Group Hopes to Encourage Water Conservation

Between 2005 and 2050, the western Lake Michigan area is expected to see a 38 percent growth in population. And if water consumption continues at the same rate it has been, many communities will find their groundwater supplies depleted.

That’s why representatives from five counties have banded together to put forth a plan for water conservation. Formed in September 2010, they call themselves the Northwest Water Planning Alliance, and as Engineer Pete Wallers explained to trustees Tuesday night, the group hopes to soon have a water conservation ordinance that all 80-some communities they represent can adopt.

Wallers, who serves as an advisor to the group, said water depletion is not an immediate problem. But conservation is needed now to keep up with projected demand.

Those projections come from a study compiled by the Alliance, which Wallers said deserves attention for being a stakeholder-driven project. He said water suppliers have taken its message to heart.

The Alliance brings together five councils of government from five counties: Kane, Kendall, DeKalb, McHenry and Lake. All told, the area includes about 1.3 million people.

There are three sources of water for communities in this area: ground water, meaning wells drilled down to deep aquifers; surface water, meaning rivers like the Fox; and Lake Michigan. Wallers said Lake Michigan water was pumped to the suburbs starting in the 1980s, as a “silver bullet” to keep water levels from depleting.

The communities represented by the Alliance all use groundwater or surface water, Wallers said, and the group would be working on ways to reduce the strain on deep aquifers, such as the one Montgomery pumps from. Wallers said a big component of the Alliance’s work would be educational.

The Alliance is managed by 14 elected officials from the five counties - the five county board chairmen, and nine municipal leaders, including Montgomery Village President Marilyn Michelini. All members work on a volunteer basis, Wallers said.

“This is a marathon, not a sprint,” he said to trustees. “You’ll be hearing about water planning for a while.”