(Above) Overcrowded boats tied together in the “playpen” area on the north side of Navy Pier. Photo by Floyd Fulmer. Click on image to view larger version.

September 22, 2014 – Guests on board rented boats are relieving themselves in the Chicago River and it now has the attention of the Chicago Harbor Safety Committee.

At a meeting on Friday, the president of the committee outlined concerns of his members, starting with boaters being spotted “on more than a couple of occasions” urinating and defecating in the river.

“Part of the reason…is they don’t have [toilets] on board and these rentals are generally longer than 30 minutes,” offered Michael Borgstrom. “With commercial passenger vessels, if you’re on a voyage longer than 30 minutes, you have to have a [toilet] on there. So I don’t know how that’s addressed but it’s a big concern and I would think that our friends in the kayaks would not appreciate that very much, either.”

Members of the committee report an increasing number of collisions and close calls involving rental boats and kayaks running into or nearly running into tour boats and water taxis, as well as more impediments to navigation.

“Some of that could be due to the Riverwalk construction because it’s narrow through there,” said Borgstrom (right), who is also president of Wendella Sightseeing Co., Inc.

He calls the committee “the eyes and ears” of the Chicago River, but Riverwalk construction and other distractions have led to complacency.

“You see things that a few years ago…would draw your attention. Now there’s just so many unusual things going on, it’s hard to tell if anybody’s up to harm.”

Trash is being thrown in the river. Boaters are disembarking at unauthorized locations. He says a group of paddle-boarders was recently seen “hanging out” on a towboat near a Riverwalk construction barge.

“I know of an instance where a rental boat ran into a tour boat while it was at the dock and the person who was driving the boat decided to jump off the boat and tried to swim away.”

Other concerns include boats without names or registration numbers, boats tied together near Navy Pier (see photo above) that appeared to be “extremely overloaded,” and an unidentified rental boat operation that took more than 20 minutes to answer its emergency telephone number.

Between two of the five commercial passenger companies that operate on the Chicago River, Borgstrom says there were seven recent rescues of people from kayaks and disabled rental boats. Two fires were put out, two unmanned kayaks were found drifting, as wells as one unmanned power vessel.