Why Does this Creek Bubble Forever?

Going back over 100 years to Chicago, in the United States is a tale that is hard to believe. The South Fork of Chicago River’s South Branch was given the nickname of “Bubbly Creek” from the gases bubbling out of the riverbed. What are these bubbles from and why hasn’t it stopped?

Surrounding Bubbly Creek was a wetland in the 19th century but due to rising demand for buildable land, as the city of Chicago grew, channels in the Chicago river were dredged to increase the flow of water and dry out the more shallow parts surrounding. After the dredging was complete meatpacking businesses surrounding the Union Stock Yards started dumping blood, entrails and offal or organ meats into the river. The volumes of blood and offal were so high that hydrogen sulfide and methane bubbles started to emerge from the decomposing material at the bottom of the river.

It was said that carbonic gas would rise to the surface creating rings that were two to three feet wide. All sorts of other filth was dumped into the river like chemicals and grease which would solidify on the surface of the water. Chickens would then be found walking across the solidified grease and eating it, and occasionally unwary people would fall through. The river was often described as a bed of lava, for it’s blood stained color but also because the grease layer on top of the river would catch fire now and again which would demand the aid of the fire department to put out the fire… on the river. A resourceful citizen started collecting the grease from the top of the river to sell it as lard. Once the meat packers caught wind of what he was doing they got an injunction to stop him then later started collecting it themselves to sell. The shores of the Chicago River’s South Branch often became layered with thick black hair from the animals dumped in the water which they had to gather and clean to stay in business.

Upton Sinclair, an American writer, exposed the American meatpacking industry and what they had been doing in his expose “The Jungle” in 1906.

Since then the city has tried to oxygenate the creek by continually injecting compressed air into the water which didn’t work all that well although it has reduced the odor coming from the water. In the recent decades some vegetation and fish have returned to the creek where two of the heavily polluted streams that joined the South Fork were filled in for residential development.

Being a body of water that is very much stagnant with little flow, cleaning up the South Fork is a difficult task. A 2.65 million dollar feasibility study was considered by the Army Corps of Engineers to see what their restoration options are. The oxygenation system, as mentioned earlier hasn’t helped much, and the idea for a meandering stream amid a wetland was proposed. The actual cost of this renovation project is to the tune of 15.4 million dollars but in 2015 was stalled due to contamination that was found in the creek’s sediments.

Music courtesy: Blue Wednesday
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