Municipal officials from across the state attended a panel session on water sustainability hosted by the Prairie Research Institute and Champaign County community leaders last week.
The session, which focused on protecting Illinois’ water resources was featured at the Illinois Municipal League Conference, an annual professional development event that draws over 2,000 municipal officials.
Champaign Mayor and IML President Deborah Frank Feinen led the well-attended panel discussion. Panelists included Illinois State Water Survey hydrogeologist Daniel Hadley, Urbana Mayor Diane Marlin, and Champaign County Chamber of Commerce President Laura Weis.
With the support of state and federal legislators, Champaign County, Champaign County First, and other advocates have worked to secure funding for mapping the Mahomet Aquifer, the primary source of drinking water for over half a million people in central Illinois. The aquifer spans more than 100 municipalities across 15 counties, providing an estimated 220 million gallons of water per day for communities, rural wells, agriculture, and industry.
PRI's mapping and modeling efforts offer these communities a precise understanding of the aquifer's boundaries and provide critical data for future planning and protection.
“The panel on protecting our aquifers helped us educate municipal leaders, encourage them to get involved, and share information about the resources available from PRI,” Marlin said.
Advocacy for the Mahomet Aquifer has been ongoing for a decade. In 2015, the EPA designated the aquifer a sole source aquifer, and in 2017, the Illinois General Assembly created a task force to address its protection. The task force recommended mapping and advanced groundwater modeling to safeguard the aquifer for future generations.
In 2022, the Champaign County Board allocated $500,000 from American Rescue Plan Act funds through a collaboration between Champaign County First, the Champaign County Chamber of Commerce, and PRI to map the aquifer in Champaign County. In 2024, additional advocacy efforts, supported by Sen. Dick Durbin, secured $1 million in federal funding to extend aquifer mapping to Iroquois, Vermilion, and Ford counties.
PRI uses helicopter-based time-domain electromagnetics (HTEM) to create detailed 3D maps of the Earth’s subsurface, offering an unprecedented level of detail about the aquifer and enhancing water resource planning. The maps and models provide cost-efficient data with long-term utility.
Since HTEM mapping began in 2022, more than 5,500 linear miles of HTEM data have been collected across Champaign, Ford, Iroquois, Livingston, and Vermilion counties.
About IML
IML represents all 1,294 cities, villages, and towns in Illinois. The League was founded in 1913 and has worked continuously for the benefit of municipalities, promoting competence and integrity in the administration of municipal government.
About PRI
The Prairie Research Institute conducts transformative research that provides innovative, at-scale solutions for a society undergoing climate and energy transitions. PRI unites scientific expertise in geology, ecology and biodiversity, archaeology, hydrology and water, weather and climate, pollution prevention, and sustainable energy to benefit the people, economy, and environment of Illinois, the nation, and the world.
PRI comprises five state scientific surveys: the Illinois Natural History Survey, Illinois State Archaeological Survey, Illinois State Geological Survey, Illinois State Water Survey, and Illinois Sustainable Technology Center.
