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Formed in 2006, The East Central Illinois Regional Water Supply Planning Committee (RWSPC) released its final report in June, 2009, containing recommendations for future regional water supply planners. The group will discuss its report, “A Plan to Improve the Planning and Management of Water Supplies in East-Central Illinois” Wednesday, September 30, from 7-9 pm at Parkland College’s Tony Noel Center.

This report is not the end, but the beginning, of water supply planning efforts in East Central Illinois. The next steps will involve choosing specific measures, such as conservation practices, that will reduce water use. Public participation and oversight during the subsequent water supply planning process is critical. Future choices regarding water conservation must include protecting the functions and benefits of regional rivers and streams, as well as the the Mahomet Aquifer.

The Mahomet Aquifer is the primary source of water for most of the residents in East Central Illinois. It stretches over an area containing 15 counties, from Vermilion County in the east, to Cass County in the west; however, there are already signs that heavy withdrawals from the Mohamet Aquifer are having an impact on the aquifer’s normal distribution, or hydrology. Water levels below the Champaign-Urbana area are dropping; aquifer waters that normally flow west, are now being pulled towards the east, affecting the aquifer’s hydrology below western counties. Restoring normal water levels is not a quick fix, but relies on natural processes that take hundreds of years.

To read the RWSPC’s report, and for more information on the committee, go to www.rwspc.org/index.html.

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