ST. LOUIS (KTVI) — More than 30 feet below the ground in St. Louis’ Forest Park sits a system of tunnels. They’re part of the River Des Peres, where over four miles of its nearly 10-mile path sit beneath the city.
The river, which was created in the 1890s, slowly became a destination for everything a river shouldn’t have. As the city was growing in the early 1900s, the smell and sight become increasingly unpleasant, especially for a major upcoming event — the 1904 World’s Fair.
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“Whether it was buckets at one point that people were throwing into a creek, eventually, people were piping into the creeks and streams around St. Louis and the Mississippi River. Wastewater treatment didn’t exist,” St. Louis Metropolitan Sewer District Senior Public Affairs Specialist Sean Stone said. “A lot of development around here (and) no wastewater treatment was happening. It was just going into the River Des Peres, and eventually finding its way to the Mississippi (River).”
An initial enclosure was created to try and mask the unpleasant atmosphere, but years later, a much larger, more permanent solution was installed: the tunnel system that still exists today. And it’s critical St. Louis’ wastewater system.
Nexstar’s KTVI took a tour at the intersection of multiple tunnels, nicknamed the Forest Park Junction Chain. This intersection connects multiple lines within the system, which is also where the stormwater from Forest Park meets the wastewater flowing through.
“The city has a combined sewer system, meaning wastewater and stormwater share the same pipes… that’s very common in these older major cities,” Stone said. “This heads through the River Des Peres System, drops into another tunnel later that feeds our Lemay Wastewater Treatment Plant.”…