Dirty Streams: The History of Water Pollution in Indianapolis
- Ed Fujawa
- 15 hours ago
- 8 min read
Since the founding of Indianapolis, its waterways have been a source of drinking water, industrial power, and some transportation. They have also been the preferred dumping ground for sewage and other pollutants resulting from the gathering of people and industry. In the middle of the 19th century, residents of the city, local journalists and city officials began to see the need for a sewer system to address the growing sewage problem, although even early sewers would still use the river as a final destination.
Over the years new attacks were made to conquer the sewage and water pollution issue, with varying degrees of success. In a few weeks, Citizens Energy Group will celebrate the most recent assault on water pollution in the city, with the completion of the long running Dig Indy Project. The massive project was commenced in 2013, and consists of a network of gigantic 18 foot diameter concrete tunnels, 250 feet underground. The project is designed to prevent sewage from the city’s combined sewer system from flowing into local waterways during periods of heavy precipitation. A combined sewer functions as both a sanitary and storm water sewer, and the sewage and storm water are transported to a treatment plant.
However, during periods of heavy rain the combined sewers can be overwhelmed, which results in the mixture of sewage and storm water being discharged into local waterways. The Dig Indy project is meant to address this problem and would store the sewage polluted water in the tunnel system during high water events and then route the sewage to treatment plants when capacity allows. Below is a map of the tunnel system. Note that the various tunnels are constructed along the routes of the major waterways in the downtown area of the city.
During construction of the system, large vertical access shafts were excavated to allow machinery and workmen to access the tunnels. Massive boring machines then cut through the layer of limestone which underlies the city in order to dig out the tunnels themselves. The routes of the tunnels are noted on the map above, and at various points around the city were located the sites of the vertical access shafts. But beyond those sites, there would have been no indication of the tunnel construction on the surface. The size of the tunnels is shown below with an image of the Deep Rock Tunnel Connector during its construction, originally published in the Indianapolis Star on December 17, 2012. The entire project is the largest public works project in the city’s history.
The Dig Indy project is the most recent iteration of a long running campaign to address the city’s sewage and water pollution problems. Over a century ago in the mid and late 1800s, residents of Indianapolis were aware of the sewage problem in the city, especially with the large increase in population during and immediately after, the Civil War. A few limited sections of sewer had been installed, although a complete system was not in place. In 1869 the city invited Moses Lane, a civil engineer known for his sewer expertise, to visit the city and outline a sewer plan. On September 29, 1869, Lane submitted a report to the city's Common Council detailing his proposed plan, the core of which was a main sewer running along Washington Street and Kentucky Avenue, to complement an existing sewer along South Street. Smaller branch sewers would feed into these main lines, with the mains being routed to outlets on the river. In an era before water treatment facilities, dumping sewage into local waterways was common practice, and Lane suggested that “[i]t is of greatest importance to discharge the drainage from the sewers into the river as far down stream or below the city as possible.”
The river, and the other waterways, were the receptacles of the refuse and sewage for the entire city, but within a decade, residents of the city were beginning to notice the polluted condition of the White River and its tributaries. An 1879 article in the Indianapolis News was headlined “A Dirty Stream,” and compared the pollution in the White River to the Thames in London, although it was not all sewage. “Let anyone take a stand on one of the railroad bridges, and watch the great spouts of blood and dirty water pouring in from the pork houses,” suggested the article, “and it won’t take any long argument to satisfy him that we have as dirty a river as there is in the world.”
As the 1879 article suggested, industry was also a major contributor to water pollution in the river and other waterways. This blog post from a few years ago covers two large scale pollution events in the White River a century apart, in 1896 and 1999 which resulted in large fish kills along the river. The 1896 event was the result of damage to the levee of a holding pond for polluted material from a strawboard factory near Noblesville. The resulting pollution flowed down the river to Indianapolis and infiltrated the canal and even reached downtown.
In the downtown area, the Kingan and Company Slaughterhouses, located along the river where Victory Field is located today, were significant polluters. As was observed in the 1879 article above, pipes from the factories openly poured offal and animal byproducts into the White River, and in combination with the raw sewage outflows, created a disgusting slurry in the water south of Washington Street. The Indiana Historical Society has several photos of pollution at the Kingan facility and adjacent properties along the river (one photo from the IHS of an outflow near Raymond Street is at the top of this blog post). An example of those photos is shown below, and while the photos are undated, it is likely these are from around 1900.
By the 1890s the city’s sewer system was bursting at the seams, unable to handle the increased demand from the still growing city. Rudolph Hering, an engineer who had worked on the sewer systems of New York and Philadelphia, and designed a new system for Washington DC (at the behest of President Harrison), was called upon to update the system in Indianapolis. Hering’s plans expanded the sewer network, but the end result was still the same: the sewage was directed into the White River downstream from Indianapolis. The image below is from the same series at the Indiana Historical Society as the Kingan photos above, and shows a sewer outflow into the White River near Raymond Street. The caption for the photos reads "[v]iew of Raymond Street Sewer opening, showing more clearly the deposits of sludge in the river bed."
Other waterways in the city were also polluted. In 1906 the Indianapolis Star reported that the lagoon (or lake) in Garfield Park was “filthy” with trash and sewage which flowed in from Pleasant Run Creek. “City officials have been informed that residents of the district near Pleasant Run have tapped sewers which were built for surface drainage and have used them as sanitary sewers,” reported the Star. As a result “all manner of filth has been carried into Pleasant Run.” Nearby Pogues Run, which ran across the bottom quarter of the original one-mile square of the city, was often little more than an open sewer. Its condition, and the condition of other waterways in the city, was denounced as a crime in 1911.
In 1902 the city's first water treatment plant went into service, a slow sand filter system capable of 12 million gallons per day. While a major step forward in ensuring that the drinking water supply was pure, and addressing sewage and other pollutants, sewage was still being discharged into the waterways. In addition to treatment technology, laws had also begun to catch up with the pollution problem. In the mid 1890s a state statute ordered fines for anyone who “maliciously or mischievously” polluted any “stream, canal or spring.” In 1909 a state law was passed which had more teeth. It allowed the State Board of Health to investigate any complaint against a “city, town, village, corporation, person or firm,” that was polluting a waterway or public water supply. The board had the power to levy fines and to order a halt to the polluting activities.
That same year, the Indianapolis Water Company encouraged the State Board of Health to take action on the conditions of Fall Creek, which itself was heavily polluted with sewage now that the city had expanded well to the north of the waterway. Fall Creek was not being used as a water source for the city at the time, but an underground storage reservoir constructed near the confluence of Fall Creek and the river (just north of the 10th Street bridge), had the ability to intake water from the creek, and then route it to the company’s new filter beds (for purification) in the event of a water emergency. “The law was passed to meet just such conditions,” declared L.C. Boyd, the vice president of the water company. “There is not the least doubt in my mind but that the State board can act in the matter.” He further explained that “[o]ur interest in the matter is only that of other citizens of the city who do not want to see the stream polluted.”
Pollution from the city expanded beyond the city limits and Marion County line. In 1916, property owners in Johnson and Morgan Counties (directly south of Indianapolis) who lived along the river sued the city of Indianapolis and the various slaughterhouses along the river for the polluted condition of the waterway. Likely under the authority of the 1909 statute referenced above, the state board of health conducted a survey of the river from Broad Ripple south to Waverly. North of Washington Street they found the river in good condition, and being used for fishing, boating, recreation, and bathing, with “normal and lovely” vegetation. South of Washington Street was a different story due to the discharge from the slaughterhouses and the city’s sewer outflows. The State Health Board had described the river “as a malodorous, septic stream, bearing on its surface floating matter of sewage origin."
The sewer system in the city in the early 1900s was already a combination system. With the advent of water treatment during this time, there was discussion about separating the sewers into dedicated sanitary and storm water. However, a complete transition was never done, and the city has dealt with the resulting problems ever since.
Today, the White River, Fall Creek, and other waterways are much improved versus even 25 years ago. As a regular user of the White River and Fall Creek for fishing and paddling, I’m quick to let people know that the waterways are in good shape. Of course, the waterways in the downtown core are more likely to be polluted, versus sections farther to the north or outside of downtown, just as the State Health Board found on the White River in 1916. However, I’m hopeful that the Dig Indy Project, which will prevent 5 billion gallons of wastewater from discharging into local waterways annually, will help continue the steady improvement of the condition of the waterways in the city, and eliminate most (reportedly 95%) of the combined sewer overflows in the future.
Sources
Indianapolis News: July 1, 1879, March 31, 1892, June 2, 1896, June 5, 1896, January 14, 1903, June 3, 1907, April 22, 1909, November 18, 1908, April 29, 1909, February 16, 1910, September 4, 1916, September 15, 1916, December 26, 1916, December 27, 1916
Indianapolis Star: July 15, 1906, July 10, 1909, March 25, 1911, August 18, 1916
Proceedings of the Common Council of the City of Indianapolis for the fiscal year commencing May 1869-April 1870
Kingan and Company White River Pollution Photo Series, Indiana Historical Society, https://images.indianahistory.org/digital/collection/p16797coll53/search/searchterm/Kingan%20water%20company
Power of State of Indiana to Prevent Pollution of the Ohio River Pollution of the Ohio River, Indiana Law Journal, Indiana University School of Law (1943), https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4181&context=ilj#:~:text=.n1a,while%20a%20municipality%20could%20not
Water Service Publication, Indianapolis Water Company (1933), https://www.digitalindy.org/digital/collection/iwc/id/3586/rec/15