Water Survey staff recently received funding to pursue the following projects:
- Additional water supply investigations for the city of Joliet (PI Zhenxing Zhang): ISWS will conduct work in support of water supply planning for the City of Joliet, providing scientific analyses for use by a consulting project team. City of Joliet
- Assessing the At-Risk Groundwater Supplies in Will County (PI Daniel Abrams): Due to a long history of water demands and contamination in Will County, groundwater resources are at risk. Population growth in Will County will shorten the remaining usable life of these groundwater resources, which is estimated to be at the year 2030 in the Joliet region. ISWS will provide indispensable insight into the future of water supply in the region given different planning scenarios, with this study emphasizing the deep Cambrian-Ordovician Sandstone Aquifer system and the shallow Silurian Dolomite aquifer. The goal is to assist the region in maintaining viable groundwater supplies out to 2030, when we anticipate most current users will have switched off the deep aquifers to more sustainable surface water sources. Lower Des Plaines Watershed Group
- Critical Zone Observatory for Intensively Managed Landscapes (PI Laura Keefer): The Midwest is one of the most intensively managed landscapes in the world, a type of landscape that has yet to be examined within the context of a CZO. The goals of this project are to establish a CZO for quantifying the fluxes and transformations, as well as interactions, thresholds, and dynamic feedbacks of water, nutrients, and sediment in IMLs and to characterize how rapid land-use changes have altered the vulnerability and resilience of these systems. The observatory consists of a network of sites in the Upper Sangamon River Basin in Illinois, which is operated and maintained by ISWS in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Illinois, University of Iowa, University of Tennessee, Northwestern University, Purdue University, and Indiana University. National Science Foundation
- Dewatering Well Assessment for Highway Drainage System at Five Sites in the East St. Louis Area, Illinois, FY20 (PI Tyler Pierson): In this continuation of a long-standing collaboration with IDOT, ISWS will monitor the chemical treatment work of IDOT's well rehabilitation contractor and evaluate the chemical treatment/rehabilitation procedures and their effectiveness on approximately 12 of IDOT’s large-capacity interstate roadway dewatering wells. This project also continues groundwater-level observation for IDOT’s roadway dewatering system. Illinois Department of Transportation
- Expanding Heat Index and Wind Chill maps to Contiguous U.S. (PI David Kristovich): The most dangerous heat and cold waves include atmospheric factors beyond just extreme temperatures. Humidity decreases the cooling effect of sweat by decreasing evaporation from the skin. Wind rapidly increases the heat loss from our bodies. The Heat Index and Wind Chill factor are designed to better estimate how people are impacted by combined weather factors. The Midwestern Regional Climate Center (MRCC) will expand its popular Midwestern Heat Index / Wind Chill climate maps to encompass the entire 48 contiguous U.S. states. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
- FY2019 Illinois Risk MAP Projects and LOMR Partnership (PI Sally McConkey): The Coordinated Hazard Assessment and Mitigation Program (CHAMP) will prepare Flood Insurance Rate Maps and map revisions. Federal Emergency Management Agency
- National Mesonet Program (PI Jennie Atkins): This continues the Water Survey’s participation in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s national weather monitoring network or mesonet. The mesonet provides NOAA with reliable, timely data for monitoring and predicting weather phenomena. The Water Survey’s 19 Illinois Climate Network stations have provided weather and soil data to the project since May 2010. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
- Quarterly Monitoring of the Vermilion River near Pontiac, Illinois (PI Kip Stevenson): This ongoing project monitors water quality on the Vermilion River. The Pontiac Wastewater Treatment Operation (POTW), which receives leachate collected from the Livingston County Landfill, discharges to the Vermilion River near Pontiac. Area residents want to determine whether this mixed wastewater stream is adequately treated within the POTW to avoid discharge of contaminants to the Vermilion River. Livingston County Environmental Association
- Temperature Inversion Tool and Data Web Interface (PI Debra Jacobson): Leveraging existing operational databases, the Midwestern Regional Climate Center (MRCC) will develop an inversion data resource that will enable users to access near real-time and historical inversion monitoring data from across the Midwest. MRCC will develop an online interface for users to view real-time and historical inversion occurrence, intensity, and duration spatially and for specific observation locations. Agricultural Research Service
