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GROUNDWATER IN ILLINOIS
A forum for discussing groundwater issues in Illinois by scientists at the Illinois State Water Survey.
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  • Climate Change and Water Quality

    Jul 20, 2016 4:00 pm

    Groundwater is generally shielded from variations in the weather, and changes in groundwater quality due to changes in temperature and precipitation are likely to be muted and subtle. However, surface water quality is a different story, and a recent article in Nature discusses this.

  • Plastic Debris and Human Health

    Jul 5, 2016 9:45 am

    A recent viewpoint in the journal Environmental Science & Technology suggests that persistent plastic debris may be an important health issue for humans. We’ve known for a long time that aquatic animals are vulnerable to plastic pollution.

  • Video on Flint Water Crisis

    Mar 11, 2016 3:15 pm

    The New Yorker tweeted a 5-minute video of residents of Flint talking about how the water crisis has affected them, and how they’ve lost trust in the system. One of the worst things about the whole debacle is the loss of trust in this basic service of delivering healthy water to our citizens.

  • High Levels of Lead in Flint Drinking Water

    Jan 13, 2016 4:00 pm

    About 25% of Flint households have lead levels above the federal standard of 15 parts per billion (ppb), with one home having an almost unbelievable level of 13,200 ppb. But why are there are such high levels of lead in Flint’s water?

  • Microplastics in Table Salt

    Nov 19, 2015 2:30 pm

    These are plastic debris smaller than 5 mm in diameter, and there’s a lot of it in the ocean. Now comes a report that we may be ingesting microplastics through sea salt.

  • Sunscreen and Coral Reefs

    Oct 22, 2015 9:45 am

    A few years ago, a group of researchers working in the Caribbean were talking to a local vendor who was waiting for the day’s invasion of tourists. He told them that the tourists would leave behind “a long oil slick” in the water. The scientists were intrigued, and wondered how this “oil slick” would affect the local coral reefs.

  • Teflon Regulations

    Sep 4, 2015 3:45 pm

    My brilliant daughter (I have two) recently sent me a link to a disturbing story. It has to do with surface water and groundwater contamination in Parkersburg, WV, by DuPont. The offending compound was perfluorooctanoic acid, also known as C8, which is a key ingredient in Teflon and many other products.

  • Neonicotinoids in U.S. Streams

    Aug 20, 2015 4:15 pm

    As you might guess from their name, neonicotinoids are chemically similar to nicotine and, sort of ironically, are especially effective against sucking insects. The most controversial aspect of neonicotinoids is that they have been linked to honey bee colony collapse.

  • Shade Balls

    Aug 13, 2015 4:15 pm

    I think this a really cool low-tech idea: black plastic balls added to Los Angeles’s largest reservoir to prevent algal blooms and limit evaporation.

  • Acid Mine Waste Disaster

    Aug 11, 2015 3:30 pm

    You may have seen this story about the release of an estimated 3 million gallons of toxic water into a river in southwestern Colorado last week. The images were pretty awful, showing the Animas River a sickening yellow-orange color. A USEPA team was working on diverting flow from an abandoned gold mine when they accidently poked a hole in a dam and caused the release. The result was contamination by a classic case of acid mine drainage.