Scott Meyer
Illinois Water Survey scientist Scott Meyer brought good news to members of the McHenry County Defenders at its Loyola Conference Center annual meeting Sunday.
Between 1994 and 2011 water levels in McHenry County wells rose about two feet.
He did point out that 1994 was a dry year and 2011 was a wet one, but the stability of the underground water supply–from which all McHenry County water comes–is encouraging.
“The pumping hasn’t overwhelmed the system in a wet year,” Meyer concluded.
“We can be relieved that we’re not pumping so much that the water level has declined from 1994-2011.”
Meyer presented the 1994 results at a meeting of the McHenry County Soil and Water Conservation District in the mid-1990’s.
Aquifers in northern Illinois. The lowest has much water, but lots of salt.
Nevertheless, long-term trends show the county faces a water supply challenge. (You can find the report here.)
Illinois Water Survey historical data, plus three projections of future water use out to 2050 were presented to the Environmental Defenders of McHenry County. The figures are in Million Gallons per Day. The highest forecast assumes more population growth for McHenry, Kane and Kendall Counties,no changes in the historical changes in water conservation, twenty new golf courses per decade and constant cropland, an increase in high water-using activity, among other assumptions from Table ES-2 in the report linked above.
Population projections assumed are those produced by CMAP. (These projections by the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning have been severely criticized here and here for overestimating growth in McHenry County.)
It is no surprise where most of the problems with water supply are centered–in the south and eastern parts of McHenry County.
Being partially color blind, I can’t tell you which are where, but it is clear that the darker areas are ones of concern.
One of the results of drawing down subterranean water is there is a decrease of surface run-off.
In 2009, an 10.5% decline was observed.
Mapped by water catchment areas, this shows about an 10.5% decrease in natural groundwater discharge as a result of well usage.
By 2050, assuming the middle usage projection, the groundwater discharge will be reduced 14.8%.
In 2050, natural runoff might well be reduced by 14.8%.
One expert has suggested that it is alright for water discharge to streams, rivers and lakes to be decreased by 10%.
Underground water reduction by pumping pulls water from streams.
Such a reduction creates a “cone of depression,” which diverts water from steams to the well.
But, one catchment area–Woodstock’s Silver Creek–has 68% of its water being sucked up for public water supply.
The Environmental Defenders of McHenry County met at the Loyola Conference Center in Bull Valley.
Meyer suggested one way to keep to reduction of surface run-off closer to the 10% level was to spread the wells around the county.
The idea of pumping from the less populated areas and piping it to the denser parts of McHenry County has surfaced before.
There is a draw down in the northwestern part of McHenry County, however that has nothing to do with local wells.
Water is being sucked out from as far away as the Milwaukee area from the next to the lowest aquifer.
Through the western part of the County, however, there was a stream or river before the glaciers came.
After the ice disappeared, this valley was filled with sand and gravel.
Water from above is now seeping into the lower aquifer from above as it is drawn down by far away wells.
Counties with more curbs and gutters have less salt contamination.
Meyer pointed to another growing problem–increased salt in the groundwater from snow removal.
Unfortunately, it is saltier most quickly in the most shallow aquifers.
McHenry County Board members Mary McCann and Michael Walkup were in attendance.
Meyer’s report may be found here.
Shucks, the no-development-in-McHenry-County NIMBYs are going to have to find a new pretext to browbeat our local elected officials with.
By what right would eastern McHenry County confiscate the water rights of citizens owning land in western McHenry County?
If you missed the meeting or are just plain interested, most of the slides that were shown come from this report:
http://isws.illinois.edu/pubdoc/CR/ISWSCR2013-06.pdf
Groundwater Simulation Modeling and Potentiometric Surface Mapping, McHenry County, Illinois
Deport all illegal aliens …..
and we’d have plenty of water, far less tax bites for local schools, prisons, courts, DCFS, welfare handouts, medicade ….
even traffic jams would be fewer.