Editing Illinois and Michigan Canal (section)

===Decline and replacement===
[[File:Starved Rock Lock (COE) tow downbound.jpg|thumb|New lock and dam structures that replaced the historic Illinois and Michigan Canal]]

The lake, however, was also the source of drinking water. During a tremendous storm in 1885, the rainfall washed refuse from the river, especially from the highly polluted [[Bubbly Creek]], far out into the lake (the city water intakes are located {{convert|2|mi|km}} offshore). Although [[Chicago 1885 cholera epidemic myth|no epidemics occurred]], the Chicago Sanitary District (now [[Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago|The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District]]) was created by the Illinois legislature in 1889 in response to this close call.<ref>[http://www.straightdope.com/columns/041112.html The Straight Dope: Did 90,000 people die of typhoid fever and cholera in Chicago in 1885?<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>

This new agency devised a plan to construct channels and canals to reverse the flow of the rivers away from Lake Michigan and divert the contaminated water downstream where it could be diluted as it flowed into the [[Des Plaines River]] and eventually the Mississippi.

In 1892, the direction of part of the Chicago River was reversed by the [[United States Army Corps of Engineers|Army Corps of Engineers]] with the result that the river and much of Chicago's sewage flowed into the canal instead of into [[Lake Michigan]]. The complete reversal of the river's flow was accomplished when the [[Sanitary and Ship Canal]] was opened in 1900.

It was replaced in 1933 by the [[Illinois Waterway]], which remains in use.

[[File:I and M canal near Willow Springs 2.jpg|left|thumb|Illinois and Michigan Canal west of [[Willow Springs, Illinois|Willow Springs]], where the unused canal is clogged with fallen trees]]