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thundrbud t1_je2sshc wrote

I guess that would depend on where you live. In Chicago the drinking water is pulled from Lake Michigan but the waste water is discharged into the sanitary canal which sends it into a system of waterways eventually going to the Mississippi river

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Hamilton_Brad t1_je35ijp wrote

Wait, so you are pulling from one watershed and then discharging into another? That seems problematic.

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stallion_412 t1_je376z1 wrote

Lake Michigan flows through the Chicago River and (eventually) into the Mississippi. It didn't used to, but you can thank the Army Corp of Engineers for that.

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AFAIK, with a few exceptions (like Chicago) there's an international treaty for the Great Lakes that requires water/excess used by humans to be eventually returned to the lakes.

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Hamilton_Brad t1_je3i5w8 wrote

Neat! That’s a 30 minute rabbit hole of Chicago history, but interesting.

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