Elgin mayor given Illinois Water Environment Association award

Elgin Mayor Dave Kaptain has been named winner of the 2024 Public Official Award from the Illinois Water Environment Association.

The award is presented to a public official who has made a significant contribution in the areas of clean water legislation, public policy, government service or another area of public prominence that result in improvements to the environment.

Kaptain was nominated for his efforts to improve and protect local waterways in the Fox River Valley. He will be honored at an IWEA banquet in East Peoria on March 18.

“It takes a community to help improve and protect our waterways, so I want to share this honor with the many people I have worked with who were and are a part of those efforts,” Kaptain said in a news release.

A retired chief chemist with the Fox River Water Reclamation District, Kaptain was a founding member of the Fox River Study Group, which helped develop the Fox River Implementation Plan to address water quality impairments throughout the river’s watershed.

He currently serves on the board and as chairperson of the Northwest Water Planning Alliance, which includes more than 80 communities collaboratively planning to ensure a sustainable water supply for the future.

Kaptain was pivotal in gaining Trout Park River's Edge designation as an Illinois Land and Water Reserve by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.

He and the Elgin City Council also approved four city waterway sites to become part of the Fabulous Fox River Water Trail, a 202-mile route that starts at Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin and ends where the Fox River joins the Illinois River in Ottawa, Illinois. The trail was recently designated as part of the National Water Trails System by the U.S. Department of the Interior.