The Nicholas J. MelasCentennial Fountain and water cannon were installed in 1989 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the Chicago Sanitary District, known today as the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (MWRD).

In 1889, the Illinois State Legislature passed the Sanitary District Enabling Act to address issues with Chicago's sewage and water systems-- issues that had escalated over the course of the 19th century as Chicago grew from a small city to an important metropolis. The passage of the Act led to the establishment of the Chicago Sanitary District and to the construction of the Sanitary and Ship Canal. The canal, which opened in 1900, was built to resolve Chicago's ongoing water sanitation and sewage problems. It replaced the Illinois and Michigan Canal, built in 1848 to connect the Chicago River with the Des Plaines River (and thus the Great Lakes and Mississippi River watersheds). The new canal also allowed the district to permanently reverse the flow of the Chicago and Calumet Rivers, protecting Chicago's water supply by sending polluted water south into the Des Plaines River instead of east into Lake Michigan.

The MWRD took on another major engineering project in 1975. The Tunnel and Reservoir Plan (TARP), also known as "The Deep Tunnel," was designed to mitigate issues with storm flooding in Cook County. The TARP system consists of 109 miles of tunnels buried up to 350 feet underground (including underneath the Chicago River). It collects and sends sewage and storm water to area treatment plants before releasing it back into area waterways.

The water cannonspraysan arc of water over the Chicago River hourly between 10 AM and 2 PM and from 5 PM to midnight. The Nicholas J. MelasCentennial Fountain is named for a former MWRD commissioner.