking at least 16 months, Illinois officials
realized that the January 1 deadline could not possibly be reached. Attorney
General Kerner warned Indiana Attorney General Homer Jackson that not enforcing
such measures will ensure that not only this issue, but similar issues would
“drag on for an indefinite amount of time and nothing will be accomplished”,
though adding that he intended to “act in as friendly and amicable way as
possible with Indiana” throughout the process.[11] Chicago Mayor Andrew
Rooney similarly expressed his unhappiness with Indiana officials when he
learned it could take as long as 1940 before the plants were fully operational
and functioning. The pressure ultimately paid off, though. By late 1938, the
facilities in all of the cities were under construction, and all were fully
operational by January 1 of 1940. Despite the finalization of such treatment
plants, typhoid continued to have small outbreaks in Chicago until 1944, when
the last of the industrial offenders of Lake Pollution finished complying with
dumping standards in the Lake Michigan area.
After the waters of Lake Michigan were made
clean, the community’s attitude towards the lake changed substantially. Beaches
were frequented more often, particularly throughout the region. The city,
state, and federal government never departed from their stances formed during
this time, in which protecting public water supply (and public areas such as
beaches) remains a priority, with industries still facing regulations requiring
them to treat water and remove waste before dumping into bodies of water. [12]State governments from
this point on took more active roles in enforcing laws that were made, in part
due to expansion of executive power, but also due to the realization of the
success that could be achieved if people are put first and governments at the
local, state, and federal levels work together to accomplish goals. Ultimately, the eyes of the Midwest, of the
entire United States were opened to the dangers of unrestrained pollution, with
small steps being taken over the next few decades until the eventual
organization of federal and state agencies, such as the EPA, which continue to
fight to ensure the public remains free of harm from any pollutants.
[1]
Evans, A. “U.S. DAM PROJECT ROUSES WRATH OF INDIANA
FARMERS. Chicago Daily
Tribune, April 17, 1939 (ProQuest)
[2] WILLKIE
HAILED BY WORKERS ON VISIT TO INDIANA. Chicago Daily Tribune, October 23, 1940 (ProQuest)
[3] Evans, A. CONDITIONED AIR GIVES CHICAGO A NEW INDUSTRY. Chicago Daily Tribune, March 21 1935 (ProQuest)
[4] JAMES
O'DONNELL, B. HERE'S THE MAN WHOSE GENIUS IS BEHIND FESTIVAL. Chicago Daily Tribune, August 1, 1937 (ProQuest)
[5] Cipriani,
F. Clean Lake is life saver. Chicago
Daily Tribune, November 15, 1936 (ProQuest)
[6] INDIANA
MAKES PROMISE TO END LAKE POLLUTION. Chicago Daily Tribune, November 14, 1936 (ProQuest)
[7] INDIANA
TELLS CITIES TO STOP LAKE POLLUTION. Chicago Daily Tribune, September 16, 1937 (ProQuest)
[8] 2
INDIANA CITIES FACE U. S. SUIT IN RIVER POLLUTION. Chicago Daily Tribune, September 23, 1937 (ProQuest)
[9] CHARGES
FAILURE BY INDIANA TO END LAKE POLLUTION. Chicago Daily Tribune, January 29, 1937
[10] CAMPAIGN
TO END LAKE POLLUTION FACES SETBACK. Chicago
Daily Tribune, August 30, 1938 (ProQuest)
[11] KERNER
DEMANDS INDIANA CEASE LAKE POLLUTION. Chicago Daily Tribune, June 3, 1938 (ProQuest)
[12] Dwyer,
O. 2 CIVIC GROUPS BACK PLEA FOR POLLUTION AID. Chicago Daily Tribune, March 4, 1944 (ProQuest)
