Understanding+of+Pollution+in+the+Mississippi+River+Has+Changed+Over+Time

Original Author: Taja Hanson, A&S195 SP10 Revision Author: Jacqueline Lewton, A&S195 SP11
 * Understanding of Pollution in the Mississippi River has Changed over Time **

//“The historical relevance of the Mississippi is unavoidable. Long before Lewis and Clark showed up, the native peoples spoke of the Mississippi in godlike terms, the pulsing heart and lifeblood of the continent” (Wall ix). //


 * The Great Mississippi River **

The Mississippi River is the largest river in North America, lying entirely in the United States. Beginning at Lake Itasca, in Minnesota, and flowing South across the continental interior, it concludes its journey in the Gulf of Mexico, southeast of New Orleans. Its enormous size takes up approximately one-eighth of the entire continent with a total distance of 2,350 miles.

The Mississippi runs through the center of a highly industrialized nation and is the unpredictable neighbor of the continent’s richest farmland. For over two century’s, it has been subjected to a large degree of human control and modification. Historically, pollution in the Mississippi river can be traced back to population growth along its boundaries.


 * The Beginning of Human Modification to the River **

Flood control along the river began in New Orleans in 1717 by the French, who built a small levee to shelter their tiny city. Over the next two centuries, many riverbank structures were built to contain or divert floods. Many of the levees have decreased danger zones, but have led to the river being enclosed by concrete barriers. This has isolated the river from much of its natural setting. Changes made to river have resulted in many problems. These problems include, but are not limited to, a decrease in biodiversity including plants and animals, lower quality drinking water, and an increase in severe flooding. “Flood control levees have been created that have managed to decrease the number of seasonal floods in the area, but the danger of major floods has been increased. By creating channels designed to shorten or straighten the path of the river and the creation of new farming lands the amount of natural habitat native organisms has been greatly decreased” (Pollution).


 * How Modifications to the River were understood in the early 1800’s **

Pollution was not unheard of in the past, but many people did not have a clear understanding of what it was, how to prevent it, or the devastation caused by it. Newspapers and journals were the only way to distribute information across the country, many of which did not contain all of the accurate information to show Americans how much waste and pollution was going into our rivers. To get a good hand on what the pollution used to be like in the olden days, you would have to turn page after page in old newspapers that have not sorted by an index.

Currently the earliest information made able about the Mississippi’s River and the way pollution was viewed, was in a book called Fifty Years on the Mississippi. It was written by Emerson Gould W.B in 1811, and was found in Special Collections at the Davenport Public Library.

Gould wrote about the beginnings of levees and the alterations being made to the Mississippi. He was excited about preventing flood damage and establishing means to protect the crops and towns along the river. From his perspective, all the changes would be good ones and truly saw no reason to suspect otherwise. He wrote about the beautiful scenery that existed and how it was untouched by people, but said it was useless to try to predict the future, or protect, the future of those places. Perhaps, he was hoping that the new developments on the river would be good, and out-weigh the bad.

“The first advent of the White man into the Mississippi Valley shows the necessity for levees or dikes of earth-work to prevent low bottoms on both sides of the river from being overflowed” (Gould 223).

“In this Utilitarian age, it is hardly worthwhile to speculate or theorize upon the distant future or of what may occur. But there are a few old boatmen and citizens who still remember the beautiful scenery and picturesque views along the course of the river. When Indians were sole occupants and owners of the Westside, and few white settlements on the east” (Gould 342).


 *  Beginning to Understand the Threat of Pollution in late 1800’s **

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;"> When reviewing Public Health Papers and Reports, Volume 14, published in 1890, there were many areas discussing river pollution. This gave a clearer idea how pollution was understood in the past. It was certainly an important topic in the annual meeting, although ideas and theories were still under development. Evidence showed a large consensus within the meeting to make changes in the way people and industries were using the rivers, but only for reasons of protecting the people who were destroying it. People were getting very sick from living near and using the water supply that was always infested with disease. It starts to become clearer to the American public, and local public, the negative effects that years of polluting the Mississippi have caused. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">The beginning of one report began, “to those who do not understand the situation, it should be explained that we are attempting to reverse the natural order. What is called the Chicago “Divide” is a natural boundary between the drainage into Lake Michigan on the east and toward the Mississippi on the west. This has led to the occasional pollution of the water-supply of Chicago” (American 201).

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">After the report further explained the basics of water pollution, a clear feasible solution was offered. “As Dr. Smart has said, those streams which are used to supply us with drinking water must be kept from pollution. This can be done in part by forbidding the discharge of sewers into such streams, and in part by preventing the pollution, of the soil over which and through which the water passes into those streams”. Unfortunately, in the twenty-first century, our nation is still continuing to deal with both river and soil pollution (American 202).

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">Just one year earlier in 1889, the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal Volume 14 had been published. The compiling authors discussed the current statistics on river pollution. They included, “observations relating to the destruction of garbage and refuse matter.” After conducting surveys of cities along the Mississippi, they found that, “in the Mississippi River, during the past year, eight cities alone deposited 152,675 tons of garbage and offal, 108,250 tons of night soil, and 3,765 dead animals.” These were, perhaps, some astonishing numbers that the American public hadn’t predicted or even thought about (Boston 463).

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">With so many people regularly dumping waste into the river during this time, the journal also noted that many of cities refused to participate in any surveys or studies. This shows that people of the past did not feel like pollution was a serious issue, or were ashamed to disclose such eye opening information.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">Transformation to a Clean Mississippi in Davenport **

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">While searching through the Davenport Public Library’s Special Collections section, there was not very much usable information available pertaining to our specific area. Luckily, by using one of the original reports references, plenty of relevant and interesting information came from a single book written by Hugh Harrison in 1919. The book was written on a local man, hero, named W.D. Peterson. Peterson was born in Germany in 1852, and immigrated to the United States at a young age. He lived in Davenport most of his life, and was a very well-known business man. He ran a clothing factory on 4th Street between Western Avenue and Gaines, which was later bought out by Von Maur. He was nominated many times to be a Davenport city official, but stated, “politics is too dirty. I’d rather give my services to the community as a private citizen.” He most certainly did just that (Harrison 14).

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">The author, Harrison stated, “As a newspaper man in Davenport for many years, I have watched almost the magic transformation of the Davenport riverfront from a city dump to a reclaimed levee, with a beautiful park and modern water freight terminal, second to none in the Mississippi Valley” (Harrison 9).

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">After a trip to Europe, where he walked along the Rhine and admired its beauty, he was eager to return home and begin his new endeavor.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">“When W.D Peterson returned to America and his home city, he walked down the on the Mississippi river levee. His shoes stuck in the mud. To his nostrils came the odor of garbage. His eyes roamed over a heterogeneous pile of boxes, barrels, cans, brick boats, and refuse of all kinds stretched along the riverfront. A switch engine with a convoy of cattle cars puffed by, sending a cloud of black smoke which cut out the sight of the Magnificent Father of Waters. At the river’s edge was moored a dismal row of dilapidated shanty boats, inhabited by the flotsam and jetsam of humanity” (Harrison 12).

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">There were many pictures in the book of places in Davenport that are still recognizable today. However, there was also a rare picture of the Mississippi shore line showing free dumping along it. It was titled the “[Un]sightly dump popularly known as “the levee.”” Thankfully, this particular picture is an image of our past. (Harrison 16).

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">It is evident that the people of Davenport were concerned for the river and the community surrounding it. As people became more knowledgeable about the problems pollution caused to the land and the people, they were more eager to prevent the destruction from continuing. Although change isn’t easy, the people of Davenport came around to Peterson’s ideas and went with them.

//<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;"> “He told the big businessmen of the town he was going to clean up the riverfront. They attempted to dissuade him. They called his idea a “dream”” (Harrison 15). //


 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">Davenport Riverfront **

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">However, when the townspeople got to work cleaning the levee and contributing time and effort, the outcome was well worth the change. Peterson had plans for a beautiful city park, where people could enjoy the benefits of a living on the beautiful Mississippi river. He wanted to develop a place to fish, walk, bike, picnic, a spend time with one another. From his dreams to reality came LeClaire Park.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;"> “In a short time three hundred and thirty three thousand and three hundred square feet of soil filled in and eleven acres had been reclaimed for a city park” (Harrison 17). <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;"> “Peterson would devote the remainder of his active-business life to giving his hometown—Davenport, Iowa—an improved riverfront to stimulate its river trade” (Harrison 12).

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">Without Peterson, our river front may have looked very different from what we see today. He made tremendous strides in cleaning up the Mississippi and enhancing commerce and river trade to Davenport.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;"> “The city’s front door is no longer a playground for rats and breeding places for vermin and disease. It is clean and shipshape—a recreation grounds for the working people” (Harrison 22).

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">American Public Health Association. //Public Health Papers and Reports//. Vol. 14. Nathanial I. Bowditch, 1890. Print.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">Works Cited **

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">Shattuck, George B. //Boston Medical and Surgical Journal//. Jul-Dec ed. Vol. 121. Boston: Massachusetts Medical Society, 1889. Print.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">Harrison, Hugh. //<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">W.D. Peterson: “Father of the Davenport Levee” //. Purcell Printing Company Davenport: 1919. Print.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">Guild, Emerson W,b. //Fifty Years on the Mississippi//. 1811. Print.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;"> //<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Pollution and Problems //. N.p. n.d. 9 May 2010. []

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