Water usage models show shortages by 2030

With last month's floods fresh on their minds, some 300 engineers and elected officials gathered Thursday to discuss the importance of cooperative planning on water-related issues.

Implementing a sustainable water supply was the topic of Kane County's third annual "priority places" planning workshop, held at the Q Center conference facility in St. Charles.

Rapid population growth in the county has depleted local water resources. Without a strategy to identify, manage and maintain the water supply, Kane County Board Chairman Karen McConnaughay told workshop attendees demand could exceed supply by the year 2030.

"The trick is managing supply and demand … and planning for growth and drought," said Jack Wittman, president of Wittman Hydro Planning, the Bloomington, Ind., consultant hired by the county to advise local leaders how to work together on water management issues.

The firm will base its recommendations on the results of a five-year $1.8 million geologic and hydrologic computer model of the county undertaken by the Illinois State Water Survey and the Illinois State Geological Survey. A full report on the model is due to be released at the end of the year.

On Thursday workshop attendees got their first look at the model itself, which can predict future water usage in Kane County based on a series of scenarios. The model considers historic rainfall data and usage patterns and takes into account how water travels through underground geologic formations to model the effects of water usage on both the shallow and deep aquifer systems.

George Roadcap, an associate hydrogeologist with the Illinois State Water Survey, used the model to demonstrate how three wells in Algonquin would be affected if water usage in that area doubled by the year 2050. One of the wells would go dry by the year 2035, the model showed.

But that doesn't need to happen, Roadcap said, and with continued monitoring, it won't. That scenario can be avoided with proper planning. Officials can encourage conservation. They also can pump less water from the well that's predicted to go dry and more water from a deeper well, or drill a fourth well.

No matter what they do, officials need to realize that their decisions about water management affect residents and business owners not just in their town but across the region, workshop presenters said many times.

"We don't live in a microcosm," said William Dey, geohydrologist with the Illinois State Geological Survey.

To that end, county officials have proposed an amendment to state law that would establish a regional water supply management planning committee -- consisting of county and municipal officials -- and abolish municipally controlled water authorities.