As the population in McHenry and Kane Counties continues to grow rapidly, will there be enough drinking water to satisfy the demand?
Yes, with smart planning, a region-wide collaboration and residents as well as businesses adopting a strong water-conservation ethic.
That’s the word from local and state water experts.
· Determine your current household water usage. Take a couple of your recent water bills, and count the number of days in the billing cycle, said Jodie Wollnik, Kane County director of environmental and water resources. If your water use is reported in cubic feet, multiply that usage by 7.48 to convert to gallons. Then, divide the number by the days in the billing cycle. That will give you the gallons of water you are using per day. Then divide that number by the number of residents in your house. The Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning recommends 65 gallons per person per day. Summer consumption will probably be higher than winter because of outdoor watering, Wollnik noted.
· Replace older fixtures (toilets, showerheads, clothes washers, etc.) with more water-efficient ones. “Today’s products are both high-performing and stylish,” Wollnik said. “Our family tried an ultra-low flow shower head rated at 0.625 gallons per minute— almost five times less water than the previous showerhead, but it feels much like any other shower that has a much higher flow rate.”
· In the winter, avoid over-salting your driveway and sidewalk. “If you can hear a loud crunch with every step, you’re probably applying too much salt,” Kuykendall noted. If you own a business with a parking lot, check to see if your snow-removal company has completed sensible salting training.
· Make sure you are not over-watering your lawn and garden. For details on the Village of Huntley’s color-coded Outside Watering Code, visit www.huntley.il.us and view the public works and engineering department’s water page. If you have an irrigation system, check your settings and sprayers or call your technician to maximize efficiency.
· Recycle your household chemical waste. Don’t dump oils, paints, cleaning chemicals and other wastes into the ground or down your storm sewer, where they can seep into either surface or ground water. For recycling household hazardous waste in McHenry County, visit www.mchenrycountyil.gov and enter Green Guide in the search box. Kane County residents can visit www.countyofkane.org/Recycling/Pages/hhw.aspx.
· Stay informed. McHenry County’s Water Resources Action Plan is available at www.mchenryh2o.com. For efforts in Kane County, visit www.countyofkane.org/FDER/Pages/environmentalResources/waterResources/residents.aspxLearn about the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning’s regional efforts to promote water stewardship at www.cmap.illinois.gov. For more details on water-saving home products, visit www.epa.gov/watersense.
By 2050, the populations of McHenry County and Kane County are projected to increase, by 55 percent and 49 percent, respectively, according to the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning.
The Village of Huntley currently draws all of its usable water from a deep underground formation known as an aquifer, located 1,300 feet below ground. “While I am confident that this aquifer will continue to serve the water supply needs of our community for many more years to come, we are aware that this is a finite resource,” said Tim Farrell, the village’s director of public works and engineering.
Exactly how finite? That’s been the subject of much study and discussion. In McHenry County, the extreme northwestern corner has ample supplies in a shallow sandstone aquifer, said Daniel Abrams, a research scientist with the Champaign-based Illinois State Water Survey. But in the county’s more populated southeastern corner, the water table is slowly starting to drop, he said. Additionally, challenges to the area water supplies include climate change, drought, over-consumption and contamination, said Scott Kuykendall, water resource specialist with the McHenry County department of planning and development.
With a warming climate, the combination of stronger rainstorms and drought means the Midwest faces greater risks of flash flooding due to heavier rains per storm, Kuykendall said. Additionally, extended dry periods harden soils, which impedes infiltration. The decrease of groundwater infiltration, when combined with projected droughts and increased irrigation, could decrease recharge rates in the shallow sand-and-gravel aquifers, ultimately lowering the long-term water supply in some areas.
One example of over-consumption is excessive lawn watering, according to Farrell. Contamination can range from careless dumping of household hazardous waste to over-salting area roads, driveways and parking lots, Kuykendall added.
In shoring up a community’s water supplies, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach, Abrams noted. Some Illinois communities with less-productive aquifers, such as rural Arcola, have purchased and piped groundwater from Champaign, located 37 miles north and situated above a more-productive aquifer. Additionally, several Chicago suburbs have tapped Lake Michigan water, a move Joliet is scheduled to make in 2030 in the wake of dropping groundwater supplies.
Illinoisans’ ability to pipe Lake Michigan water outside the basin line—located about 10 miles west of the lakefront—is unique among Great Lakes states and is the result of a 1967 U.S. Supreme Court decision, writes Peter Annin, author of The Great Lakes Water Wars. “Chicago’s polluted history sparked a series of historic and judicial decisions that legally solidified the right in modern times for northeastern Illinois’ suburbs to access Lake Michigan water,” Annin writes. “This is a unique and unprecedented right that most Chicago suburbanites don’t fully appreciate. That some of Chicago’s western suburbs—located far beyond the Great Lakes Basin line—are drinking Lake Michigan water seems patently unfair to contemporary opponents of Great Lakes diversions. And there are a number of water-troubled communities in other Great Lakes states that would love to access Great Lakes water, but because these areas lie outside the Basin line their water access has been limited.”
Mindful of the options in supplying an ever-thirstier region, municipalities in McHenry, Kane and other Chicago suburbs are collaborating at the local, regional and state levels. Within the past 10 years, Kuykendall and colleagues have convened a task force, involving about 160 area government officials, business representatives and residents, that later culminated in a water resources action plan. The most recent update, approved by the county board in November 2020, is available at www.mchenryh2o.com. Additionally, public-education efforts to promote water conservation have included K-12 curricula and an annual McHenry County water forum. Regionally, Huntley and other neighboring cities participate in groups ranging from the Northwest Water Alliance to the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning, which meet regularly with state officials.
Like McHenry County, Kane County faces increasing water demand and is collaborating with the above agencies to develop plans for future supplies and promote conservation, according to Jodie Wollnik, Kane County director of environment and water.
Because water supplies transcend political boundaries, inter-agency collaboration is critical, Abrams added.
Along with cooperation, the experts agree there needs to be a heightened sense of conservation among everyone (see sidebar). “Water is available, but only if we protect it,” Kuykendall said.
