The water is flowing again in the Illinois and Michigan Canal in Channahon.
Nearly two years after rains wiped out 200 feet of the canal’s embankment in the town, causing the waters of the canal to drain away in a 15-mile stretch between Channahon and Morris, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources has begun rewatering the section.
On Tuesday, a day after the rewatering officially began, water was gushing over the DuPage River dam and past a feeder gate into the canal and slowly making its way to Morris.
“It’s finally happening,” said David Carr, regional land manager for the Department of Natural Resources’ office of land management and education. “People around here were getting tired of looking at what, for the last two years, had been nothing more than a muddy ditch.”
Normally, Carr said, it would take only about two days for the water to fill up the canal between Channahon and Morris, the largest single navigable stretch remaining along the 96-mile-long historic waterway that stretches from Chicago to Downstate LaSalle. But to allow the dried clay in the canal bed to absorb the water properly, the rewatering is being done gradually and will take up to two weeks to complete, he said.
The fact that the rewatering coincides with the canal’s 150th birthday is especially appropriate, said Rep. Jerry Weller (R-Ill.), whose congressional district includes Channahon and Morris.
“The I&M Canal is a key part of the economy here, in addition to being part of the heritage of northern Illinois,” Weller said. “The waterway attracts some 700,000 tourists to the area annually, so the rewatering of this section will help keep them coming back as well as attracting a lot of new tourists.”
Weller secured a $685,000 grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to help pay for repairs after the July 1996 floods in the area. The state matched the grant to cover the remainder of the cost.
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Bill Hileman, a resident of Channahon who was one of about 300 people who attended the rewatering ceremony at Channahon State Park on Monday, said he couldn’t wait to begin fishing again in the canal.
But, Carr said, restocking of the canal with fish won’t be attempted until next year to give the canal ecosystem a chance to revive.