Environmental Progress - Winter 1999

"Reusable City" Display at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry

Illinois EPA helps create and fund cutting-edge exhibit

Visitors to the Museum of Science and Industry can drop by the "water bar" for a shot of tap water and a chance to evaluate its taste.

Visitors to Chicago's famed Museum of Science and Industry are learning about basic environmental issues such as ozone (smog), clean drinking water, landfills and recycling in the museum's first permanent environmental exhibit.

Illinois EPA provided key technical assistance and partial funding for the "Reusable City" exhibit that opened in June 1998.

It is one of the few exhibits at a major museum in the nation to focus on urban environmental issues.

The Agency's Bureau of Air installed an ozone monitor on the roof of the museum that gives real-time information on pollutant levels to visitors. A multi-media program explains ground-level ozone forecasting and invites the visitor to make a forecast. The air part of the exhibit includes interactive demonstrations on the operation of catalytic converters in cars, industrial/power plant smokestack scrubbers and real human lung tissue showing the potential effects of air pollution.

The Illinois EPA's Bureau of Water provided technical expertise to the museum in developing exhibits showing how drinking water is treated and monitored, as well as interactive demonstrations of the ways in which water is a solvent and carrier. The Bureau also assisted in the non-point source pollution part of the exhibit.

The exhibit illustrates the operation of a modern landfill and invites visitors to determine whether items moving by on a conveyer belt can appropriately be recycled, reused, incinerated or are biodegradable in a landfill. They can also peer inside a landfill with a special periscope and are urged to find a 25-year-old hot dog and other refuse.

Visitors can "drill" and examine an earth core sample

The other major part of the exhibit provides an introduction to the work that needs to be done to restore an environmentally-contaminated former industrial or "Brownfields" site to productive use again. Visitors can "drill down and bring up a core of earth," for study.

"This exhibit was put together to highlight some of the most important areas in urban environmental science. We tried to put together an exhibit that would feature things people who live in an urban environment possibly would be curious about -- that they might read about in the newspaper or things that might happen in their communities," said Julie Blue, the exhibit developer.

"Illinois EPA provided a great deal of technical assistance, especially with the ozone exhibit and it was a very helpful relationship," she added.

The ozone monitoring station installed on the museum roof in conjunction with the exhibit not only provides continuous readings for museum visitors but is also a fully-functioning part of the Bureau of Air's ozone monitoring network, providing data on conditions in the South Shore/Hyde Park area of Chicago.

"The nature of ozone is such you really can't have enough monitors," noted Terry Sweitzer, manager of air monitoring for Illinois EPA.

Blue said she frequently consulted with Sweitzer in preparing the showcase ozone portion of the exhibit. "Every time someone presses a button it takes a reading of the ozone level and it takes a reading every so often automatically, then it's charted on a computer so you can see how the ozone is going up and down, as well as the various factors that affect it," she added.

Ozone Action Days, which are called in the Chicago metro area whenever there is a potential for unhealthy levels of ozone, is also prominently featured in the exhibit. On those days, citizens, companies and organizations are urged to take various practical steps to reduce the ozone levels.

Public response has been enthusiastic

"We've had wonderful public response as well as from other museums and organizations," Blue said. "This exhibit is unique because it's about the urban environment, rather than other more typical museum environmental exhibits that focus on the rain forest or wetlands."

"We're going to continue to work with the museum to update the science and the monitoring that is done. It will be an ongoing project for at least 10 years," says Sweitzer.

At the museum, yellow stairs lead to the 4,000 square foot exhibit on a balcony near one of the museum's oldest exhibits, the popular coal mine tour.

Visitors to Reusable City are first greeted by a stylized up-ended "car." They can press the "accelerator" for a rather noisy demonstration of how a catalytic converter reduces engine emissions.

Besides the actual human lung on display, visitors can also see the effects of air pollution through acid rain on historic artifacts such as a 500 pound limestone eagle and everyday surfaces like windows and fences. They see how industrial scrubbers help reduce the pollution that gets into the air.

The "house special" is safe water

A "water bar" with a sign proclaiming: "Today's Special -- Fresh and Delicious Chicago City Tap Water from Beautiful Lake Michigan" draws visitors into the water portion of the exhibit. They are invited to do their own taste test and sample the "special" as well as filtered and bottled water to see if they can tell the difference.

A nearby exhibit on drinking water treatment shows changes in the water as it goes from adding chlorine and fluoride to the final "polishing" filtration process.

Visitors can peer through portholes to see how various types of pollution can impact water quality.

A separate room of the exhibit is devoted to an interactive display on how Americans dispose of their trash. It is highlighted by a constantly moving conveyer belt which allows visitors to push buttons to test their knowledge of disposal methods for various items. For example, a plush Barney is reusable but is not a good candidate for recycling, and is not biodegradable.

A third area demonstrates the science of determining what contamination is present prior to clean up of Brownfields sites, so they may be safely used for productive purposes.

In addition to technical expertise, the Illinois EPA staff secured $75,000 in funding from U.S. EPA to help finance the exhibit.

Learning Lab available for school groups

In September 1998, a Reusable City learning lab was opened for school groups. Using detailed dossiers with background checks, special laboratory equipment and on-line access to the Internet, students can learn more about the water, soil and air in their neighborhoods. The lab is designed to reinforce the concept that what is observed with the naked eye may not tell the entire story.

The Museum of Science and Industry is located 57th Street and Lake Shore Drive in Chicago, and is open every day of the year except Christmas Day. Between Labor Day and Memorial Day, the hours are 9:30 a.m. until 4 p.m. from Monday through Friday, and until 5:30 p.m. on weekends and holidays.

More information is available at the museum's website at www.msichicago.org.