Cleveland's Burning River No More

6/27/09 Update: And then this happens.....

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2009/06/cuyahoga_river_littered_with_d.html

Earlier post:

Congratulations to all on the great progress described here: "Cleaner Water Celebrated..."
(There's also a recent NY Times article available.)

I think that many people know about the improvement, but many probably still don't. You know, the old-timers who still bring it up when (derisively) speaking about Cleveland. The ones who were happy to have a new car made from steel plants near the same river back then. Not that anything excuses the industrial sewer that the final portion of the river once was....

Credit: United Press International

They used to have a cruise boat that went up the (man-made) mouth of the river in Cleveland back in the 1960's. We were kids, but the adults with us warned us in advance that we were going to see the worst body of water you'll ever see. And it was pretty bad: I never saw so many strange, unnatural colors and other things floating in a river, before or since. Smells to match, too. You could actually watch the various discharges coming in from pipes near the plants, etc.

They've done a good job. E.g., I read recently that a deer was photographed swimming in the river right in the old industrial area.