We went to the closest major waterway we knew in the area of 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 twisting and turning journey from its headwaters, is an exhausted stream, abused and misused by man and his machines. Without the cuyahoga, the sprawling megalopolis of Cleveland Akron 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 . There have been some changes since 1966, but if mans mark has not yet become an epithet, it is still a death knell. Today, without question, the cuyahoga is still dying, but theres a possibility of resurrection. The Cuyahoga River begins above chardon, in geauga county. True to its name, it finds a crooked path south to akron, and then north to cleveland and lake erie, 100 miles of waterway. This epilogue, this essay on the cuyahoga, begins a few miles from the reverse source near burton, ohio, where conservationists gather each year for a trip down the weather. It is as much an inspection trip as it is recreational. This year some 450 people followed gresard on the trip. It is gresard, whose complaints about the polluted cuyahoga and canoe trip 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 70yearold Betsy Simpson from lakewood, who make the 25mile trip alone. Among the group is the district engineer of the Buffalo District, corps of army engineers, colonel ray hansen. The Buffalo District is responsible for keeping navigable streams open in this part of the country and recently has been in the forefront of pollution control. If we showed everybody what problems are still there, theres a lot of trash along the edge of the river. Just about every tenth cabin owner has thrown his trash out his back door. And there are privies that are too close to the rivers edge and septic tanks that overflow. We even found one spot of oil, by the way, way up there. There was an oily substance oozing out into the bank. We have it under investigation already. Below hiram rapids and a boys summer retreat called camp high, the canoeists were stopped. Gresard stopped momentarily to prove a point. One, that he could float his metal kayak over the falls. And, two, that he could catch bass and poppy from the oncepolluted waters of the upper Cuyahoga River. The success of past trips and focusing attention of the desperate situation of this stream is evidenced at manawa. Mayor bob thomas and the citizens of manawa have cleaned up their part of the river, hauling trash away, even cleaning the riverbed itself. And theyve transformed an overgrown riverside 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 manawa. 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 inhabits 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 ravenna Wastewater Treatment plant, just southeast of Lake Rockwell. In short, the plant is simply not large enough to treat the waste of the area that 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 into operation. Plant superintendent Mike Lacivita says he simply doesnt have the facility for what he needs to do. It will cost some nearly 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 is a tertiary Treatment Plant, meaning it releases highly treated water back into 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 a historic Standing Rock near kent, the cuyahoga begins to smell and the riverbed is covered with slime. The ancient tribal meeting grounds of ohios vanished Indian Tribes 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 directly into the river. Largely through the efforts of bill gresard, two large settling ponds were build to hold the sludge, but they are almost full and that part of the plant will most likely need to be expanded in the future. By legislative act, the city owns the rights to the rivers water and the cities upstream must use municipal or private wells for a water supply. But akron is now considering a fourth Water Reservoir beyond Lake Rockwell. Meaning a new dam across the cuyahoga near the hiram rapids. 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 the cuyahoga. That sludge once flowed through the city of kent, but now the river runs somewhat cleaner, though it still is not pure by any means. It is 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 kent Wastewater 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 even the new plant at kent is finding it difficult to do its job properly because of the kinds of waste it must treat. Everything from slaughterhouse remains to industrial sludge and oil are flushed into the sewers of kent as it is in innumerable other cities along the river. Across the river from the plant, the effluent from a Metals Industry leaks into the cuyahoga and the dissolved iron and rust puts an indelible mark on the river. The cuyahoga has just about every problem that any river in the United States has. They vary from the upper end down to this end, but it has polluted sediments in the bottom, severe erosion problems in places, its full of debris, it has a tremendously heavy load of municipal and industrial waste. At monroe falls, as in countless other places along the river, a small dam provides water for a specialized use. Here to supply a paper manufacturing company. Such uses of river water continue until it finally reaches lake erie. Below kent, the river slowly meanders through the city of cuyahoga falls, in some spots appearing as an idyllic stream. In others, an industrial sewer. Waste, mostly industrial, trickle into the beleaguered 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 removes some 70 million gallons of water a day and returns it to the tiny stream several miles below peninsula. During low flow 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 and descending several hundred feet in little more than a mile and a half. By the time the Cuyahoga River reaches cleveland, it is 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 trip to the lake. The cleveland Treatment Plant adds more than 75 gallons of effluent to the river alone. Now it is the river that is known throughout the world as the only one that burns. We talk about cleaning up lake erie, but the secret to cleaning up lake erie is not in the lake so much. Its here in the tributaries. Weve got 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 port area will never again be a trout stream, it can be made not to smell. The cost for the cleanup may be staggering. The solution amounts to two things. First, we as a civilization, have to toilet train ourselves and stop putting our waste, and if we do, get it all cleaned up before we do. Second, now weve got to clean up the mess weve made over the past decades while weve been doing this. If a Cleanup Program like this can work on a basin like the cuyahoga, it can just about work anywhere. The cuyahoga is big enough that we know we can do a big job yet its small enough that we know the problems, we can attatackle within 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 difficult to live. If he does not stop polluting, eventually, like the cuyahoga, he will find there is nothing clean left and his fates may indeed resemble that of the Crooked River. Youre watching American History tv. Every weekend on cspan3, explore our nations past. Cspan3, created by americas Cable Television companies as a public service, and brought to you today by your television provider. Weeknights this month were featuring American History tv programs as a preview of whats available every weekend on cspan3. Tonight, from cspans q a series, historians Susan Schulten and Eric Rauchway talk about two of the most contentious president ial transitions in u. S. History. In 1861 between James Buchanan and abraham lincoln, and in 1933 between Herbert Hoover and franklin roosevelt. Watch tonight beginning at 8 00 p. M. Eastern, and enjoy American History tv every weekend on cspan3