MWRD, Forest Preserves partner in flood control study focused on southeast suburbs
The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District and Forest Preserves of Cook County are partnering in a flood relief study in the southeast suburbs that could bring a new reservoir.
The two agencies announced a 20-month study to assess the potential for the district and forest preserves coordinating and sharing costs for the planning, design, construction and maintenance of a Deer Creek-Third Creek Reservoir.
If feasible, the system would provide naturalized stormwater storage for flood-prone communities in Glenwood, Ford Heights, Lansing, Thornton, South Holland, Calumet City, Dolton and unincorporated areas.
The proposed project could cover nearly a square mile area along Deer Creek and Third Creek within the Little Calumet River Watershed near Glenwood and Ford Heights, where stormwater storage can help mitigate increasing flooding concerns, according to the MWRD and forest preserve district.
The reservoir would be located roughly near Cottage Grove Avenue between Glenwood Dyer Road and Lincoln Highway within the Deer Creek Watershed in Cook County, according to the MWRD, but many of the specifics will be researched during the study.
The district said the reservoir might not be a single water-holding structure but could include adjacent wetlands, creeks, ponds and lakes.
The MWRD said new rainfall data published by the Illinois State Water Survey in 2020 shows raised flood elevations along the Little Calumet River in South Holland, Dolton, Calumet City and Lansing.
Flood waters from Deer Creek and Third Creek flow into Thorn Creek before reaching the Little Calumet River.
Proposed channel improvements along Deer Creek would direct flood water into new flood storage areas adjacent to the creeks. The new stormwater conveyance and storage improvements would give the region more room to accommodate increasing stormwater demands, according to the MWRD and forest preserves district.
The land in the project could potentially be larger than one square mile, which would accommodate more than 500 million gallons of naturalized stormwater storage, according to the agencies.
In planning stormwater projects, the MWRD has said it looks at the increased frequency of major storm events in the Chicago area, including one-day and multiday storms that can overwhelm sewer systems in older communities.
In some suburbs, combined sewer systems carrying both sanitary and storm water lead to a combination of backups of sewage and rainwater.
As part of its Tunnel and Reservoir Plan, also referred to as Deep Tunnel, the MWRD built the Thornton Reservoir on the north side of Interstates 80/94 in South Holland. It was designed to divert both sanitary and stormwater flow from Chicago's South Side and south suburbs and has a capacity of just under 8 billion gallons.
In September 2022, the district completed work on the Thorn Creek overflow tunnel that diverts stormwater from the creek into the reservoir.
Along with the Thornton reservoir, the MWRD operates smaller reservoirs in Ford Heights, Hazel Crest, Lynwood, Markham and Tinley Park that have a combined capacity of just under 1 billion gallons and handle stormwater runoff from the Little Calumet River watershed.
The proposed Deer Creek-Third Creek Reservoir has already received grant funding assistance through the American Rescue Plan Act, the federal government's COVID-19 assistance program, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, according to the MWRD.
The committed budget for the 20-month feasibility study is $1.7 million, excluding construction costs, according to the district.
Between the resecue plan funds and FEMA, more than $1.2 million has been obligated to fund preliminary work, including the study, according to the district.
The MWRD will pay for the remaining costs of the feasibility study, but the overall estimated cost of the project has not yet been determined.
The MWRD and forest preserve district said they will continue to pursue additional funding assistance for future phases of the project.
Once the feasibility study concludes in the fall of 2026, community meetings will be held to gather public input, according to the MWRD and forest preserve district.
In June 2023, the MWRD authorized a negotiation of an intergovernmental agreement with the Forest Preserves to study flood control in the southeast suburbs.
The agreement, formalized this past May, calls for the MWRD to pay for concept planning and preliminary engineering design while the Forest Preserves will pay for acquiring property.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
31-05-2025
- Yahoo
Water survey analyzing flood risks in Central Illinois counties
CENTRAL ILLINOIS (WCIA) — The Illinois State Water Survey is continuing data development to analyze flood risks in six Central Illinois counties. The data development conducted by ISWS is for the Embarras River watershed, part of a multi-phase study to help local communities identify areas of high flood risk for flood mitigation planning. Flood risks are to be analyzed in the following counties: Clark Coles Crawford Cumberland Jasper Lawrence Illinois bill strengthening rules on gun storage heads to Pritzker's desk Results from this new study will be used to update the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Flood Insurance Rate Maps and Flood Insurance Studies report. This usually depicts floodplains, including the 1-percent-annual-chance (100-year) and 0.2-percent-annual-chance (500-year) flood hazard areas. ISWS is working on this project in conjunction with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources Office of Water Resources and FEMA. Additionally, the second phase will study the tributary streams within the Embarras River watershed; starting with data collection, this phase began this month and will finish during the summer. The data collection process will involve surveyors conducting detailed channel and bridge surveys of the tributaries in the following counties and their respective communities: Coles County and Cumberland County (Trilla) Clark County (Casey) Jasper County (Newton and Ste. Marie) Lawrence County (Bridgeport and Summer) IDPH issues health warning on wildfire smoke Additionally, some of the survey work will be done in the rural areas of each county. Residents are asked to be aware of the periodic presence of survey crews in the area, and the surveys will be completed as stream conditions and weather allow. In the spring of 2024, the first phase of this project started with data collection on the Embarras River's mainstem. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Yahoo
April breaks weather records
April broke records for being among the wettest on record in much of southern Illinois, which experienced an extreme rain event early in the month, according to Illinois State Climatologist Trent Ford at the Prairie Research Institute. Among active April weather was an exceptionally intense rainfall event in the first week of the month that produced 6-10 inches of rain in just four days. The event caused moderate to major flooding on many streams and rivers in southern Illinois, and dangerous flash flooding in several places. Figures in the full blog show the estimated return interval of these heavy rainfall totals according to the Illinois State Water Survey's Bulletin 75 report. While maximum rainfall totals at shorter intervals, like one or three hours, were intense, they were maximally a 10-year return interval. However, the longer duration totals had much higher return intervals, and the 72-hour totals represented truly extreme precipitation. Rainfall, exceeding 10 inches in some places, had estimated return intervals between 25 years and 500 years across most of southern Illinois. Last month was the wettest April on record in St. Louis and Fairfield, and was a top 10 wettest April on record for most places in southern Illinois. Total precipitation ranged from around 2.5 inches in northwest Illinois to more than 15 inches in southern Illinois. South of I-70 ran 4 to 8 inches wetter than normal in April. Most of central and northern Illinois were within 1 inch of normal precipitation last month, apart from areas around the Wisconsin border, which were closer to 2 inches drier than normal. No measurable snow fell in Illinois in April. Many stations in central and northern Illinois recorded trace snowfall in the first week of the month without accumulation. Overall, the preliminary statewide average total April precipitation was 5.46 inches, 1.22 inches above the 1991-2020 average and the 18th wettest on record statewide. The preliminary statewide average April temperature was 53.1 degrees, 0.5 degrees above the 1991-2020 average and tied for 42nd warmest on record going back to 1895. April average temperatures ranged from the high 40s in northern Illinois to the high 50s in southern Illinois, between 1 and 3 degrees above normal. The short periods of warmer weather in April broke seven daily high maximum temperature records and three daily high minimum temperature records. Meanwhile, the colder weather in the first half of the month broke three daily low maximum temperature records and two daily low minimum temperature records. Waukegan was the coldest place in the state last month with an average temperature of 46.7 degrees. Carbondale was the warmest with an average temperature of 60.3 degrees. Outlooks Even though April can give a taste of summer, May is the first month to offer real summer weather. May outlooks from the Climate Prediction Center show the highest chances of warmer and drier than normal weather this month in Illinois. The most recent summer (June through August) outlooks from the Climate Prediction Center show continued best chances for warmer than normal weather, with slightly higher chances of below normal precipitation in western Illinois. Data are provisional and may change slightly over time. For more information about monthly Illinois weather summaries, current conditions, and climate, visit the Illinois State Climatologist website.
Chicago Tribune
06-05-2025
- Chicago Tribune
As aquifer dries up, some Will County towns say they aren't worried about running out of water
As Joliet races to meet state requirements to be eligible to tap into Lake Michigan water before the region's groundwater is depleted, a handful of neighboring towns are holding off on making plans to identify alternative sources. About 35 miles southwest of Chicago, Joliet is at the epicenter of a regional water crisis where many suburbs will run out of water supplied by the Cambrian-Ordovician aquifer by 2030, according to estimations in a 2018 report by the Illinois State Water Survey. Construction of the Joliet pipeline is slated to start next month and is being funded by the Grand Prairie Water Commission, which includes Joliet and the towns of Channahon, Crest Hill, Minooka, Romeoville and Shorewood. Meanwhile, officials with Elwood, Lemont, Lockport, Manhattan and Morris say they believe even a depleting aquifer will be able to meet their water needs in the future. However, the challenge with these towns staying on the aquifer is the unpredictability and sensitivity of the deep aquifer, said Daniel Abrams, the principal investigator of the aquifer for the Illinois State Water Survey. 'Can they persist into the future? Yes,' Abrams said. 'Will it be a resource that can always meet their water needs? That will depend on how their future demands grow in the region.' In a geological phenomenon, the deep aquifer sits on the largest fault zone in the state making recharge from rainfall difficult even after communities switch to new water sources, Abrams said. 'The way to think of the deep aquifer is it's like it has a lid on it,' Abrams said. 'And so if you pour water on top of the lid, it's not going to go through that lid and reach the aquifer. It's a unique situation.' John Tyk, a superintendent for Manhattan's Public Works Department, said the towns that didn't join the commission make up only a fraction of the region's daily demand. 'We're a small community,' Tyk said, 'so we're not drawing nowhere near the amount of water that Joliet draws.' The Water Survey estimates the region draws 35 million to 38 million gallons per day, with Joliet using 14.5 million gallons. By 2030, Joliet is estimated to draw about 30 million gallons of water per day. The smaller communities said their towns' engineering consultants have evaluated their water levels and say they will be able to keep using the aquifer. 'Our evaluations show above average hydraulic properties for our wells for several decades,' said George Schafer, Lemont's village administrator, in an email to the Tribune. Officials from Lemont and Lockport said they have secured the Illinois Department of Natural Resources permits to access Lake Michigan water in the future. But they would still need to get approval from Joliet or another provider to tap into a pipeline to draw water. Meanwhile, officials from Elwood, Manhattan and Morris said their towns have not applied for an IDNR permit because of costs, location farther from the epicenter of the depleting aquifer or adequate water levels from recent inspections. Because Lockport relies mostly on the shallow part of the aquifer, City Administrator Ben Benson said the city does not envision a need to tap into Lake Michigan water anytime soon. Both Benson and Lemont's Schafer said their towns are keeping multiple options open including the Grand Prairie Water Commission. Elwood's village clerk, Julie Friebele, said the town has an agreement with Joliet for a water system connection for emergency purposes. While the design of the commission does not include specific rules about emergency connections with neighboring towns, some of the member towns have emergency pipeline connections between their local water system and some nonmember water systems, said Ann Grooms, an office manager of Joliet's Department of Public Utilities, in an email to the Tribune. Towns that want to join the commission and connect to Joliet's water in the future would be expected to 'bear an appropriate share of the total cost of the system including development and construction costs previously incurred,' Grooms said. 1 of Team members from Stantec, a sustainable engineering consulting firm and their contractor, SEECO Cosultants, take soil samples from a former cornfield, where Joliet hopes to build a water tower and pump station facility, in Joliet, March 14, 2025. (Audrey Richardson/Chicago Tribune) Even then, adding new towns would likely pose a challenge for the commission's water needs, especially with Minooka planning to build a data center that could need 3 million gallons of water a day. 'Moreover, the current design capacity for the Grand Prairie Water Commission system is set to meet only the declared maximum day demands of the existing Charter Members,' Grooms wrote. 'The system is not being designed to provide excess capacity for potential Additional Members.' In 2023, then-Joliet Mayor Bob O'Dekirk signed a landmark 100-year, $1 billion deal with Chicago's mayor at the time, Lori Lightfoot, to buy Lake Michigan water through Chicago. Now the town has launched a plan to accelerate the placement of 65 miles of pipelines from the South Side's Durkin Park to almost 388,000 residents in the suburbs, according to Joe Johnson, a project manager for the pipeline. Joliet must also reduce water leaks from its aging water mains and bring the loss rate down from its current 29% to 10% before the IDNR will allow it to use Lake Michigan water, said Will Jernigan, a chief operations officer for Cavanaugh Solutions, a sustainability consulting group working with Joliet. For now, the other town officials remain optimistic that water will stabilize with all the communities in the commission getting off the aquifer in five years. 'We're sustainable for now,' said Gerald Turrise, a water superintendent for Lemont. The deep sandstone aquifer receives little natural recharge, but these communities would be able to last longer because they are further from the cone of depression, or the visual bull's-eye on a map that shows the region's lowest groundwater level, according to Abrams. Joliet is situated over the deeper part of the aquifer, at about 1,000 feet, and the level of risk decreases for towns that are farther away from Joliet, he explained. But because the Illinois State Water Survey has not conducted risk assessments for these remaining communities, should they stay on the aquifer, concerns remain. These towns would rely on recovery, which encompasses a combination of released water from pressure built up underground and minimal infiltration from precipitation in the shallow part of the aquifer, Abrams said. Experts urge the remaining communities that plan to continue to use the aquifer to heed the region's 'cautionary tale.' Peter Annin, author of 'The Great Lakes Water Wars' and director of the Mary Griggs Burke Center for Freshwater Innovation at Northland College in Ashland, Wisconsin, believes Joliet has the worst groundwater quantity problem in the Great Lakes region — maybe even the country. 'They have been overpumping, overwithdrawing the groundwater there for decades,' Annin said. 'It's just a classic example of unsustainable water management.' But Joliet was not the only community at fault. They just happened to be at the center of the issue, Abrams said. Drawing from water level trends observed in Chicago's western suburbs during the 1980s and 1990s — after many communities moved away from the deep aquifer, an underground layer that is made up of permeable bedrock — Abrams predicts that wells in the southwest suburbs could recover between 50 and 150 feet of water once Joliet switches to Lake Michigan. While water supply is hard to quantify, this estimation overall does not amount to a lot of water for these remaining towns because it is returning a 'small percentage of total predevelopment drawdown,' he said. Additionally, noticeable changes may take time, with the most immediate increases expected in about a decade. But the possibility of an unforeseeable surge in demand — much like what happened in Joliet and its surrounding towns decades ago and what might happen in Minooka — creates uncertainty about how much the aquifer can withstand in the future because it could likely offset the recovered water. 'It doesn't always take a lot to get water levels swinging back down,' Abrams said. Any withdrawal is going to be inherently unsustainable, said Dan Hadley, a hydrogeologist working with Abrams at the Illinois State Water Survey. 'When a community says, 'Our withdrawals will be sustainable,' it may not be truly sustainable in a sense that you could withdraw water from that aquifer indefinitely,' Hadley said. Generally, a community should ensure sustainable pumping by establishing a threshold where the rate of removal does not exceed the rate of replenishment. But looking at the history of growing demands for industrial water use as a precedent, Abrams said community leaders must strictly define what 'sustainability' means to them. 'Does that mean you are not going to use more water than enters the aquifer? Or does it mean in 30 years from now, are you willing to deplete your entire resource, or do you want to make sure to retain water levels above a certain point?' Abrams said. 'You can't evaluate your future demands if you don't know what metric you're comfortable working with.'
