ILLINOIS TOOK a step towards statewide resource use planning early this year when the state's Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA) began a $4 million, two-year program to develop a statewide clean water plan. The plan must set water quality standards and identify municipal and industrial waste treatment needs in the state over the next 20 years as well as a means for financing them.
Planmakers are also tackling the difficult — and not yet fully understood — problem of "nonpoint" water pollution. Unlike sewage and industrial effluents, which can be traced to a point of origin and treated before being released into streams, nonpoint pollution comes from a variety of sources covering a wide land area. Runoff from farmlands contains sediment, nitrogen, phosphorus, ammonia and organic wastes. Urban runoff carries litter and pollutants such as heavy metals, sulfuric acid, sediment and asbestos. In mining areas, minerals from slag heaps combine with rain to form sulfuric acid. All of these pollutants end up in the state's streams and rivers, causing extensive violation of water quality standards even after required levels of treatment are applied to discharges from sewage and industrial plants. Measures to control nonpoint pollution could include land management, economic incentives, education and regulation.
Mandated by the 1972 amendments to the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, which calls for measures that would make the nation's waters clean enough for swimming and fishing by 1983, the IEPA plan is being developed by statewide resource planning groups and citizens advisory committees. The planning program is funded by $2.2 million from the federal EPA and $1.8 million from the IEPA and the Institute for Environmental Quality. The completed plan must be given to the governor and to the federal EPA by October 1978.
The IEPA has created the following task forces and committees to work on the plan.
Statewide policy advisory committee. Consisting of heads of state agencies, local government representatives and special interest groups. To develop proposals of regional groups into state policy alternatives; find ways to allocate responsibility for water quality between state and local government and to resolve conflicts between public and private interests over waterways, aquifers and adjacent lands.
Technical advisory committee. Composed of engineers, scientists and regional planners. To review IEPA recommendations for accuracy and feasibility.
Statewide agricultural task force. Consisting of members of the agricultural community and citizens groups. To coordinate studies of pollution from farmlands and come up with strategies to control it. A major source of new information is a State Water Survey study now in progress on Lakes Vermilion, Shelbyville, Carlyle, Taylorville and Springfield. Pinpointing the sources of sediment in these lakes is of interest on another score — the worrisome loss of storage capacity in Illinois reservoirs, which contributed to water shortages this year.
Urban stormwater task force. Consisting of
representatives from state and local government,
sanitary districts, regional planning commissions
and special interest groups. To analyze pollution
from stormwater and snowmelt in Bloomington-Normal, Champaign-Urbana, Decatur, Kankakee. Quad Cities, Peoria, Rockford and Springfield. Steering committees assess storm sewer and
runoff problems and devise control methods.
Proposed solutions could be applied to other parts of the state.
At present, sanitary and storm sewers in most
larger cities are combined so that some treatment
of stormwater takes place. But during heavy rains,
much of the polluted runoff flows directly into
local streams, and in many small towns there is no
treatment of stormwater at all. Research indicates
that a medium-sized city discharges some 100,000
to 250,000 Ibs. of lead and anywhere from 6,000
to 30,000 Ibs. of mercury each year in runoff from storms. Urban runoff in metropolitan Chicago and East
St. Louis and acid mine runoff in parts of
Southern Illinois are being tackled by three
planning commissions with separate funding: Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission,
Chicago; Southwestern Illinois Metropolitan and
Regional Planning Commission, East St. Louis; the Greater Egypt and Southeastern Illinois
Regional Commissions, Southern Illinois. Aiming at a plan that is workable and understood at the local level, the IEPA is appointing
coordinators for regional citizens advisory
committees in each of the six water quality
planning regions of the state: Northwest, Northeast Central, West Central, Southwest Central,
Southeast Central and Southern. These committees are composed of citizens, public officials and
special interest groups. There will be statewide
public hearings on the plan once it is completed,
but citizens are being encouraged to work with
their regional advisory committees during the
development stage when decisions are being made
on what proposals best meet local needs. IEPA's
public participation supervisor for the program is
Chuck Kincaid (IEPA, Water Pollution Control
Division, 2200 Churchill Road, Springfield, Ill.,
62706; phone: 217 / 782-3362).
May 1977 / Illinois Issues / 17