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Detroit Water Quality: Yesterday
The early settlers of Detroit chose its site at the narrowest point of the Detroit River because it was very navigable and good source of clean water. They developed a rudimentary distribution system whereby water was delivered daily by horse-drawn carts to its residents. However, as the city grew, this system was soon obsolete. City leaders hatched a plan to drill wells to supplement Detroit River water but came up dry. Attempts to create reservoirs to capture surface water also failed. The major metropolises of the east, like New York, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh, had solved their water problems by creating pumping systems to bring clean river water to their residents. In the 1840s, Detroit engineers constructed a similar system. However, the city was also dumping wastewater into the Detroit River. At the time, many city planners had the erroneous belief that micro-organisms that fed on impurities in the wastewater would purify it. Not until the early 1900s did scientists and Detroit city engineers recognize the link between wastewater and typhoid fever. In 1912, the U.S. Public Health Service issued a mandate that required Detroit to disinfect all distributed water with calcium hypochlorite. Calcium hypochlorite was replaced by liquid chlorine, a more effective disinfectant, in 1916. Detroit also constructed a new water intake point well away from the city’s wastewater dumping area. This was especially critical as the automotive industry began its explosive growth in the Detroit area.
