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State announces $73 million shoreline erosion project to Illinois Beach State Park

In an effort to protect the last stretch of natural shoreline in the state, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources will spend $73 million to combat erosion at Illinois Beach State Park, the department announced last month.

The park has been hit hard in recent years by intense winter storms and record high lake levels, with parts of the coastline having receded by as much as 100 feet in one year.

"From 2012 to 2020, a period coinciding with record-low to near record-high lake levels, the north unit of the park alone lost an estimated 670,570 cubic yards of sediment," Robin Mattheus, a coastal geologist with the Illinois State Geological Survey, said in a statement. "To help put that number into perspective, that's enough to fill about 50,000 dump trucks."

To combat further loss of roads, dune ecosystems and beaches, the department will construct a series of islands and underwater reefs beginning this spring.

Fueled by funding secured through the Rebuild Illinois capital plan - which is the $45 billion infrastructure bill signed into law in June 2019 - the $73 million endeavor is the largest capital project in the history of the state Department of Natural Resources.

The protective structures are the result of more than a year of computer simulations and physical modeling - including a scale model that was built in a hydraulic laboratory larger than a soccer field.

After testing more than 100 variations, consultants settled on a design that looks to minimize wave damage, redirect nearshore currents and provide new homes to both aquatic and avian species that live along the shoreline.

The effort will target critical ecological habitats like the 21st Street wetlands and the North Dunes Nature Preserve Trails, alongside vulnerable infrastructure like the Lake County intake plant.

Officials added that protecting the lake views and natural character of the state park were a priority, and visitors will not see much of the primarily underwater structures.

"The Illinois Beach State Park plays a major role in our community's unique connection with the environment," state Rep. Joyce Mason, a Gurnee Democrat, said in a prepared statement. "In recent years, we have seen the shoreline recede, rising water levels curtail beach access and habitats become unusable for native species. Essential financial support like this will help us to sustain the last remaining natural shoreline in Illinois."

The spring project will join an ongoing erosion protection initiative already underway at the park: Offshore ridges, designed to lessen storm wave impact, were completed in the summer of 2021.

The 750-foot-long stone formations are part of a pilot program focused on developing lower impact, less expensive measures that can protect shoreline. The ridges were built of more than 10,000 tons of stone and placed about 500 feet offshore.

Over the next five years, researchers from the Illinois State Geological Survey and the Illinois Natural History Survey will monitor the installments to measure the effect the ridges have on the landscape, lakebed and habitat usage.

The study is supported by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency, and is intended to help inform coastal protection in other areas across the Great Lakes. Overall, the project is estimated to cost a total of $1.5 million.

"I am grateful for the hard work and dedication that the IDNR has put into creating new solutions for the challenges that the Illinois Beach State Park is facing," Rep. Mason said. "Natural, effective and scientific solutions to the damaging effects of climate change will help to restore this natural coastline, and help to keep Illinois Beach State Park open and available for years to come."

• Jenny Whidden is a Report For America corps member covering climate change and the environment for the Daily Herald. To help support her work with a tax-deductible donation, see dailyherald.com/rfa.

COURTESY OF THE ILLINOIS DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCESA rendering displays the three existing rubble ridges installed at the Illinois Beach State Park in the summer of 2021. The formations are part of a pilot program focused on developing lower impact, less expensive measures that can protect shoreline.
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