Cleveland and what we found was that every day, because of what we do, the Crooked River dies. The Cuyahoga River, as most think of it, the brown stream that meets lake erie, an industrial waterway, its banks populated by steel mills and factories. Its channel filled with ships and tugs. The Cuyahoga River, as it reaches lake erie after a 100mile twistingandturning journey from its head waters, is an exhausted stream. Abused and misused by man and his machines. Without the cuyahoga, the sprawling megalopias of clevelandakron would not exist. The river was the reason for originally settling this portion of the western reserve in the 1780s. The river called crooked by the delaware indians provided a waterway to the interior of ohio, and so man came and continued coming. Until today, nearly 2 Million People live and work in the river basin. In creating this urban complex, man has used the river as men have always used rivers, the flow has been put to work as a navigable stream, a water supply, and as a sewer. Mans mark is everywhere. Is this mark an epithet for the cuyahoga, the Crooked River . There have been some changes since 1966. If mans mark has not become an epithet its still a death nil. Today, without question, the cuyahoga is still dying. But theres a possibility of resurrection. The Cuyahoga River begins in Geauga County as two separate branches rising from springs and mar marshes. True to its name, it finds a crooked path south to akron, then north to cleveland and lake erie, 100 miles of water way. This epilogue, this essay on the cuyahoga, begins a few miles from the rivers source where conservationists gather each spring for a canoe trip down the river. It is as much an inspection trip as it is recreation. This year, some 450 people followed this man on the trip. It was the outdoor editor whose complaints about the cuyahoga and his canoe trip helped draw attention to the problem. But the trip is fun too and whole families take to the water. They come from miles around, enthusiasts like this woman from lakewood who made the 25 mile trip alone. Among the group is the district engineer of the Buffalo District of the corps of army engineers. Colonel ray hansen. The Buffalo District is responsible for keeping navigable streams open in this part of the country and has been in the forefront of pollution control. Showed everybody what problems are still there. Theres a lot of trash on the edge of the river. Just about every tenth cabin owner is throwing his trash down the back door. There are septic tanks that overflow. We found one spot of oil, by the way, up there. We have it under investigation already. Below these rapids, the canoeists were stopped by a small waterfall. The Group Carried canoes around it and went on. Except for dresser to stopped momentarily to prove a point. One he could float his kayak over the falls. And, two, that he could catch bass from the oncepolluted waters of the upper Cuyahoga River. The success of past trips and focusing attention of the situation of this, is evidence that the mayor bob thomas and the citizens of mantua have hauled trash away, even cleaning the river bed itself and they transformed an overgrown river side field into a town park and picnic area. The general consensus was good. The cuyahoga, from Lake Rockwell, back to its beginnings, is in better condition than it has been in years. The 25mile trip ended just below mantua. Farther south, the cuyahoga forms Lake Rockwell, the second Water Reservoir for the city of akron. And when the weather is good, you can find fishermen on the roadside where highway 14 crosses the lake. It is one of the few remaining spots where fish inhabit the cuyahoga. From this point on, the river begins to show the ravages of man that will ultimately destroy it by the time it reaches lake erie. Much of the destruction comes from places like this, the Waste Water Treatment Plant southeast of Lake Rockwell in ravenna. In short, the plant is simply not large enough to treat the waste of the area it serves and the situation is so bad that the ohio state Water Pollution board has imposed a ban on new construction until a new plant can be built and put in place. The plant superintendent says simply that he just doesnt have the facilities to do what he is supposed to do. There are plans for a new plant and the federal government may help, but it costs some 2 million to build it and it will take taxes to pay for it. As a result, largely untreated sewage runs from the plant to a ditch nearby and into a series of creeks which flow into the cuyahoga above kent. For a time, the river becomes a sewer. Near twin lakes a new plant is under construction. It releases highly treated water back to the environment. It is the best Sewage Treatment system, unlike many and this plant will be adequate for future development of the area. But as it flows silently by historic Standing Rock near kent, the cuyahoga begins to smell and the river bed is covered with slime. The ancient tribal meeting grounds has succumbed to modern man. Just below the spillway of Lake Rockwell, the cuyahoga begins to show its age. The city of akron is expanding its main water intake here to handle the millions of gallons of water required by akron. But the water is so impure, that at one time tons of sludge taken from it were dumped dominican republicly into the river. Two large settling ponds were built to hold the sludge, but now even they are almost full and that part of the plant will most likely have to be expanded in the future. By legislative act, the city owns the rights to the rivers water and the citys upstream must use private wells for a water supply. But akron is considering a fourth Water Reservoir beyond Lake Rockwell, meaning a new dam. Near the h irai rrc irchiram ra. With the new reservoir, the city could begin selling water to the countless towns in the area. But even now the city of akron uses so much water from the river that in times of low flow, the stream almost stops running. There are those who feel another dam would kill if cuyahoga. That sludge once flowed through the city of kent, but the river runs somewhat cleaner, though it is still not pure by any means. Its clean enough to support fish and several have been taken from this spot below the kent falls, right in the heart of town. There is even talk here in kent of making the river into a park, available to all, and we are told the plans for it have been completed. It was a different story five years ago. On the outskirts of kent where the river heads for Cuyahoga Falls, is the new Waste Water Treatment Plant which was under construction five years ago. It can provide secondary treatment of some 4 million gallons of waste each day and it is now meeting the state requirements for discharges into the cuyahoga. In 1960, kent faced the situation in which ravenna finds itself today. But the new plant is finding it difficult to do its job properly because of the kinds of waste it must treat, everything from slaughter house remains to industrial sludge and oil are flushed into sewers in kent. As it is in other cities along the river. Across the river from the plant, of a flew affluent flows in. The iron and rust puts an indelible mark on the river. The cuyahoga has just about every problem that every river in the United States has. They vary from the upper end down to this end, but it has polluted sentiments in the bottom of it, severe erosion problems in some places, its full of debris and others. It has a tremendously heavy load of industrial waste. At monroe falls as in countless other places along the river, a small dam provides a pool for a specialized use, here to supply a paper manufacturing company. Such uses of river water continue until it finally reaches lake erie. In kent the river meanders through the city of Cuyahoga Falls in some spots appearing as and idyllic stream. In others, an industrial sewer. Waste mostly industrial trickles into the river. It appears to be in better condition than it was five years ago, but many of the polluters found then are still actively contributing to the death of the cuyahoga. From Cuyahoga Falls, the river winds through the city of akron. From the three dams upstream, the city removed some 70 million gallons of water a day and returns it to the tiny stream to the plant several miles below the peninsula. During lowflow periods, the discharge may make up 85 of the rivers water. Under normal conditions as much as half. From here, the cuyahoga attempts to act like a river, coursing down rapids and waterfalls, descending down several hundred feet to a mile and a half. [ train whistle ] by the time the Cuyahoga River reaches cleveland, its already dead. There is little life of any kind in its water. In all, 44 sewage Treatment Plants and at least 28 known industries discharge waste into the river during its 100mile trek to the lake. The cleveland Treatment Plant adds affluent to the river alone. Now it is river that is known throughout the world as the only one that burns. We talk a lot about cleaning up lake erie, but its not out in the lake so much, its in the tributaries. We have to clean up the sources and the tributaries and the stuff thats being washed into our lake. Industries in the flats area which use river water find they have to clean it first, then many dirty it more before dumping it back. There are proposals for cleaning up the river and while the area will never again be a trout stream, it can be made not to smell. The costs for the cleanup may be staggering. I guess the solution boils down to two things, we have to toilet train ourselves and stop putting our industrial waste and human waste in our waterways if we do at least, get them all cleaned up before we do. Second, now we have to clean up the mess weve made. If a Cleanup Program can work on a basin like the cuyahoga, it can just about work anywhere. The cuyahoga is big enough and small enough that the problems are we can tackle in a period of a few months or a year or two. While we can report that at its source, the Cuyahoga River has been reborn, we must also report that by the time it ends, it has been long dead. If there is an epilogue to the story of how the Crooked River dies, it is simply that man has multiplied too fast and his slovenly habits have made it too difficult to live. If he does not stop polluting, he will find theres nothing clean left and his fate may indeed resemble that of the Crooked River. All week were featuring American History tv programs as a preview of whats available every weekend on cspan3. Lectures and history. American artifacts. Real america. The civil war. Oral histories. The presidency. And, special event coverage about our nations history. Enjoy American History tv now and every weekend on cspan3. American history tv products are now available at the new cspan3 online store. Go to cspanstore. Org and check out all of the cspan products. March 28th, 1979 the events just outside of harrisburg, pennsylvania, for the next 90 minutes here on cspans washington journal and cspan3s American History tv we look back at the three mile island accident which was the partial meltdown of a reactor, reactor