Engelholm Creek / 3rd World Urban Waterways

This is the Engelholm Creek Watershed.  It flows from UMSL's South Campus into a big underground pipe at Skinker and Olive.

On UMSL's South Campus and in St. Vincent Park, the water is relatively clean with significant evidence of healthy wildlife, including deer prints in the creek bed.  Just slightly south, it gets really dirty really fast.  The descriptive term I've heard most is, "3rd World." 

As this is a comparison blog, I'd like to use a few random pictures from my travels to convey what is meant by 3rd world and see how appropriate it is.  Let's start in Malang, Indonesia.

By most estimates, Malang would be considered decidedly 3rd World, and the trash in the urban stream would kind of support that.  But check out the tires in St. Louis at Ogden and Wagner.

The railroad in Malang doesn't look too bad either, waterwise.

compared to the MetroLink at Etzel anyway...

In Cambodia on the Tonle Sap, I saw some very scary water, and some pretty badly eroded banks too,

Elsewhere on Etzel, other eroded banks are visible.

Here are some random shots from Vietnam, Thailand, and the Philipines,


Ho Chi Min City



Ho Chi Min City



Chiang Mai where I saw a guy cleaning cement covered tools by the bank

The Pasig River in Manila

 Here are some random shots taken of the Engelholm Creek and its watershed,
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Guess where these hydrocarbons and heavy metals go when it rains



This asphalt recycling facility pins the creek against the MetroLink tracks and piles stuff like this in the flood plain




This is not a rain garden

It's very simple dear friends.  Engelholm Creek is supposed to flow into Forest Park.  It's too dirty, so we pipe it under the park and fill the park with filtered tap water instead.

Engelholm Creek is just one part of the larger River Des Peres Watershed, which to our great shame is still a public toilet.  Is it 3rd World...? 

It's full of tires!

Under the Page bridge over Engelholm Creek