Chicago River Blues

The celebration parade for the Cubs' World Series victory was on Friday.

Not sure if you heard, but they figured out a way to turn the murky water of the Chicago River a beautiful blue.


Cubs fans may have loved it, but some environmentalists were not thrilled.

From the Sun-Times:
“What has happened to the river in the past was worse than dyeing it green once a year. The river used to be very polluted. When you’re looking at how to improve the river, it was much more important to focus on big problems like combined sewer overflows and making sure discharges to the river were clean."

“But now, the river is much healthier. And we do not want to set a precedent where, every time we want to celebrate, we dye the river a different color and potentially hurt the aquatic life that lives in it. While it may seem festive, it’s actually potentially harming a natural resource.”

(Margaret Frisbie, Friends of the Chicago River)

Full story:

I tend to agree with her.

What type of chemical -- and how much of that chemical -- does it take to turn kajillions of gallons of water a bright blue?

And what do the fish think of it?

Hopefully, they didn't use a bunch of these:


Out for now......

Matt


p.s. there is already a tradition in place where the Chicago River is dyed green each year for St. Pat's Day;  I wrote about that last March:

Wonder if Margaret is OK with the green?