Water quality is a critical component of water for all of its uses. My goal for this blog is to provide a forum for discussing water quality issues, primarily as they apply to Illinois.

Illinois uses more than 20 billion gallons of water per day. Most (95%) comes from surface sources, primarily Lake Michigan and various reservoirs made by damming rivers. The rest is groundwater. Most of the water (~85%) is used for cooling thermoelectric power plants. Drinking water is the next largest use (~10%), and the remainder is used in industry and agriculture (irrigation and livestock). Here’s a summary. 

Water quality is a critical component of water for all of these uses. Obviously we need good quality water for drinking, but water with poor quality can be unsuitable for irrigation or thermal cooling.

Illinois is a water-rich state, with plentiful rainfall, access to one of the Great Lakes, numerous large and small rivers and streams, and abundant aquifers in some parts of the state. For many of these water resources, the water quality is good, but Illinois also has some polluted water bodies, and pollution trends in some of these water resources are of concern.

My name is Walt Kelly, and I have been studying a number of different water quality issues at the Illinois State Water Survey since 1992. Most of my work has been for groundwater, but I’ve also done studies in rivers and streams of Illinois as well. My goal for this blog is to provide a forum for discussing water quality issues, primarily as they apply to Illinois. I plan to highlight some of the work that has been done at the Illinois State Water Survey, as well as other agencies and entities. I hope to make postings approximately weekly, and solicit your comments and questions on the topics discussed. And of course I hope to become rich and famous.