day, because of what we do, the crooked river guys. the cuyahoga river, the brown stream that meets lake erie. an industrial waterway, its banks populated by steel mills and factories. it's channels filled with ships and tugs. the cuyahoga river as it reaches lake erie after a 100 mile twisting and turning journey is an exhausted stream. abused and misused by man and his machines. without the cuyahoga, he's sprawling city of cleveland akron would not exist. this river was the reason for originally settling this portion of land 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, work in the river basin. in creating this urban contract men has use the river how man has always used rivers. it's a navigable spree stream a water supply and a sewer. men's markets everywhere is this mark an epitaph for the cuyahoga. they have now been some changes since 1966, but if this has not become an epitaph, it is still a dead man. today the cuyahoga is still dying. there is a possibility of resurrection. cuyahoga,. it travels from two paths and a crooked river down to akron then cleveland and out of lake erie. it is as much, and inspection trip to go down there as it is recreation. this year the outdoor editor, who had complaints about the cuyahoga and the canoe trip helped draw attention to the river. and the trip was fun to, families came from miles around, enthusiasts like betsy simpson, made the 25 mile trip alone. ♪ ♪ among the group is the engineer of the core of army engineers colonel ray hansen. he is responsible for keeping navigable navigable streams open. and he has been at the forefront of pollution control. >> as we are going along there's a lot of trash in the end of the river, and i think a cabin owner has just throwing trash out his back door. we found one spot of oil way up there and there's substance losing out from the banks, we have it under investigation already. below the rapids, at a place called camp hide, there is a small waterfall. the group carried the canoes around it, and they stop momentarily to prove a point, that you could float your mental kayak over the falls. . ,, cuyahoga. one that he could go over the falls and he could catch fish in the once polluted cuyahoga river. the success of past trips and focusing attention on the extreme, is in manitoba, the mayor and the townspeople have cleaned up the river and the outside as well and riverside. and they've turned it into a town park and picnic area. the general consensus was good. the cuyahoga is in better condition than it has been in years. the 25 mile trip just ended below -- . further south the cuyahoga forms the second water well of the city of mantra. and when the weather is good, we could find fishermen where highway 14, passes 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. much of the destruction, comes from places like this. the waste water treatment plant southeast of lake rockwell. they cannot treat the waste from the area it serves. and a situation so bad, that the water pollution board, has a ban and has new construction, until a new plant can be built and put into construction. there are plans for a new plant, and the federal government may help, but it cost some two billion dollars to build it. and taxes to pay for it. as a result, largely untreated sewage, runs from the plant to a sewage to cuyahoga nearby. for a time the river becomes a sewer. near twin lakes, a new treatment plant is under construction. it is tertiary treatment plant. which means it returns highly treated water back to the river. it is one of the best sewage treatment plants. but as it flows silently by the historic rock nearby, the cuyahoga begins to smell, and the riverbed is covered with slime. the vanished indian tribes nearby have succumb to man. just below lake rockwell, the cuyahoga begins to show its age. the city of akron is expanding its intake here, because of the millions of gallons of water required by akron's. but the water is so impure, that tons of sludge from nearby was dumped directly into the river. two large settling ponds were made to hold the sludge, but now they are nearly full, and that part of the plant, we'll have to be expanded in the future. by legislative act, the city owns the right to the rivers water, and they must use municipal or private wells. but akron is now considering a fourth water well, near the cuyahoga rapids. and the could be the city could actually start selling water to the towns around the area. but the cuyahoga use is so much water from the river, that the stream almost stops running. another dam they fear would kill the cuyahoga gut. it once flowed through the river of it through the city of can't, but now the water is not pure. but it's clean enough to support fish, and several have been taken from the spot. right near the heart of town. doug and there is even talk here, of making the river into a park. available to all, but we're told the plans for it have been completed but it was a different story five years ago. doug >> on the outskirts of kent, where the river heads for cuyahoga false, is a new waste treatment plant. which was under construction five years ago. it's a secondary treatment of some 4 million gallons of waste each day. and is now meeting the states requirement for discharge into the cuyahoga. even the new plant, it's finding it difficult to do its job properly, because of the kinds of weight waste it must treat. from slaughterhouse remains, are flushed into the sewers of can't. as well as from other cities along the river. across the river from the plant, it -- from a middle school industry runs into the river. and it puts an endangered watch along the river. >> the cuyahoga has just about every problem that every river in the united states has. saying it has some settlements in the bottom of it, it has erosion problems, it's full of debris, it has tremendous heavy load of industrial waste. >> as like countless other places longer, it provides water for a specialized use. here a manufacturing company, and such use of river water continue, until it reaches lake erie. blow can't the cuyahoga meanders through -- false. and creates a stream. for others this is an industrial sewer, waste mostly industrial trickle into the river. it appears to be a better condition than it was five years ago, but many of the polluters are still active as they were then and contributing to the death of the cuyahoga. from cuyahoga falls, the river winds through the city of akron. from the -- three dams upstream, the cities removes some 70 million gallons of water a day and returns it to the tiny stream several miles below. during low flow periods, a 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 several hundred feet in a little over a mile and a half. ♪ ♪ by the time the cuyahoga river reaches cleveland, it is already did. there is a 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 hundred mile track. now it is the river that is known throughout the world as the only one that burns. >> we talk a lot about cleaning up lake erie. the key to cleaning up lake erie is not out in the lake so much, it's here in the tributary. you have to clean up the sources, the tributaries, the stopping washed into our lakes. >> industries in the flat area that 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. while the port area will never again be pristine, it can be made not to smell. the cost of cleanup can be staggering. >> it boils down to two things. firstly, civilization has to toilet train itself and stop dumping our waste. second, now we have to clean up the mess we've made over however many decades we've been doing this. >> if a cleanup program like this can work on the cuyahoga, it can just about work anyway. we know we can do a big job. and yet, it's small enough that we can tackle the problems in a short time frame. while we can report the added source of the river has been reborn, we must also report by the time it ends, it has been a lone bid. if there is an epilogue to the story of how the cuyahoga river dies, it is simple. it is that man has multiplied too fast and his slob unleash habits have made it difficult to live. if he does not stop polluting eventually, like the cuyahoga he will find there is nothing clean left, and his fate may indeed resemble that of the crooked river. ♪ ♪

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