Hundreds plunge in Chicago River for the first official swimming in almost 100 years | Chicago

Hundreds of people dived in the cold waters of the Chicago river on Sunday as part of the first swimming organized in the river for almost 100 years, an act previously unthinkable in what was once one of the most confronted sailors in the world.

About 300 people, some wearing combinations, jumped into the Chicago river for a long-term swimming for a long time in the early Midwest and covered, an exploit made possible by the often invisible but crucial progress that the United States has achieved during the last half-century to clean its toxic pollution rivers.

“It is overwhelming to see that it happens, it is incredible to see swimmers swim in front of us now,” said Doug McConnell, the main organizer of the event.

McConnell, originally from the Chicago region and co -founder of A Long Swim, had pushed city leaders for more than a decade to allow swimming in the river, the first event of this type since 1927, having witnessed the urban swimming movement of the Urban River in cities like Paris, Munich and Amsterdam.

“Seeing this has really planted a seed, and we are delighted that we finally have this and that it drew global attention – we have had applications across the United States and 13 countries,” said McConnell, who hopes that it will become an annual event and will spread to other American cities.

McConnell did not skip into the water on Sunday, but is a long -distance swimmer accomplished, after crossing the Channel, which he remembers as “14 hours of slap”, and swam around the island of Manhattan, all for the benefit of the collection of funds of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

“I think that water conditions will surprise people because it will be cleaner than what they claim,” he said. “The psychology of so much of Chicagoans was that the river is untouchable – it is not true and we prove it today.

“My grandfather grew up in Chicago and I think his reaction to all this would be because the river had an absolutely toxic reputation then. It was repugnant, absolutely untouchable.”

The Chicago river has a long history of mingling. Each year, it is dyed green for Saint-Patrick and, sadly, in 2004, the tourist bus of Dave Matthews Band released 800 pounds (363 kg) of human waste through a bridge rack that landed on a powerfully unhappy tourist boat traveling on the river.

Indeed, Chicago initially grew up by treating its slow river as an unhindered discharge area. Wastewater and other waste was systematically channeled in the river, including carcasses and effluents of the huge slaughterhouses that have gathered next to the navigable track – as a section of the river is always called “Bubble Creek” because of the gas free on the rotten mud on the river bed.

The river has become so rude, causing fatal epidemics of cholera and typhoid, that the city crossed an extraordinary stage in 1900 to reverse the flow of the river by creating a system of canals and locks, to avoid the source of drinking water from Chicago in Lake Michigan. Today, the 156 -mile (265 km) river winds from Lake Michigan to Chicago, so its water finally empties in the Gulf of Mexico.

“We have treated the river as if it were part of the sewer system, which haunted us,” said Margaret Frisbie, executive director of Friends of the Chicago. The riverside buildings did not even have any windows overlooking what was known as “the stinking river”, with the water ribbon avoided within the framework of the civic fabric of Chicago.

“Until a few years ago, people would have thought it would be scandalous to go there,” said Frisbie. When friends of the Chicago river were formed in 1979 with a vision of restoring the ecological function of a river that could be appreciated by people and fauna, “people thought we were crazy,” she said.

However, the 1970s were a seminal decade for environmental protection in the United States, with the adoption of the Clean Water Act and the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) – bringing new restrictions on pollution spilled in rivers, rivers and lakes. Where once the American rivers were so toxic, they could set fire, a new era had started which would allow us the cities to think more affectionately about their fundamental sailors.

In Chicago, the slaughterhouses have closed, new sewer and rainwater infrastructure have been built and teams of volunteers, as they do to date, who have worked to clean the waste.

Dozens of fish species have returned, as well as beavers and turtles that slam like Chonkosaurus, a huge locally famous specimen, sometimes seen lounging near the river.

In 2016, a public road by the river was completed to knit the city center to its adjacent water, allowing the chicagoans of new bars and restaurants to look at a river which is no longer a foul soup, a place clean enough for people to now swim. On September 12, it was announced that the friends of the Chicago river won an international prize in recognition of the transformation of the river.

“So many people are on rental boats on the river these days – he gets up with people,” said Frisbia. “People want to work near the river, living nearby, being on this. It is remarkable to see that people have this link with him again.

“This swimming is emblematic of all the work we have done in the past 50 years to improve our rivers. He shows that you can change the fate of any natural resources and do good. This is something we need right now. ”

American rivers can now be more and more scenic leisure places rather than industrial sacrifice areas, but it depends on the vicissitudes of politics. The Trump administration shrinks the application of the Clean Water Act, which has helped to ensure healthier rivers, and also weakens the rules on what coal and factories can empty in the sailors. Bad old days can be one thing in the past, but continuous progress is not guaranteed.

“If the federal government is withdrawing from the application, things could slide back,” said Frisbia. “It is up to cities, countries and states to be vigilant. Our river is loved now – people want to use it, fauna needs it, we need it. We want to keep it rather than see it back down. ”

On Sunday, however, few swimmers were thinking about weight subjects that they lined up in dresses, serenade by the Cornemuse skirl and the drum of the Chicago police service, before undressing and wallowing in the river, armored flora devices attached to their size.

The organizers had zealously tested the water in the weeks preceding the event, noting that the river was constantly safe in terms of EPA standards on fecal coliforms – essentially, poop in water. The river has also been digitized for any potential obstruction to swimmers.

Among the participants for the first swimming of the river in 98 years – all strictly verified to ensure that they could finish the course – was Olivia Smoliga, who grew up in the suburbs of Chicago and won a gold medal on the 2016 Olympic Games.

The swimming in free water is a different beast of the tracks of a swimming pool, but the competitive spirit of Smoliga forced it to accelerate around the river loop, even if it was not intended to be a race.

“You have people who throw elbows there-you have to pay attention to the length of the nails, everything,” she said. “The fact that they were able to clean the river and do such a good job, so that this race occurs, is Trippy. But it’s really cool.”