Decreases in wastewater pollutants increased fish diversity of Chicago's waterways

Abstract

Throughout much of the globe, rivers are used to dispatch treated and untreated wastewater to the detriment of receiving ecosystems. Surprisingly, few studies directly relate water quality variables to fish community responses in receiving waterways on timescales that encompass the incremental and compounding improvements to wastewater infrastructure over time. Chicago (Illinois, USA) represents one such city, within which sits a series of waterways whose flows are primarily controlled by effluent discharges from three large wastewater treatment plants. Random forest regressions were used to construct models which predict changes in fish species richness within the Chicago Area Waterways over a period of 35 years from data on water quality and weather. The average number of species found at any one location across the Chicago Area Waterway system increased from ~5 to ~12 between 1985 and 2019. Decreases in concentrations of variables related to wastewater effluents (i.e., phenols, fecal coliforms, and nitrogenous compounds) were identified as highly informative, allowing increases in species richness to be predicted with a relatively high accuracy (R2 ≥ 0.49). Weather variables (particularly those related to snow and freezing temperatures) were only important predictors in a section of waterway which does not receive wastewater effluent, although consistent increases in rainfall were noted for Chicago and in chloride concentrations within the waterways. Increased rainfall events and harsher winter conditions (induces greater chloride runoff) threaten the progress made to lessen the effects of wastewater on the region. Improvements to how wastewater is treated, and subsequent reductions to harmful constituents of effluents, have improved the aquatic ecosystem and are likely responsible for the increased species richness over the 35-year timeframe studied.