Watershed Restoration Plans Need Your Help!

We all enjoy the freedom and sense of security that comes along with our access to clean water.  Our reliance on it is perhaps more evident in the summer than at any other season.  From watering our gardens, swimming, fishing, and boating, to just taking a cool shower on a hot day, we are accustomed to having clean water at our fingertips.

Now is the time for you to take part in ensuring your local stream is healthy and clean.  Throughout Illinois, help is needed from citizens like you to develop watershed restoration plans that protect our water resources and their usability.

Known as Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) plans, TMDLs are watershed specific restoration plans that are developed for waters that are considered to be "impaired" (polluted) by Illinois EPA.  For each plan, the agency must calculate maximum amounts of point source and non- point source pollution that a waterbody can receive without compromising current water quality standards.  Once calculations have been made, the plan tries to identify how these sources of pollution can be abated to meet calculated limits.  The Illinois EPA is currently developing TMDLs for 22 of Illinois' impaired watersheds.

Unfortunately, TMDLs are only effective if they are actually implemented.  Much of the effectiveness depends upon citizen involvement and public input, since local communities are the best eyes and ears for their local stream.

How can you help?

1. Read through our tip sheet on analyzing a TDML report.
2. Find out if a TMDL plan is being developed or has been developed in your watershed, and attend public hearings held by IEPA.  Press for measures to be adopted that will reduce discharges of known pollutants.
3. Find impaired streams located near your neighborhood and learn about possible sources of pollution.
4. Pay attention to what is happening in your local streams.  Algae, turbidity, and unusual amounts of dead fish are telltale signs of a polluted water body. (Nutrient loadings and sedimentation of streams are often the culprit.) Jane this last sentence will not mean anything to most people nor is it an action item.

Many hands lighten the load.  Participate in the TMDL planning process and encourage friends to so as well.  The success of this program is highly reliant on the participation of citizens who use their local waters to fish, swim, hike, or paddle their canoe.