The Salmon Run Chi-Town’s East Side

The Chinook Salmon make their 20th annual return to their spawning grounds. These waters are now fed by a sewage treatment plant, but the story behind it all might surprise you…

In the 1980s the wastewater treatment plant went online, plant operations manager Peter spotted Chinook Salmon jumping over a break wall at the plant like you see them shooting up mountain streams in the pacific northwest. If their destination doesn’t seem hazardous enough, in order to make their migration from Lake Michigan they must travel through shipping canals that bisect oil and steel factories, a 700 foot stream that starts at the outflow pipe, and shooting up a 200 foot high drain pipe that churns out more than 15 million gallons of water a day.

Once in side the plant, they laid eggs, which hatched into fingerling that feed on microscopic daphnia – another creature known for dying off quickly when exposed to toxins – then grow and eventually leave the plant for Lake Michigan only to return years later to this very spot where they will spawn a new generation of Chinook.

Baranyai, who started out shoveling sludge as a laborer more than 30 years ago, said watching the annual circle of life unfold in the unlikely environment has made him into a naturalist.

Read more on the Chicago Chinook at CBS 2 Chicago.