Restoring neglected waterways of the Southeast Side are major challenge. For 70 years, from 1900 to 1970, the Calumet River on Chicago’s Southeast Side provided the cooling water, waste disposal, and shipping channel for a dense collection of steel, chemical, and metals manufacturing plants matched in few other regions of the country. When the last of the plants closed in the late 20th century, Chicago authorities and Southeast Side residents were left with an unyielding and difficult challenge.