96 restock and not dumping wastewater into rivers.3 In fact, waste became a serious issue that left the Fox River’s fish population severely under populated once the Native Americans were forced to relocate in 1835 after the Indian Relocation Act of 1830,.45 The Colonizers that overtook the area dumped their sewage directly into the river. One of the only fish that could survive was the German Carp. A species of fish stock by the U.S. Fish Commission which were quickly blamed by the settlers for driving away the other fish species.6 This kind of unmonitored dumping of chemicals continued well into the late twenty-first century until the passing of the Clean Water Act in 1972. After the colonization of northeastern Illinois, the industrialization of the area soon followed. From the mid-20th century until the Clean Water Act, many companies such as the East Dundee’s Haeger Pottery dumped their unfiltered effluent (liquid waste) directly into the Fox River. One of the most notable offenders is the Western United Gas & Electric Company situated in Aurora, Illinois. This company produced coal gas. Coal gas is a highly flammable gas whose byproducts were highly carcinogenic.7 With no federal laws preventing the dumping of refuse into the river, the Aurora gas plant was free to dump all of their byproducts.8 In 1922 nearly 40 years after the picture was taken, many people started to take notice of the state of the river causing the president of the company to put out a statement acknowledging his practices. This, however, was 3 Gary Mechanic and Barbara, “Our Waters, Our Fox,” Friends of the Fox River (Bravo Magazine, May 22, 2017), https://friendsofthefoxriver.org/2017/05/14/our-waters-our-fox/. 4 “Fox River,” historyonthefox, November 1, 2022, https://historyonthefox.wordpress.com/category/fox-river/. 5 “Carping about the Fox River...,” historyonthefox, June 23, 2015, https://historyonthefox.wordpress.com/2015/06/23/carping-about-the-fox-river/. 6IBID 7 “The Fox River's Still Recovering from ‘Gaslight Era’ Pollution...,” historyonthefox, July 14, 2020, https://historyonthefox.wordpress.com/2020/07/13/the-fox-rivers-still-recovering-from-gaslight-era-pollution/. 8 Aurora’s Manufactured Gas Plant, 1883, Vernon Derry collection.
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