CHICAGO — Would you swim in the Chicago River? By 2030, that may be possible.
Josh Ellis, a director at the Metropolitan Planning Council, said the MPC, City of Chicago and Friends of the Chicago River on Wednesday morning will unveil the "Our Great Rivers" plan. On Monday, Ellis told DNAinfo that the plan calls for Chicago-area waterways, including the Chicago River, Des Plaines River and Calumet River, to be fully swimable for humans by 2030.
A news release sent Tuesday afternoon said the plan "will be the first City document to establish a unified vision for all three of Chicago’s rivers." Ellis is listed as one of the speakers Wednesday.
Friends of the Chicago River director Margaret Frisbie on Tuesday afternoon declined to comment further, citing an embargo.
The announcement is set for 10:30 a.m. Wednesday at the WMS Boathouse at Clark Park, 3400 N. Rockwell St.
According to the news release, the plan, which "was based on research, related plans and input from more than 6,000 Chicagoans between March 2015 and June 2016, will identify goals to guide economic development, recreation and open space, and environmental improvements between now and 2040."
The news release did not mention whether the goal was to have Chicago waterways be swimable for humans by 2030.
The city's waterways have seen a vast improvement in the number of fish that swim in its depths.
The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago has been conducting fish surveys in the Chicago Area Waterway System since the mid-1970s. Improved water quality due to enhanced treatment processes and the District’s Tunnel and Reservoir Plan has allowed for an increasing number of fish to flourish in the CAWS, according to Reclamation District's Allison Fore.
Fifty-eight fish species, including 28 game fish species and 45 native species, have been collected by the District in the CAWS during the 2000s, Fore said. That compares to the five to seven species that were found in the 1970s.
In June 2014, 10,000 channel catfish were released at 333 Lower Wacker Drive. This summer, about 2,000 northern pike fingerlings — each about 5 inches long — were dispensed into the river.
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