URBANA--Why would a population settled along Lake Michigan, one of the largest fresh-water resources, have concerns about water shortages? At this point, the lake is being used to its legal limit and many western suburbs, which depend on deep aquifers for drinking water, are using them faster than they are being replenished.

"The recently signed Wingspread Tri-State Regional Accord offers an opportunity to manage a potential water shortage with comprehensive and consistent planning, said Martin Jaffe, Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant coastal business and environment specialist. "Careful management of water resources will be critical in the near future."

The accord is an historic agreement in which four planning agencies along Lake Michigan in Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana have committed to work together as they consider major environmental and economic issues. Included in this agreement are the Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission, the Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission, the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission and the Chicago Area Transportation Study.

"Natural resources don't respect political boundaries," said Jaffe, who is an associate professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and a researcher with the Great Cities Institute. "With this agreement, planning can take place on a watershed or aquifer basis."

Both Milwaukee and Chicago are facing similar water supply constraints in their western suburbs as the metro regions continue to grow.

"The deep aquifer system is being overtaxed, leaving shallow aquifers as the region's primary future water supply resource," said Jaffe. "But, although the Illinois State Water Survey estimates that both the current and projected use of the region's shallow aquifers are much less than their sustainable yields, shallow aquifers are more susceptible to depletion and pollution than the region's larger deep aquifer system. As a result, they will need to be managed much more comprehensively," he added.

"Cooperation between the three states through the accord can facilitate better water resource management strategies to keep deep aquifer use at or below its sustainable yield, and to promote best management practices to reduce groundwater pollution risks," said Jaffe.

"The tri-state accord began as an effort to encourage these planning agencies to begin talking to one another," said Brian Miller, Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant associate director, "and to include environmental concerns in their considerations. This accord can be a model for intergovernmental cooperation."

Initial meetings of the four planning agencies were funded by Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant, a research, education and outreach program administered through the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Purdue University in Indiana. "Sea Grant is still taking the lead on addressing critical regional issues by proposing collaborative workshops with the planning agencies to define shoreline concerns in the southern Lake Michigan basin," added Jaffe.

Irene Miles
Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant
376 NSRC
1101 W. Peabody Dr.
Urbana, Il 61801
Phone:  217-333-8055
Fax:  217-333-8046
miles@illinois.edu