One month ago, the Friends of the Chicago River held their 15th annual clean-up day.
Volunteer groups removed tons of debris from the banks of the river…part of which used to be called Bubbly Creek.
That's because it was an open sewer for the Chicago Stock Yards.
The bubbles came from decaying animal carcasses that decomposed there and released gas.
On clean-up day, our intrepid correspondent Gianofer Fields collected samples from Bubbly Creek to see how foul the river's water remains even today.
She also wanted to learn how dirty it is compared to other things around, or inside us, like for--instance—somebody's mouth.
So, Gianofer also got Margaret Frisbie, Executive Director of the Friends of the Chicago River, to give her a mouth sample.
For the past few weeks, Gianofer's been keeping the samples in a box on her desk. She and some colleagues have been peeking into it every once in while to check out the progress.
Today, she's brought back Matt Cunningham, Jason DeRose and Jason Marck to participate in her little bacteria rodeo.