What It Means To Us
Water is our past.
Chicago wouldn’t exist without water. The only reason we’re all living here now is because this former swamp helped connect the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River back in olden times. And when Chicago was built, old-timey Chicagoans literally lifted the whole downtown up 8 by feet so its buildings could sit above the flow of the water.
A feat of engineering, just like when slightly less old-timey Chicagoans reversed the flow of the Chicago River away from Lake Michigan instead of into it. Heck, the blue on our city’s flag represents water. So yeah, we’d say water and us go way back.
Water is our present.
Today, the Chicago Department of Water Management sends 750 million gallons of clean drinking water everyday to instantly appear in every home and business not only in Chicago, but also 120 suburbs.
Just a cool 750 million gallons refreshing 5.3 million parched Chicago-area mouths, no biggie.
Water is our future.
While other water sources are drying up, we’re snuggled up next to a giant freshwater lake that isn’t going anywhere.
It has kept us hydrated since the beginning, and it’s big enough to keep us and our neighboring suburban friends Chidrated for pretty much always. Hooray for hydration. Whoops, we meant Chidration.