The Jardine Water Purification Plant

Water purification

Water purification is the process of removing undesirable chemicals, materials, and biological contaminants from contaminated water. The goal is to produce water fit for a specific purpose...

, formerly the Central District Filtration Plant, is the largest capacity water filtration plant in the world, located at 1000 E. Ohio Street north of Navy Pier

Navy Pier

Navy Pier is a long pier on the Chicago shoreline of Lake Michigan. It is located in the Streeterville neighborhood of the Near North Side community area. The pier was built in 1916 at a cost of $4.5 million, equivalent to $ today. It was a part of the Plan of Chicago developed by architect and...

 in Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

, Illinois

Illinois

Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

. It draws raw water

Raw water

Raw water is water taken from the environment, and is subsequently treated or purified to produce potable water in a water purification works. Raw water should not be considered safe for drinking or washing without further treatment....

 from two of the city's water crib

Water crib

The Water cribs in Chicago supply the City of Chicago with drinking water from Lake Michigan. The first water crib, the Two-Mile Crib was constructed as part of a scheme by Ellis S. Chesbrough in 1865. Water was collected and transported through a tunnel 60 feet below the lake surface to the...

s far offshore in Lake Michigan

Lake Michigan

Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America and the only one located entirely within the United States. It is the second largest of the Great Lakes by volume and the third largest by surface area, after Lake Superior and Lake Huron...

 and sends nearly one billion gallons (4 million m³) of water per day to consumers in the north and central portions of the city. Constructed in the 1960s, it began functioning in 1968. Shortly thereafter the Ohio Street Beach formed in the bay created by the plant. Landscaping around the plant and in the adjoining Milton Olive Park was designed by Dan Kiley

Dan Kiley

Daniel Urban Kiley was a noted American landscape architect in the modernist style.- Life and career :Kiley was born in Boston, Massachusetts...

, and a statue, Hymn to Water, by Milton Horn

Milton Horn

Milton Horn is a Russian American sculptor and artist known for work that, according to a 1957 citation of honor from the American Institute of Architects, demonstrated "the truth that architecture and sculpture are not two separate arts but, in the hands of sympathetic collaborators, one and the...

graces the front entrance.
The southern portion of the city is served by a separate plant, the South Water Purification Plant. Together the two plants supply water to about 5 million residents in the city and 118 suburbs.