While the City of Chicago and many of its surrounding communities have access to water from Lake Michigan, the rest of Northeast Illinois relies primarily on groundwater aquifers for all its drinking water. These groundwater aquifers provide a wide range of opportunities for drinking water…as well as a variety of challenges. Tune in as we talk to Scott Kuykendall, McHenry County Water Resource Specialist, about our water resources. You'll learn all about Illinois geology, its aquifers, and what communities are doing to help protect our water supply. For additional information and graphics, check out Scott's blog!
Resources to learn more:
- ILWater – Illinois State Geological Survey interactive map of water well locations and information
- McHenry County Water Resources division
- Boone County Helicopter 3-D Geologic Mapping news story
Questions? We'd love to hear from you!
Abigail Garofalo aeg9@illinois.edu, Erin Garrett emedvecz@illinois.edu, Amy Lefringhouse heberlei@illinois.edu
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Erin Garrett (00:06):
Welcome to another episode of the Everyday
Environment podcast where weexplore the environment we see
every day. I'm your host, ErinGarrett.
Amy Lefringhouse (00:14):
And I'm your cohost, Amy Lefringhouse.
Erin Garrett (00:17):
And today, we are here with Scott Kuykendall, who
is the water resourcesspecialist for McHenry County.
Welcome, Scott.
Scott Kuykendall (00:26):
Hello.
Erin Garrett (00:27):
Happy to have you. Excited to chat with you today
on the pod. But before we getstarted, can you tell us a
little bit about yourself andwhat you do in your role for
McHenry County?
Scott Kuykendall (00:39):
Yeah. I'm the water resources specialist for
the McHenry County Department ofPlanning and Development. So my
role with the county is I helpoversee the county's scientific
research in the water resources,and we've done more to study our
water in McHenry County than anyany other county in the state,
and that's why I accepted theposition when it opened up. I
also help develop public policyto protect our our water, and
(01:01):
then I do lots of publiceducation and outreach, which I
find extremely gratifying.
Amy Lefringhouse (01:05):
For our listeners, Scott, tell us where
McHenry County is.
Scott Kuykendall (01:09):
Okay. Yeah. So we're in the Northeast corner of
the of the of the state, righton the border of Wisconsin. So
Lake Geneva, Wisconsin is justto our north, and we're about
sixty five sixty five milesNorthwest of Chicago.
Erin Garrett (01:22):
That's great. And for our longtime listeners, you
know that I'm in SouthernIllinois, but I grew up in
McHenry County, so I'm excitedto be chatting with Scott today
because I'm talking about home,but hopefully we'll have some,
you know, relevant informationfor all of our stakeholders
listening in today, sodefinitely don't click skip
right now because you heardwe're not talking about your
(01:42):
county. Definitely lots of greatinformation that we're going to
be chatting about, so let's jumpright in and you know start.
We're going be talking a littlebit about the water resources
that we have, but kind of ourdrinking water today, right
Scott? So when we
Scott Kuykendall (01:57):
That's a big focus of what I do. So in
McHenry County, we're a %reliant on groundwater. And so
our water source is, you know, avery specific type of water. And
so we need to protect therecharge areas to the the those
water resources. And most peopledon't understand where their
water comes from, so that's whypublic education and outreach is
(02:20):
so important.
Amy Lefringhouse (02:21):
So tell us a little bit more about that
sourcing of the drinking waterin Northeastern Illinois. So go
into a little bit more detailabout that. You mentioned
groundwater. So I know there's Imean, we say groundwater. Oh,
yeah.
It's water beneath our feet.Right? But go into, like,
there's a lot of complex, youknow, things that are happening
(02:44):
under our feet. Right? And sojust tell us a little bit more
about where our drinking watercomes from in Northeastern
Illinois.
Scott Kuykendall (02:52):
Yeah. It's really a pretty fascinating
subject. So, yeah, when peoplethink of Northeastern Illinois,
they immediately think of LakeMichigan. And so a lot of
Northeastern Illinois does gettheir water from Lake Michigan,
and it's a great source ofwater. But it is isolated to the
Chicagoland area and the collarcommunities around Chicago.
(03:13):
And many of those communities upuntil the eighties were also on
groundwater, But our communitiesoutside of the Chicago collar
county communities are allreliant on groundwater or river
water for their drinking water.And when we talk about
groundwater, it's not just ahomogenous or a single layer of
of groundwater that is beingdrawn from. There are lots of
(03:37):
different sources of groundwaterand different types of
materials. So when we talk aboutgroundwater, it's soil or rock
underground that is able to holdwater and provide that water for
drinking water purposes. And inNortheastern Illinois, we have
our upper most layers a layer ofsand and gravel that was
deposited as the glaciers cameand retreated.
(03:58):
So this was the last period ofglaciation. And so our surface
geology in this area is onlyabout 12,000 years old. I just
came back from New Mexico wheresurface geology was over a
billion years old. So Yeah. Avery different type of geology
in our area.
But that sand and gravel ispermeable. So when it rains or
(04:21):
snow melts, water is able topercolate down through the sand
and gravel, fill the pore spacesbetween the sand and gravel
particles and create a watertable that we're able then to
drill down into and pull waterout. And so a well is, you know,
basically like the straw that weput down into the ground to pull
water out. And we talk about thesand and gravel layer. It's not
(04:42):
just a single layer of sand andgravel.
You've got layers of sand andgravel intermixed with layers of
clay, which is not permeable.And so, you know, we have to
know where the layers of sandand gravel are in order to
access our drinking water. Butthe great thing about the sand
and gravel aquifers is that theyare perfectly renewable as long
(05:05):
as we don't pave over everythingor pollute the aquifers. Every
time it rains or snow melts,that water is getting recharged
locally. We have control overthat.
So if as long as we take care ofour aquifers, it really is a
renewable resource. In manyparts of the country that rely
on groundwater, when they pullwater out of the ground, the
(05:26):
land actually subsides and thepoor spaces that can allow
infiltration or store that watercollapse forever. Our geology is
stable, so we can have seasonalrise and fall or, you know,
experience periods of droughtwhere the water tables will
drop. But as long as we're notpulling that water out faster
than it's naturally beingrecharged, that groundwater
(05:48):
table will fill back up. And soit really is a perfectly
renewable system.
Then below the layers of sandand gravel is a layer of shallow
bedrock, which is composed ofeither dolomite or limestone.
And that's a hard rigid rock, soit doesn't have the pore spaces
of sand and gravel, but it canhave lots of cracks and
(06:09):
fissures. And where those thethe bedrock is aligned to allow
water to accumulate, so like aconcave shape, And the cracks
and fissures are aligned to whatallow water to transfer, you
know, through the the rock thatcan hold a lot of water and can
be a great source of groundwateraquifer for communities. And
(06:32):
then below that, have threelayers of sandstone, and the
sandstone is very ancient rock.It's basically sand that has
been compressed into rock.
So the pore spaces are very,very tiny, but it encompasses
such a large area, it can hold alot of water. The upper most
aquifer is called the SaintPeter Aquifer, and that's
(06:55):
largely been desaturated. Wepulled most of the water out of
that, and it's a soft friablerock, so it's prone to just
breaking apart and destroyingthe pumps. So we really don't
use that upper most one. Themain aquifer that we use
throughout Northeastern Illinoisin the deep aquifer is the
Ironton Galesville.
(07:15):
And our wells going down intothat are typically around 1,500
feet. So too deep for mostresidences to access, but
municipalities and industrieswill drill high capacity wells
down into that aquifer. Andthat's important to understand
because those high capacitywells withdraw an enormous
(07:36):
amount of water. And so theIronton Galesville is not
recharged locally. The water weget from that is actually from
North Central Wisconsin wherethat rock is actually at the
surface.
So when it rains or snow melts,water is able to get into that
aquifer, but it'll take athousand years or thousands of
years for water to land up inNorth Central Wisconsin, make
(07:57):
its way down towards us. So therecharge through that aquifer is
very, very slow. Andparticularly in the Joliet area,
the water table in that aquiferhas been drawn down by over 900
feet. And so that's considered adying aquifer. It's not
renewable.
And so our local sand and graveland limestone aquifers
(08:21):
throughout Northeastern Illinoisare gonna be more and more
important moving into thefuture. And we can talk a bit
more about the IrontonGalesville because there are
some big changes that are takingplace in Northeastern Illinois.
Amy Lefringhouse (08:36):
Well, it's really fascinating because if
you that is a lot of informationthat Scott just threw out at
y'all. I sound like Abigailsaying y'all, but but in reading
the blog, Scott's put in somereally wonderful graphics that
you can reference. So if you arethinking about these layers that
(08:57):
are under your feet and youwanna see what it looks like in
a graphic, be sure to check outthe blog because it's really
it's really a greatrepresentation of what he's
talking about. But when I when Iwhen I read through it and I
looked at it, I was justwondering, you guys have
studied, you know, really deeplywhat your groundwater layers and
(09:18):
your geology and everything inthere in McHenry County, you
know, and and I know that youhad provided a map of the
sources, you know, wheredifferent communities up there
in Northeastern Illinois gettheir water, drinking water
from. Where could people go, youknow, to study or just find out
where their own water comesfrom, Scott?
(09:41):
Are there places they can theycan easily find that online?
Scott Kuykendall (09:45):
Well, guess different sources. You know, if
you are within a municipality,the first place I would look is
municipalities or public workwater suppliers have to provide
a consumer confidence reportevery year. Mhmm. And so your
town will have a water qualityreport or a consumer confidence
report that they publish everyyear. Some communities do a
(10:08):
really good job of using thatpublication to explain exactly
where the water is coming from.
Amy Lefringhouse (10:14):
Okay.
Scott Kuykendall (10:14):
So, you know, they'll say we have six wells,
three of those are in the deepaquifer, two of them are in the
sand and gravel aquifer, and oneis in the the shallow bedrock
aquifer. Okay. And so thecommunities that put that
information in really can dialin exactly where your water is
coming from. A lot ofcommunities, especially smaller
(10:37):
communities that don't have alot of staff to do additional
writing will pretty limited inwhat they're telling you. The
the state has Illinois StateWater Survey has a program
called ILWATER.
And ILWATER, you can it's a map,interactive mapping system, and
(10:59):
you can open up the map and zoomin to your community and it'll
show a bunch of blue dots. Nextto the blue dots is a number and
that's showing the depth of thewells. So each of the blue dots
is representing a well and thenthe number is representing the
depth of that well. And then youcan click on the blue dot and
it'll pull up the well log. Sowhen drillers are drilling the
(11:21):
wells, they record the geologythat they encounter as they go
down.
You can actually see a geologicrecord of your well, and it's
it's really fascinating. Sopeople who want to take a deeper
dive, pun intended, you know,it's it really is very
fascinating. And so that's thatwould you know, if I'm traveling
around, that's probably where Iwould look. Other communities
(11:45):
may have more localizedinformation that I'm not aware
of. Mhmm.
At at Henry County, we actuallyhave a lot of different things
that we're working on. So weworked with the US geological
survey, and this is one of thescientific things that I help
manage. We have a network of 37groundwater monitoring wells
distributed around the county.Every 15 minutes, it's taking a
(12:09):
water level measurement,transmitting that data up to the
US geological survey satellites,and then they maintain that data
for us and actually created a ainteractive map. And so you can
go on to our map, and it'll showwhere all the wells are located.
And then you can click on anyone of those wells and pull up
data since 2009. And it showsthe the rise and fall that
(12:32):
occurs naturally year afteryear, but it also since we've
been capturing since 2009, we'venow captured multiple periods of
extreme drought where the watertable drops precipitously and
then the recovery. So 2012 was aa period the February was a
(12:53):
period of major droughtthroughout the Midwest. It was a
catastrophic drought, and sowater tables dropped. That was
followed by a period of recordrainfall where by 2017, we were
experiencing major floodingthroughout the region.
And then in 2020, the rain juststopped, and it stopped for
pretty much three years. And sothe the water table drew down
(13:17):
again. And so you can see howthe different aquifers in the
county react to both periods ofdrought and periods of record
rainfall because the differentaquifers do react very
differently depending on theamount of clay that may be
overtopping it, you know, howshallow it is. So we really are
collecting great data that we'reusing to understand how much
(13:40):
water is available for futuredevelopment and potential
concerns for you know, if ifwater levels aren't are are
dropping, you know, we can usethat to try and find what is the
cause of that that drawdown andare there solutions to that. You
know, when we're talking aboutwater, at least in my role, I'm
not thinking about water justright now.
(14:02):
I'm thinking about what is thewater supply, water quality into
the future. So I'm looking ahundred years in the future. The
demand that's placed on ourwater today is not the demand
that's being gonna be placed onour water tomorrow. Right.
Population will increase.
New technologies will come in.You know, right now,
data centers are kind of one ofthe biggest concerns when it
(14:25):
comes to water because they haveto use so much water to cool
down all the equipment. And sothey are massive, massive
consumers of water. So everytime you're using the cloud for
data storage, you're actuallyusing water. Most people don't
think about the consequences ofthese things.
(14:45):
So that's part of what I do.
Amy Lefringhouse (14:47):
That is so crazy. I'm sorry. I didn't mean
to step over you, Erin, but Ijust had this conversation like
two days ago about data centersand their water usage. And not
we weren't really talking aboutIllinois, but I guess now that
you say it, Scott, I'm like, oh,yeah. Up in, you know,
Northeastern is where a lot ofthose are going.
And but we were talking aboutout West about data centers and,
(15:12):
you know, water shortages outthere. So that's crazy how that
comes up in those two twoconversations at once.
Scott Kuykendall (15:20):
Right. Yeah. So that, you know, the kind of
the one of the things that'sbeing focused on is the the
nexus between water, food, andenergy. Because energy is also
part of the mix. You are pumpingwater from deeper and deeper or
pumping more and more water, youhave to use more energy.
Then you have to treat morewater to drinking water
standards. You have to pump thataround town. You have to recover
(15:42):
that water, and then you have totreat that water. So that
requires an enormous amount ofenergy. Sure.
So, you know, all these thingsare intertwined. And, you know,
I I I'll go ahead and you know,as long as we're talking about
connections, part of what Ifocus on is not just our our
groundwater for drinking water,but the the connection between
our our land use, our naturalresources, our surface waters,
(16:07):
and our groundwater. All ofthose are intertwined. If we're
using water excessively, we canbe drawing down resources that
would otherwise be available forwetlands or wildlife. And so,
you know, I'm very cognizant of,you know, the human element of
things, but I am also veryconcerned with maintaining the
(16:29):
the the natural health of our ofour nation.
And if how we manage the landhas a direct impact on our
groundwater recharge and waterquality. Water, when it
infiltrates down through thesand and gravel, is not just
stored underground still. Wateris in constant motion. So water
(16:50):
is moving downward andrecharging our water table, but
it's also over a period of days,months, years, or decades moving
laterally and providing a baseflow of cool, clean water to our
lakes, rivers, streams, andwetlands. And that's why water
will still be flowing in astream at the end of summer when
we haven't had rain for months.
It's because that groundwater isslowly moving and providing a
(17:12):
base flow of cool, clean water.If we are pulling too much water
out of the ground, we'reremoving that water source to
our lakes, river streams, andwetlands. And once again, that's
just not something that peopleusually think about. And then
when we pave over the land,water is no longer able to
recharge our aquifers, but it'salso not moving into the ground
(17:36):
and providing that base flow.You're creating an impermeable
surface, whether it's pavementor rooftops, that water is
hitting that paved surface andrushing off to instead of
groundwater fed systems, it'srushing off over the surface
into our lake, river streams, orwetlands, creating a flood
followed by drought, flood,drought, flood, drought.
(17:57):
So instead of a base flow ofcool clean water, we have
completely altered thehydrology. And so that's hot
dirty water, so as that waterpasses over the surface, it's
collecting any of the salt fromour road salt, it's collecting
any of the oils from our cars,it's collecting any of the
detergents that we put on theground. Anything that we put
into the air onto the land canultimately be a source of water
(18:20):
pollution. And so we're dumpinghot dirty water over the surface
into our water bodies instead ofmaintaining that base flow. And
so all of these are things thatwe need to be cognizant of when
we're doing land use planning,but rarely are these things
taken into consideration.
But it will have long termimpacts if we don't manage land
(18:41):
use properly.
Erin Garrett (18:42):
That's crazy. And I've been thinking this whole
time is when you talk about thethe aquifers that do recharge,
right, and that act as that morerenewable resource, I just am
trying to imagine the amount ofwater that our communities use
on a daily basis versus like theamount that comes from the sky,
and it just doesn't balance inmy brain. Is it mean, you talked
(19:04):
about how you have you've beenmonitoring long term, so there
are times when, you know, thewater table will change, and
you'll have more and less, like,we relatively, like, staying
somewhat equal or, like, whatare the other options when it is
really low? Like, how does thatall work?
Scott Kuykendall (19:22):
Well, that's why a lot of communities did
shift from groundwater to LakeMichigan, And and that's a
really complex issue, but anexample right now that's
occurring is Joliet. The Jolietarea has been reliant 100% on
the deep bedrock aquifers, thatIronton Galesville aquifer. So
(19:43):
like our wells in that aquiferabout 1,500 feet deep. So that's
been their source of water andthe water table has been drawn
down by over 900 feet. And theyliterally have less than ten
years worth of water left.
And so they are in the processof getting a they're gonna be
building a pipeline to by cityof or Lake Michigan water from
(20:07):
the city of Chicago. That'sgonna be extremely expensive
water. And basically, waterutilities will triple what they
are now. And so, know, these arenot simple solutions and the
city it's not just the city ofJoliet, It's all the industries
in their area as well that aretaking unregulated amounts of
(20:29):
water out of that aquifer. Butthey don't have an alternative.
They work with the state. Theyand they really have done a
great job evaluating theiroptions. But the only viable
option was to construct apipeline and get Lake Michigan
water. And they are quite a waysaway from the lake. They have to
(20:50):
go through a a permittingprocess to get authorization to
withdraw water from the lakefrom Lake Michigan.
So it is not a light decisionthat was made, but, you know,
what I talk a lot about is wateris necessary for all life.
Whether in the topics, thetundra, or the Midwest, Every
living thing on the planet needswater. Because water is so
essential to life, it's also ournumber one economic driver.
(21:13):
Nobody's gonna invest in homesor businesses if they don't have
access to safe, clean, reliable,and affordable water. So our
water is our economic driver.
So they they really have nochoice but to find an alternate
source. And but it is anexpensive solution. We do have
communities in our area that arelooking at the viability of Lake
(21:34):
Michigan water because they'reso reliant on the deep aquifer
as well. If they are able to getit, we still have between thirty
and fifty thousand private wellsin our area relying on that sand
and gravel aquifer. So no matterwhat, our future is gonna be
dependent on that sand andgravel aquifer and the shallow
bedrock below that.
(21:56):
And so if you do get LakeMichigan water, you're subject
to very strict waterconservation practices. And then
as communities grow on renewableresources, you know, water
supplies, they're gonna have topractice conservation as well.
So conservation is critical toour future. You know, not not
just because it's anenvironmentally right thing to
(22:18):
do, but because it is necessaryfor our economic development.
And so once people understandthe the nuances of all this, you
know, it's this is important toeverybody.
And that's why our county reallyhas invested in understanding
what our supplies are, what isthe future demands that we're
gonna face, and do we haveenough. And so, you know, these
(22:41):
are very real issues that needto be taken very, very
seriously. And it it'sabsolutely fascinating. I'd I I
think I mentioned I just gotback from a trip to New Mexico.
And, you know, I being the waternerd that I am, I Mhmm.
Spent a fair amount of my timelearning their water resources.
And especially I got wasvisiting friends and family out
(23:01):
there, so I'm concerned about,you know, their water
availability. And, you know, outwest, they are, you know, really
having to go to extreme lengthsto maintain water supplies. And
one of the main things that'sbeing developed now is actually
wastewater reuse and treatingwastewater to drinking water
(23:23):
standards and then pumping thatinto your aquifer to recharge
the aquifer artificially. And Ilove it as a concept.
And if we only had organicthings in our day to day lives,
I think it would be a relativelyeasy thing to do. But we have
between 40,000 and 80,000chemicals in our day to day
life. And, you know, can werealistically remove all those
(23:47):
chemicals prior to pumping thatinto our groundwater? So I I I'm
very concerned about it, but tomany parts of the country and
the world, there are not gonnabe any any alternatives. And
it's also important to note thatall the water that's on the
planet is all the water that'sever been on the planet and all
we'll ever have.
(24:08):
So we're not able to make morewater. The water that we have is
all we have. And so it's beenrecycled many times over. And
so, yeah, we're just emulatingthat nature by reusing it. The
ick factor that people mighthave, they're they're gonna have
to get over that.
And we have to develop bettertechnologies so that we can
(24:31):
clean the water properly. Mybiggest concern, if you have
dirty water above ground, youknow, that's, you know,
something you can deal with.Once you pump it into the
aquifer, then it's a chronicproblem that is gonna be much
more difficult, much moreexpensive to address. And so I
wanna make sure we're onlypumping clean water into the
(24:52):
aquifers if that's the themethod that we're gonna use for
conservation and water reuse. Sovery fascinating subject, and
people around the world areworking very hard on this.
A lot of people just think, oh,well, we'll just do
desalinization. Anddesalinization is part of the
(25:12):
the future of water, but thatrequires a lot of energy. It's
very energy intensive, and thenyou have byproducts at the end
of that. You've removed allthese materials. What do you do
with those materials?
That creates a whole new set ofproblems. So it's not none of
these things are flipping aswitch and, you know, finding a
(25:34):
clean solution. You know, ourbest option is not to cause a
problem in the first place. So,you know, kinda circle back to
water conservation. Waterconservation is critical to our
future.
And, you know, the technologiesthat are being developed really
are are fascinating, and, youknow, can generate a lot more
wealth doing the right thingthan the than the wrong thing.
(25:55):
And so, you know, a lot ofcompanies have invested very
heavily in developing, you know,toilets, water fixtures that
provide good service whileconserving water. And, you know,
I just invested in a newshowerhead and part of my
solution was I have a low flowshowerhead that actually works
(26:17):
real well. It's actually nicerthan any other showerhead I've
had, but it has a hand wandsprayer, and I put on a shutoff
valve so that you it you turn itand it just goes to a trickle.
And so if you're lathering up oryou're washing something, you
don't need to have the watergoing full blast the whole time
(26:39):
you're doing that.
You know, it's a relativelylittle things, but $12, but it's
probably saved me over $12 inwater loss. And, you know, I'm
lowering my water footprint. Sothere are things that each of us
can be doing that, you know,aren't that big of a deal. And,
you know, the process ofactually doing you know, finding
(26:59):
these things out was a lot offun, at least for a water nerd
like me.
Erin Garrett (27:03):
Mhmm. Yeah. That's great. And that makes me think
of, you know, there's lots ofindividual practices that we can
take into account, but I'm kindof curious about, like, broader
conservation practices thatmaybe have been implemented in
McHenry County. I know growingup in Algonquin, we had, like,
the signs about, like, when youcan water outside, and it's,
(27:25):
like, based on, I'm assuming, alot of it had to do like if we
were in a drought, it had redand it was like no outdoor
watering, or it was like everyother day you could water
outside and only during certainhours, like are those some of
the things that come from thework that you're doing, or is
that other practice, or arethere other guidelines and
things like that that are inplace?
Scott Kuykendall (27:45):
I'm glad you brought up Algonquin. Algonquin
is one of the communities. It'shalf in McHenry, half in Kane
County, but they've been trueleaders in so many different
things. We we partner with themon what we refer to sensible
salting. Algonquin is a is agreat community that really has
done some wonderful things whenit comes to conservation on many
(28:06):
different levels.
You know, the wateringrestrictions. So typically,
you'll have odd or even days. Soif your address ends in a odd
number, you can water on thesedays. If you it's a even number,
you can water on those otherdays. And so there are different
ways municipalities willapproach that.
(28:27):
And then sometimes they'll alsohave, you know, you know, red,
yellow, or green depending onthe on the level of drought. It
can require different types ofand typically, you only wanna
water between, like, six andeight and and, you know,
daylight early daylight hours orlate daylight hours so that when
(28:49):
you're putting your water on thelawn, you're not losing most of
that to evaporation. You want toput it down when it'll actually
soak into the ground and feedthe vegetation. That's one way
to do that. You can actually,you know, if you do have a
system that requires irrigation,you know, there are systems now
that will actually only water ifthe soil moisture indicates that
(29:10):
it's needed.
So not just a, you know, youknow, eight to nine every
morning, you know, you can havehave it set up so that it
actually measures the soilmoisture. And so you're
literally are only putting waterdown when it's necessary. And,
you know, different types ofsystems that are only, you know,
putting droplets down as opposedto big sprays. So, you know,
(29:32):
there are ways to doconservation there. One of the
things that we advocate for isreplacing turf grass with native
vegetation.
Our native vegetation doesn'tneed watering once it's
established. And the deep rootstructure of native plants. So
the, you know, native plantswill go down, you know, five,
ten, up to 15 feet or so. Andthat network of roots and that
(29:58):
those roots then restore thesoil health, put microorganisms
back in the ground. So thatentire soil profile of roots and
healthy soil become a giantsponge.
So it's reducing the need forirrigation. It's reducing the
need for any type of fertilizersbecause our native plants don't
need fertilizers, and then thatentire soil and root profile
(30:19):
become a giant sponge thatreduce flooding when we get too
much. So it can withstanddroughts when we have too little
water, and it can help withflood mitigation when we have
too much. Roots of turf grasstypically only go down about an
inch or two. And so all thatturf grass is actually
contributing to flooding andrequires irrigation.
(30:42):
So, you know, our the turf grassthat we use, you know, people
think Kentucky bluegrass. Thethe grass is not from Kentucky.
It's not native to the area. Itshouldn't be here. And it's not
to say get rid of all turfgrass, but when you've got acres
of, like, corporate land orMhmm.
You know, even parkland, youknow, you can be putting a
significant amount of that intonegative vegetation, providing
(31:06):
all these ecosystem services aswell as providing habitat for
wildlife. And so restoring thenatural hydrology and ecology of
our area while still having, youknow, that open view space that
you need. If you've got activeuse, you know, for ball fields
and recreation, you know, turfgrass, know, is not gonna hurt
(31:28):
anything. But just the how we'veconverted the entire landscape
to turf and pavement has hadvery detrimental impacts, and is
that something that'ssustainable into the future?
Going back to New Mexico wheremy friend and his wife built
their house, the entirecommunity is xeriscape, and
(31:49):
where they do have vegetation,it's required native vegetation,
and the only irrigation istreated wastewater.
There are ways that we can bedoing these things better. I
don't know that we need to dorock landscaping throughout our
area, but we have great paletteof native plants that can be
used. And, you know, once we getthose reestablished, they're
(32:13):
providing a whole litany ofbenefits to our communities.
And, you know, with floodmitigation, it's a big issue for
us. We're actually getting moreprecipitation, but in fewer and
fewer storm events.
So over the past forty years,even though we have periodic
droughts, the amount of rainthat we were getting is
increasing. Yeah. The the thenumbers that we have to use to
(32:34):
calculate storm events andflooding have actually changed
because of this. So these arethis is not just theoretical.
This is empirical data thatwe're working off of.
But we're getting in fewer andfewer storm events. So the
intensity of our storms isincreasing. Our built
environment is not built for theamount of rainfall that we're
getting today, let alonetomorrow. And certainly wasn't
(32:55):
built for a six inch stormevent. And so how are we gonna
manage this precipitation in ourbuilt environment?
The number one tool in ourtoolbox is native vegetation.
Mhmm. And so, you know, theseare things, you know, kinda go
going back to what worked beforewe change things and finding a
(33:16):
better balance. So those arethings that we advocate for. In
the county, we don't providewater, so we're not like, you
know, having to manage watermains and things like that.
But when you're talking about abigger scale, that's really
important. Know, us know, up youknow, when it comes time to
update your toilet, you know,there's no excuse for going to a
(33:40):
the high volume toilet system.There's so many different
options on the market. But whenwe're talking about converse
conservation in a municipality,a lot of it is re replacing the
broken water mains. So we loseso much water to cracks in our
systems that they're it'sdetrimental to our water
(34:00):
supplies.
So you're pumping that water outof the ground at great economic
and environmental expense,treating it to drinking water
standards at great economicexpense, pumping it all around
your city at great economicexpense, and to have that just
leak into the ground is wastefulboth economically and
(34:21):
environmentally. Andunfortunately, that water may
not be going back to the aquiferthat it came from. So, you know,
they may be taking are likelytaking it from a deeper aquifer
that has a layer of clay aboveit. And so that water is not you
know, even though that leak isin the same area, that may not
be getting back down into theaquifer where it can be used.
(34:44):
And so that's with the whencommunities go to Lake Michigan
water, that's one of the mainthings that they have to do is
bring their water loss down tovery low percentages and and
then do public education and alot of other things.
And like I said, Joliet, itreally has done a great job with
(35:05):
that as far as I understand it,and it will probably be a model
that a lot of communities willfollow with their own programs.
Amy Lefringhouse (35:13):
I will say, for the longtime listeners of
this podcast, we did not payScott to say that native plants
are always the answer. ButScott, you walked right into a
kind of a running thing in allof our podcasts where we were
like, it all comes back tonative plants, native
vegetation. But no.
Scott Kuykendall (35:33):
We do walk the talk. At our County
Administration Building inWoodstock, we we have two
demonstration gardens flankingthe entrance. And so we have a
rain garden demonstrationproject, and then we have a
xeriscape or dry prairiedemonstration project. And so
everybody coming and going fromthe County Building is walking
right past our demonstrationgardens.
Amy Lefringhouse (35:55):
That's it.
Scott Kuykendall (35:55):
And ten years ago, I you know, would hear, you
know, lots of snide commentswith people coming in the
building. Sure. Now 95% of thecomments I hear are positive.
People really are getting abetter understanding of the
benefits of native vegetation,and that's, you know, directly
due to efforts of, you know, youguys and other organizations
(36:17):
throughout the area. But from apractical perspective, native
plants are green infrastructurethat is being used in
municipalities and other placesto manage flooding.
It is one of the most powerfultools that we have, plain and
simple. One of the jokes that wehave in the sustainability realm
(36:39):
is nature's had four and a halfbillion years of research and
development. So there's not adesign problem that you can't
find a solution to in nature.And with our native plants, you
know, it's been right under ournose and under our feet, you
know, the whole time. You know,it it's very true.
So, know, we're definitely onthe same page there.
Erin Garrett (37:00):
I was just gonna say this just circles back to,
you know, we had Layne on thepodcast to talk about rain
gardens and native plants. We'vehad Eliana on the podcast to
talk about green storm waterinfrastructure. So, know,
everything you know, we choose atheme for a reason in water, but
everything kind of all comesback and wraps together and kind
of shows too how at differentscales it all pieces together.
(37:21):
Right? Actions that you take atyour home can make a difference,
but then our municipalities arelooking to make changes too, and
change can happen at that scaletoo, so you know, if you
practice these practices at homeand think it's important and
it's not happening in your citytoo, like bringing that up and
trying to advocate for that toois something that is you can
(37:41):
help make that difference.
And then you know you talkedabout changing out like your
toilet or your showerhead, know,when that need happens that you
need to replace it, know, lookfor that more energy efficient,
water efficient choice, and thenthat'll help save you money too,
which is always good. So right?It goes both ways. It's gonna be
helpful for the environment as awhole, but then helpful for your
(38:05):
wallet, which is always great.So just considering those
options, we've come such a longway, right, in the availability
of those different options andkind of the more accepted
practice of like this is whatwe're gonna do like when we
build new, it's a lot more lowflow faucets and things like
that are kind of the thestandard model, so it's good to
see those changes happen, and wedo see you know as our
(38:27):
populations continue toincrease, our water demand,
like, is going to continue togrow, and especially with, you
know, the changes we're seeingin our climate too.
Right? With just the differentway that water comes to us in in
different events, more droughtor you know, more rain at one
time, how much of that can wecapture? It's really important
to kind of think likeholistically, right, and like
(38:47):
the actions that that we cantake to try to help with with
that, know, issue that we'regonna be dealing with forever,
right, we're always gonna bethinking about because that
water resource is superimportant. So just kind of
wrapping things wrapping thingstogether, bringing together some
different pieces of of our ofour season this year. Mhmm.
Amy Lefringhouse (39:08):
Well, and Scott, we're really I mean, we
really wanted to feature you inin McHenry County. I know you
have a water resources actionplan and and I've looked through
that and if if folks on thepodcast want to look that up,
we'll put it in the show notes,but it's a good example, has a
great slideshow that shows someof the best management practices
and things that communities andindividuals can do. So we are
(39:29):
really appreciative that youcame, Scott, here to talk to us
and just give us someinspiration about what counties
and what communities are doingand that we can we might be able
to look for in our counties oradvocate for in our counties as
well.
Scott Kuykendall (39:45):
Yeah, we can learn from each other. And so
one of the things that we did iswe did three-dimensional mapping
of our subsurface geology. Sothat layer of sand and gravel
that I had talked about, youcan't look at the land surface
and know what's going onunderground. And, you know, the
one of the hydrogeologists Iworked with coined a phrase,
(40:06):
your geology is a complicatedbeautiful mess. And that's
because, you know, it evolved,you know, as the glaciers came
and went.
And so to understand oursubsurface geology, we did work
with the Illinois StateGeological Survey to do
three-dimensional mapping. Andso you can go on the website
that they created for us and runa transect line over your area
(40:29):
of interest. So, like, I'lltypically start out going from
west to east over an area. Solike if you wanna go over a town
or your house, and then it'llpull up a profile view of the
geology underneath that line.And it's color coded to show
lighter colors will be areasdominated by sand and gravel.
(40:50):
So those are our groundwateraquifers or the recharge to
those aquifers. The darkercolors, greens and blues are
areas dominated by clay. Sothose are the impermeable
layers. And so within seconds ofpulling up a map, you can have a
solid understanding of what'sgoing on under underground.
Amy Lefringhouse (41:10):
And that's available to anybody, Scott?
Scott Kuykendall (41:13):
Yep. Yep. So I've got links on our website,
and so I'll plug our websitetoo. For any of these water
elements that we've talkedabout, you can go on to
mchenryh20.com. Somchenryh20.com, and I've got
links to all these differentresources.
(41:33):
But because you can't understandwhat's going on, you know,
underground without, you know,having these types of tools, The
we're we're looking to use thisfor planning into the future and
understanding where the risk is.So the same areas that allow for
infiltration to occur also meansthat pollutants can infiltrate
down. And so often we've locatedindustrial development right
(41:56):
over the most sensitive rechargeareas. And so, you know, how do
we invite development in whilestill protecting our
groundwater? And so areas thathave more sensitive recharge
areas may not be the best forcertain types of development or
they should be implementing bestmanagement practices to prevent
that pollution.
(42:16):
The city or excuse me, thecounty of Boone right next to us
is investing in the samethree-dimensional mapping. And
then ultimately, it's probably afew years down the road, but
ultimately, we'd like to see thestatewide. This
three-dimensional mapping isevolved to the point where they
can do it using helicopters,where the the helicopter will
(42:39):
carry a ring and it's basicallykinda doing an MRI of the land
and actually able to see map thegeology down to the bedrock and
just run transects. And so thisis being done globally now to
get a better understanding ofour groundwater. And we can use
(42:59):
this for planning purposes toknow water, you know, water
availability and sensitivity,and make sure that we have the
ability to protect water longinto the future so that we can
have viability communities inthe long term.
And these are all just, youknow, fascinating things, but
they require us to, you know,wanna understand our where our
(43:24):
water comes from and how toprotect it. And, you know, I do
presentations at schools forgreen jobs. And so when I talk
about all these things, theseare career paths that all these
future generations are gonna,you know, have. In my
presentations, I'll show a slideshowing the population growth.
So my my parents, when they wereborn, they were 2,400,000,000
(43:47):
people.
We now have over 8,000,000,000people. How are we gonna provide
a good standard of living for8,000,000,000 people on a planet
with limited resources? And allthese challenges are gonna
create opportunities because wehave to figure these things out.
And so the three-dimensionalmapping, the groundwater
monitoring, all these types ofthings are, you know,
technologies that are beingevolved developed and evolved to
(44:11):
find solutions, they createopportunities for career paths.
So pretty fascinating stuff, andI'm really looking forward to
Boone County doing theirsbecause then we'll have
contiguous mapping across bothcounties.
And so like I said, if you areinterested in this, just go to
our website mchenryh200.com, andI've got links there. And then
(44:33):
the three or the McHenry Countywater resources action plan
basically has every issuerelated to water in the region
addressed in there. So anybodywanting to learn more about
water can pull up thatpublication on our website as
well.
Amy Lefringhouse (44:49):
I just looked up the helicopter. That's cool.
Scott Kuykendall (44:54):
That's gonna be done early early spring, I
believe. And so there thereprobably would be a fair amount
of press on that. Yeah. Theythey hired Boone County hired a
water resources specialist to,you know, try and address some
of the same things that I do inMcHenry County. And so this
really is a, you know, aregional thing that's being done
(45:16):
and a lot of cross collaborationwhere we're helping each other
out because this is such a bigissue.
Amy Lefringhouse (45:23):
We could ask a million more questions. I know.
But we probably should wrap upthis podcast. So we are so happy
that you've been here with us,Scott.
Scott Kuykendall (45:35):
My pleasure.
Erin Garrett (45:36):
Alright. So thanks so much, Scott, for sharing your
knowledge on the water resourcesin Northeast Illinois. We
chatted about so many differentthings. I learned so much. It's
fascinating.
We're gonna finish our episodewith our everyday observations.
So this is where we highlightkind of the normal, but
fascinating things we find inour environment that are super
interesting to us. So I'm gonnapick on Amy first. What is your
(45:58):
everyday observation?
Amy Lefringhouse (45:59):
Okay. Real quick. I know this is released
in the spring, and I think thisis pretty seasonally, I guess,
can go in into any season. But Idid a presentation the other
night about the naturaldivisions of Illinois to a club,
and I went to a basketball gamethis week in the kind of central
(46:22):
part of the state, and wow. I'mfrom West Central Illinois.
We talked about that. Maybewe've talked about that before,
but, you know, it's prettyrolling. There's some topography
over here on the West Side ofthe state, but I went to kind of
the I was in assumption, andwow, it is flat there.
Definitely in the Grand PrairieNatural Division Of Illinois
(46:48):
where it is flat, flat, flat. SoI guess just my everyday
observation was just looking atthe landscape around you, it's
just really neat when you cankind of identify those, you
know, different naturaldivisions in Illinois, and that
was, you know, one that kind ofhit me in the face this week.
Erin Garrett (47:07):
Thanks, Amy. Yeah. It's crazy. You know, we're
spread out all across the state,and it really does look so
different. Right?
Yeah. Most people think likeIllinois flat, but where a lot
of us are, it's not really likethat. Kind of in like the
different pockets where we don'treally have like the just the
flat you can Right. That'sright. Right.
(47:28):
Right. And you talk about we
Amy Lefringhouse (47:29):
talk about it all the time. We talk about it
to our master naturalists. Wetalk about the natural
divisions, then, you know, justto see some of those in the
landscape is, you know, oh,yeah. I recognize it. I see it.
Erin Garrett (47:41):
That's awesome. Thanks, Amy. Alright, Scott,
what's your everydayobservation?
Scott Kuykendall (47:45):
Well, just what's I had seen that you do
that question at the end, andwhat's really kind of had me
thinking is just being receptiveto opportunities to see things.
So driving to work yesterday, Iwas at a stoplight and I saw
movement in my periphery. And soI focused on it and it was a
(48:09):
juvenile bald eagle. And, youknow, I just happened to notice
it. So I grabbed my binoculars,which I always have on me, and
so I'm at the stoplight watchingthis bald eagle and just, you
know, try to keep my eye on whenthe light turns green, so I'm
just not one of just anotherguy, you know, holding up
traffic birding at thestoplight.
(48:31):
But I'm just, you know, I'mamazed that, you know, when I
was younger, I was completelyoblivious to what was going on
around me. And, you know, I Ispent twenty years as an
ecologist before doing a latelife career shift to this job.
But just to see a group of geeseflying up and just seeing
something different about thisone group and and then seeing
(48:54):
that it's a group of snow geesethat's flying overhead, not
Canada geese. So just if you're,you know, ready to be receptive
to opportunities, thoseopportunities will present
themselves. And then the otherthing is just the sense of
gratitude.
So every time I have a closeencounter with with wildlife, I
just am struck with a sense ofgratitude that the habitat is
(49:18):
there to support that animal andthat, you know, whatever powers
that be, you know, brought ustogether. You know, I've had
amazing interactions with foxesand other things right out the
back door of my my countybuilding. And, you know, just I
I'm always filled with a senseof gratitude for that
opportunity. So those are kindof the things that I had going
(49:39):
through my head regardingeveryday opportunities.
Erin Garrett (49:43):
I love that. Well, mine's gonna build off of yours,
Scott, because mine also has todo with the bald eagle. But this
fall, I was at Pere MarquetteState Park, and we were just
getting to the time when, youknow, it's time to see more
eagles, easier to find them. Sowe were there for a few days,
and we saw none, and I was sodisappointed. Come on.
It's like
Amy Lefringhouse (50:03):
I know.
Erin Garrett (50:03):
I didn't see any. But we were leaving. We were
driving and heading out of town,and then just driving along the
river there, I saw one and itwas like diving like it was
going to catch a fish, and itwas just like perfect. I'm like,
okay. The trip was complete.
And it was really cool. Itwasn't just sitting in a tree. I
(50:24):
actually got to see it inaction. So that was a case where
I was actively looking, wedidn't see anything, but then we
did find one at the end. So it'sjust kind of the icing on the
cake of that trip that we didactually get to see one, which
is really exciting.
So
Amy Lefringhouse (50:40):
I feel like it that's, like, always the case.
You know? You're I we'researching and searching and
searching to see something, andthen it always happens out of
the blue. Right? You're you'rejust you know, you don't you
don't know when it's gonnahappen, when nature's gonna
kinda almost, you know, hit you.
Scott Kuykendall (50:55):
There was a far side comic, a guy with his
binoculars, and, you know,there's nothing out here. And
behind him is like a pastoralsetting with bears and elk.
Amy Lefringhouse (51:05):
Right.
Scott Kuykendall (51:06):
So, yeah, I I I always feel like that far side
guy when I'm out looking forthings, but you're you're you're
receptive and and open for theopportunity when it did present
itself. So Bless. Know, that'sBe grateful for that
opportunity.
Erin Garrett (51:24):
Definitely. This has been another episode on the
Everyday Environment podcast.Check us out next week where we
talk with Margaret Schneemannabout water pricing.
Welcome to another episode of the Everyday
Environment podcast where weexplore the environment we see
every day. I'm your host, ErinGarrett.
Amy Lefringhouse (00:14):
And I'm your cohost, Amy Lefringhouse.
Erin Garrett (00:17):
And today, we are here with Scott Kuykendall, who
is the water resourcesspecialist for McHenry County.
Welcome, Scott.
Scott Kuykendall (00:26):
Hello.
Erin Garrett (00:27):
Happy to have you. Excited to chat with you today
on the pod. But before we getstarted, can you tell us a
little bit about yourself andwhat you do in your role for
McHenry County?
Scott Kuykendall (00:39):
Yeah. I'm the water resources specialist for
the McHenry County Department ofPlanning and Development. So my
role with the county is I helpoversee the county's scientific
research in the water resources,and we've done more to study our
water in McHenry County than anyany other county in the state,
and that's why I accepted theposition when it opened up. I
also help develop public policyto protect our our water, and
(01:01):
then I do lots of publiceducation and outreach, which I
find extremely gratifying.
Amy Lefringhouse (01:05):
For our listeners, Scott, tell us where
McHenry County is.
Scott Kuykendall (01:09):
Okay. Yeah. So we're in the Northeast corner of
the of the of the state, righton the border of Wisconsin. So
Lake Geneva, Wisconsin is justto our north, and we're about
sixty five sixty five milesNorthwest of Chicago.
Erin Garrett (01:22):
That's great. And for our longtime listeners, you
know that I'm in SouthernIllinois, but I grew up in
McHenry County, so I'm excitedto be chatting with Scott today
because I'm talking about home,but hopefully we'll have some,
you know, relevant informationfor all of our stakeholders
listening in today, sodefinitely don't click skip
right now because you heardwe're not talking about your
(01:42):
county. Definitely lots of greatinformation that we're going to
be chatting about, so let's jumpright in and you know start.
We're going be talking a littlebit about the water resources
that we have, but kind of ourdrinking water today, right
Scott? So when we
Scott Kuykendall (01:57):
That's a big focus of what I do. So in
McHenry County, we're a %reliant on groundwater. And so
our water source is, you know, avery specific type of water. And
so we need to protect therecharge areas to the the those
water resources. And most peopledon't understand where their
water comes from, so that's whypublic education and outreach is
(02:20):
so important.
Amy Lefringhouse (02:21):
So tell us a little bit more about that
sourcing of the drinking waterin Northeastern Illinois. So go
into a little bit more detailabout that. You mentioned
groundwater. So I know there's Imean, we say groundwater. Oh,
yeah.
It's water beneath our feet.Right? But go into, like,
there's a lot of complex, youknow, things that are happening
(02:44):
under our feet. Right? And sojust tell us a little bit more
about where our drinking watercomes from in Northeastern
Illinois.
Scott Kuykendall (02:52):
Yeah. It's really a pretty fascinating
subject. So, yeah, when peoplethink of Northeastern Illinois,
they immediately think of LakeMichigan. And so a lot of
Northeastern Illinois does gettheir water from Lake Michigan,
and it's a great source ofwater. But it is isolated to the
Chicagoland area and the collarcommunities around Chicago.
(03:13):
And many of those communities upuntil the eighties were also on
groundwater, But our communitiesoutside of the Chicago collar
county communities are allreliant on groundwater or river
water for their drinking water.And when we talk about
groundwater, it's not just ahomogenous or a single layer of
of groundwater that is beingdrawn from. There are lots of
(03:37):
different sources of groundwaterand different types of
materials. So when we talk aboutgroundwater, it's soil or rock
underground that is able to holdwater and provide that water for
drinking water purposes. And inNortheastern Illinois, we have
our upper most layers a layer ofsand and gravel that was
deposited as the glaciers cameand retreated.
(03:58):
So this was the last period ofglaciation. And so our surface
geology in this area is onlyabout 12,000 years old. I just
came back from New Mexico wheresurface geology was over a
billion years old. So Yeah. Avery different type of geology
in our area.
But that sand and gravel ispermeable. So when it rains or
(04:21):
snow melts, water is able topercolate down through the sand
and gravel, fill the pore spacesbetween the sand and gravel
particles and create a watertable that we're able then to
drill down into and pull waterout. And so a well is, you know,
basically like the straw that weput down into the ground to pull
water out. And we talk about thesand and gravel layer. It's not
(04:42):
just a single layer of sand andgravel.
You've got layers of sand andgravel intermixed with layers of
clay, which is not permeable.And so, you know, we have to
know where the layers of sandand gravel are in order to
access our drinking water. Butthe great thing about the sand
and gravel aquifers is that theyare perfectly renewable as long
(05:05):
as we don't pave over everythingor pollute the aquifers. Every
time it rains or snow melts,that water is getting recharged
locally. We have control overthat.
So if as long as we take care ofour aquifers, it really is a
renewable resource. In manyparts of the country that rely
on groundwater, when they pullwater out of the ground, the
(05:26):
land actually subsides and thepoor spaces that can allow
infiltration or store that watercollapse forever. Our geology is
stable, so we can have seasonalrise and fall or, you know,
experience periods of droughtwhere the water tables will
drop. But as long as we're notpulling that water out faster
than it's naturally beingrecharged, that groundwater
(05:48):
table will fill back up. And soit really is a perfectly
renewable system.
Then below the layers of sandand gravel is a layer of shallow
bedrock, which is composed ofeither dolomite or limestone.
And that's a hard rigid rock, soit doesn't have the pore spaces
of sand and gravel, but it canhave lots of cracks and
(06:09):
fissures. And where those thethe bedrock is aligned to allow
water to accumulate, so like aconcave shape, And the cracks
and fissures are aligned to whatallow water to transfer, you
know, through the the rock thatcan hold a lot of water and can
be a great source of groundwateraquifer for communities. And
(06:32):
then below that, have threelayers of sandstone, and the
sandstone is very ancient rock.It's basically sand that has
been compressed into rock.
So the pore spaces are very,very tiny, but it encompasses
such a large area, it can hold alot of water. The upper most
aquifer is called the SaintPeter Aquifer, and that's
(06:55):
largely been desaturated. Wepulled most of the water out of
that, and it's a soft friablerock, so it's prone to just
breaking apart and destroyingthe pumps. So we really don't
use that upper most one. Themain aquifer that we use
throughout Northeastern Illinoisin the deep aquifer is the
Ironton Galesville.
(07:15):
And our wells going down intothat are typically around 1,500
feet. So too deep for mostresidences to access, but
municipalities and industrieswill drill high capacity wells
down into that aquifer. Andthat's important to understand
because those high capacitywells withdraw an enormous
(07:36):
amount of water. And so theIronton Galesville is not
recharged locally. The water weget from that is actually from
North Central Wisconsin wherethat rock is actually at the
surface.
So when it rains or snow melts,water is able to get into that
aquifer, but it'll take athousand years or thousands of
years for water to land up inNorth Central Wisconsin, make
(07:57):
its way down towards us. So therecharge through that aquifer is
very, very slow. Andparticularly in the Joliet area,
the water table in that aquiferhas been drawn down by over 900
feet. And so that's considered adying aquifer. It's not
renewable.
And so our local sand and graveland limestone aquifers
(08:21):
throughout Northeastern Illinoisare gonna be more and more
important moving into thefuture. And we can talk a bit
more about the IrontonGalesville because there are
some big changes that are takingplace in Northeastern Illinois.
Amy Lefringhouse (08:36):
Well, it's really fascinating because if
you that is a lot of informationthat Scott just threw out at
y'all. I sound like Abigailsaying y'all, but but in reading
the blog, Scott's put in somereally wonderful graphics that
you can reference. So if you arethinking about these layers that
(08:57):
are under your feet and youwanna see what it looks like in
a graphic, be sure to check outthe blog because it's really
it's really a greatrepresentation of what he's
talking about. But when I when Iwhen I read through it and I
looked at it, I was justwondering, you guys have
studied, you know, really deeplywhat your groundwater layers and
(09:18):
your geology and everything inthere in McHenry County, you
know, and and I know that youhad provided a map of the
sources, you know, wheredifferent communities up there
in Northeastern Illinois gettheir water, drinking water
from. Where could people go, youknow, to study or just find out
where their own water comesfrom, Scott?
(09:41):
Are there places they can theycan easily find that online?
Scott Kuykendall (09:45):
Well, guess different sources. You know, if
you are within a municipality,the first place I would look is
municipalities or public workwater suppliers have to provide
a consumer confidence reportevery year. Mhmm. And so your
town will have a water qualityreport or a consumer confidence
report that they publish everyyear. Some communities do a
(10:08):
really good job of using thatpublication to explain exactly
where the water is coming from.
Amy Lefringhouse (10:14):
Okay.
Scott Kuykendall (10:14):
So, you know, they'll say we have six wells,
three of those are in the deepaquifer, two of them are in the
sand and gravel aquifer, and oneis in the the shallow bedrock
aquifer. Okay. And so thecommunities that put that
information in really can dialin exactly where your water is
coming from. A lot ofcommunities, especially smaller
(10:37):
communities that don't have alot of staff to do additional
writing will pretty limited inwhat they're telling you. The
the state has Illinois StateWater Survey has a program
called ILWATER.
And ILWATER, you can it's a map,interactive mapping system, and
(10:59):
you can open up the map and zoomin to your community and it'll
show a bunch of blue dots. Nextto the blue dots is a number and
that's showing the depth of thewells. So each of the blue dots
is representing a well and thenthe number is representing the
depth of that well. And then youcan click on the blue dot and
it'll pull up the well log. Sowhen drillers are drilling the
(11:21):
wells, they record the geologythat they encounter as they go
down.
You can actually see a geologicrecord of your well, and it's
it's really fascinating. Sopeople who want to take a deeper
dive, pun intended, you know,it's it really is very
fascinating. And so that's thatwould you know, if I'm traveling
around, that's probably where Iwould look. Other communities
(11:45):
may have more localizedinformation that I'm not aware
of. Mhmm.
At at Henry County, we actuallyhave a lot of different things
that we're working on. So weworked with the US geological
survey, and this is one of thescientific things that I help
manage. We have a network of 37groundwater monitoring wells
distributed around the county.Every 15 minutes, it's taking a
(12:09):
water level measurement,transmitting that data up to the
US geological survey satellites,and then they maintain that data
for us and actually created a ainteractive map. And so you can
go on to our map, and it'll showwhere all the wells are located.
And then you can click on anyone of those wells and pull up
data since 2009. And it showsthe the rise and fall that
(12:32):
occurs naturally year afteryear, but it also since we've
been capturing since 2009, we'venow captured multiple periods of
extreme drought where the watertable drops precipitously and
then the recovery. So 2012 was aa period the February was a
(12:53):
period of major droughtthroughout the Midwest. It was a
catastrophic drought, and sowater tables dropped. That was
followed by a period of recordrainfall where by 2017, we were
experiencing major floodingthroughout the region.
And then in 2020, the rain juststopped, and it stopped for
pretty much three years. And sothe the water table drew down
(13:17):
again. And so you can see howthe different aquifers in the
county react to both periods ofdrought and periods of record
rainfall because the differentaquifers do react very
differently depending on theamount of clay that may be
overtopping it, you know, howshallow it is. So we really are
collecting great data that we'reusing to understand how much
(13:40):
water is available for futuredevelopment and potential
concerns for you know, if ifwater levels aren't are are
dropping, you know, we can usethat to try and find what is the
cause of that that drawdown andare there solutions to that. You
know, when we're talking aboutwater, at least in my role, I'm
not thinking about water justright now.
(14:02):
I'm thinking about what is thewater supply, water quality into
the future. So I'm looking ahundred years in the future. The
demand that's placed on ourwater today is not the demand
that's being gonna be placed onour water tomorrow. Right.
Population will increase.
New technologies will come in.You know, right now,
data centers are kind of one ofthe biggest concerns when it
(14:25):
comes to water because they haveto use so much water to cool
down all the equipment. And sothey are massive, massive
consumers of water. So everytime you're using the cloud for
data storage, you're actuallyusing water. Most people don't
think about the consequences ofthese things.
(14:45):
So that's part of what I do.
Amy Lefringhouse (14:47):
That is so crazy. I'm sorry. I didn't mean
to step over you, Erin, but Ijust had this conversation like
two days ago about data centersand their water usage. And not
we weren't really talking aboutIllinois, but I guess now that
you say it, Scott, I'm like, oh,yeah. Up in, you know,
Northeastern is where a lot ofthose are going.
And but we were talking aboutout West about data centers and,
(15:12):
you know, water shortages outthere. So that's crazy how that
comes up in those two twoconversations at once.
Scott Kuykendall (15:20):
Right. Yeah. So that, you know, the kind of
the one of the things that'sbeing focused on is the the
nexus between water, food, andenergy. Because energy is also
part of the mix. You are pumpingwater from deeper and deeper or
pumping more and more water, youhave to use more energy.
Then you have to treat morewater to drinking water
standards. You have to pump thataround town. You have to recover
(15:42):
that water, and then you have totreat that water. So that
requires an enormous amount ofenergy. Sure.
So, you know, all these thingsare intertwined. And, you know,
I I I'll go ahead and you know,as long as we're talking about
connections, part of what Ifocus on is not just our our
groundwater for drinking water,but the the connection between
our our land use, our naturalresources, our surface waters,
(16:07):
and our groundwater. All ofthose are intertwined. If we're
using water excessively, we canbe drawing down resources that
would otherwise be available forwetlands or wildlife. And so,
you know, I'm very cognizant of,you know, the human element of
things, but I am also veryconcerned with maintaining the
(16:29):
the the natural health of our ofour nation.
And if how we manage the landhas a direct impact on our
groundwater recharge and waterquality. Water, when it
infiltrates down through thesand and gravel, is not just
stored underground still. Wateris in constant motion. So water
(16:50):
is moving downward andrecharging our water table, but
it's also over a period of days,months, years, or decades moving
laterally and providing a baseflow of cool, clean water to our
lakes, rivers, streams, andwetlands. And that's why water
will still be flowing in astream at the end of summer when
we haven't had rain for months.
It's because that groundwater isslowly moving and providing a
(17:12):
base flow of cool, clean water.If we are pulling too much water
out of the ground, we'reremoving that water source to
our lakes, river streams, andwetlands. And once again, that's
just not something that peopleusually think about. And then
when we pave over the land,water is no longer able to
recharge our aquifers, but it'salso not moving into the ground
(17:36):
and providing that base flow.You're creating an impermeable
surface, whether it's pavementor rooftops, that water is
hitting that paved surface andrushing off to instead of
groundwater fed systems, it'srushing off over the surface
into our lake, river streams, orwetlands, creating a flood
followed by drought, flood,drought, flood, drought.
(17:57):
So instead of a base flow ofcool clean water, we have
completely altered thehydrology. And so that's hot
dirty water, so as that waterpasses over the surface, it's
collecting any of the salt fromour road salt, it's collecting
any of the oils from our cars,it's collecting any of the
detergents that we put on theground. Anything that we put
into the air onto the land canultimately be a source of water
(18:20):
pollution. And so we're dumpinghot dirty water over the surface
into our water bodies instead ofmaintaining that base flow. And
so all of these are things thatwe need to be cognizant of when
we're doing land use planning,but rarely are these things
taken into consideration.
But it will have long termimpacts if we don't manage land
(18:41):
use properly.
Erin Garrett (18:42):
That's crazy. And I've been thinking this whole
time is when you talk about thethe aquifers that do recharge,
right, and that act as that morerenewable resource, I just am
trying to imagine the amount ofwater that our communities use
on a daily basis versus like theamount that comes from the sky,
and it just doesn't balance inmy brain. Is it mean, you talked
(19:04):
about how you have you've beenmonitoring long term, so there
are times when, you know, thewater table will change, and
you'll have more and less, like,we relatively, like, staying
somewhat equal or, like, whatare the other options when it is
really low? Like, how does thatall work?
Scott Kuykendall (19:22):
Well, that's why a lot of communities did
shift from groundwater to LakeMichigan, And and that's a
really complex issue, but anexample right now that's
occurring is Joliet. The Jolietarea has been reliant 100% on
the deep bedrock aquifers, thatIronton Galesville aquifer. So
(19:43):
like our wells in that aquiferabout 1,500 feet deep. So that's
been their source of water andthe water table has been drawn
down by over 900 feet. And theyliterally have less than ten
years worth of water left.
And so they are in the processof getting a they're gonna be
building a pipeline to by cityof or Lake Michigan water from
(20:07):
the city of Chicago. That'sgonna be extremely expensive
water. And basically, waterutilities will triple what they
are now. And so, know, these arenot simple solutions and the
city it's not just the city ofJoliet, It's all the industries
in their area as well that aretaking unregulated amounts of
(20:29):
water out of that aquifer. Butthey don't have an alternative.
They work with the state. Theyand they really have done a
great job evaluating theiroptions. But the only viable
option was to construct apipeline and get Lake Michigan
water. And they are quite a waysaway from the lake. They have to
(20:50):
go through a a permittingprocess to get authorization to
withdraw water from the lakefrom Lake Michigan.
So it is not a light decisionthat was made, but, you know,
what I talk a lot about is wateris necessary for all life.
Whether in the topics, thetundra, or the Midwest, Every
living thing on the planet needswater. Because water is so
essential to life, it's also ournumber one economic driver.
(21:13):
Nobody's gonna invest in homesor businesses if they don't have
access to safe, clean, reliable,and affordable water. So our
water is our economic driver.
So they they really have nochoice but to find an alternate
source. And but it is anexpensive solution. We do have
communities in our area that arelooking at the viability of Lake
(21:34):
Michigan water because they'reso reliant on the deep aquifer
as well. If they are able to getit, we still have between thirty
and fifty thousand private wellsin our area relying on that sand
and gravel aquifer. So no matterwhat, our future is gonna be
dependent on that sand andgravel aquifer and the shallow
bedrock below that.
(21:56):
And so if you do get LakeMichigan water, you're subject
to very strict waterconservation practices. And then
as communities grow on renewableresources, you know, water
supplies, they're gonna have topractice conservation as well.
So conservation is critical toour future. You know, not not
just because it's anenvironmentally right thing to
(22:18):
do, but because it is necessaryfor our economic development.
And so once people understandthe the nuances of all this, you
know, it's this is important toeverybody.
And that's why our county reallyhas invested in understanding
what our supplies are, what isthe future demands that we're
gonna face, and do we haveenough. And so, you know, these
(22:41):
are very real issues that needto be taken very, very
seriously. And it it'sabsolutely fascinating. I'd I I
think I mentioned I just gotback from a trip to New Mexico.
And, you know, I being the waternerd that I am, I Mhmm.
Spent a fair amount of my timelearning their water resources.
And especially I got wasvisiting friends and family out
(23:01):
there, so I'm concerned about,you know, their water
availability. And, you know, outwest, they are, you know, really
having to go to extreme lengthsto maintain water supplies. And
one of the main things that'sbeing developed now is actually
wastewater reuse and treatingwastewater to drinking water
(23:23):
standards and then pumping thatinto your aquifer to recharge
the aquifer artificially. And Ilove it as a concept.
And if we only had organicthings in our day to day lives,
I think it would be a relativelyeasy thing to do. But we have
between 40,000 and 80,000chemicals in our day to day
life. And, you know, can werealistically remove all those
(23:47):
chemicals prior to pumping thatinto our groundwater? So I I I'm
very concerned about it, but tomany parts of the country and
the world, there are not gonnabe any any alternatives. And
it's also important to note thatall the water that's on the
planet is all the water that'sever been on the planet and all
we'll ever have.
(24:08):
So we're not able to make morewater. The water that we have is
all we have. And so it's beenrecycled many times over. And
so, yeah, we're just emulatingthat nature by reusing it. The
ick factor that people mighthave, they're they're gonna have
to get over that.
And we have to develop bettertechnologies so that we can
(24:31):
clean the water properly. Mybiggest concern, if you have
dirty water above ground, youknow, that's, you know,
something you can deal with.Once you pump it into the
aquifer, then it's a chronicproblem that is gonna be much
more difficult, much moreexpensive to address. And so I
wanna make sure we're onlypumping clean water into the
(24:52):
aquifers if that's the themethod that we're gonna use for
conservation and water reuse. Sovery fascinating subject, and
people around the world areworking very hard on this.
A lot of people just think, oh,well, we'll just do
desalinization. Anddesalinization is part of the
(25:12):
the future of water, but thatrequires a lot of energy. It's
very energy intensive, and thenyou have byproducts at the end
of that. You've removed allthese materials. What do you do
with those materials?
That creates a whole new set ofproblems. So it's not none of
these things are flipping aswitch and, you know, finding a
(25:34):
clean solution. You know, ourbest option is not to cause a
problem in the first place. So,you know, kinda circle back to
water conservation. Waterconservation is critical to our
future.
And, you know, the technologiesthat are being developed really
are are fascinating, and, youknow, can generate a lot more
wealth doing the right thingthan the than the wrong thing.
(25:55):
And so, you know, a lot ofcompanies have invested very
heavily in developing, you know,toilets, water fixtures that
provide good service whileconserving water. And, you know,
I just invested in a newshowerhead and part of my
solution was I have a low flowshowerhead that actually works
(26:17):
real well. It's actually nicerthan any other showerhead I've
had, but it has a hand wandsprayer, and I put on a shutoff
valve so that you it you turn itand it just goes to a trickle.
And so if you're lathering up oryou're washing something, you
don't need to have the watergoing full blast the whole time
(26:39):
you're doing that.
You know, it's a relativelylittle things, but $12, but it's
probably saved me over $12 inwater loss. And, you know, I'm
lowering my water footprint. Sothere are things that each of us
can be doing that, you know,aren't that big of a deal. And,
you know, the process ofactually doing you know, finding
(26:59):
these things out was a lot offun, at least for a water nerd
like me.
Erin Garrett (27:03):
Mhmm. Yeah. That's great. And that makes me think
of, you know, there's lots ofindividual practices that we can
take into account, but I'm kindof curious about, like, broader
conservation practices thatmaybe have been implemented in
McHenry County. I know growingup in Algonquin, we had, like,
the signs about, like, when youcan water outside, and it's,
(27:25):
like, based on, I'm assuming, alot of it had to do like if we
were in a drought, it had redand it was like no outdoor
watering, or it was like everyother day you could water
outside and only during certainhours, like are those some of
the things that come from thework that you're doing, or is
that other practice, or arethere other guidelines and
things like that that are inplace?
Scott Kuykendall (27:45):
I'm glad you brought up Algonquin. Algonquin
is one of the communities. It'shalf in McHenry, half in Kane
County, but they've been trueleaders in so many different
things. We we partner with themon what we refer to sensible
salting. Algonquin is a is agreat community that really has
done some wonderful things whenit comes to conservation on many
(28:06):
different levels.
You know, the wateringrestrictions. So typically,
you'll have odd or even days. Soif your address ends in a odd
number, you can water on thesedays. If you it's a even number,
you can water on those otherdays. And so there are different
ways municipalities willapproach that.
(28:27):
And then sometimes they'll alsohave, you know, you know, red,
yellow, or green depending onthe on the level of drought. It
can require different types ofand typically, you only wanna
water between, like, six andeight and and, you know,
daylight early daylight hours orlate daylight hours so that when
(28:49):
you're putting your water on thelawn, you're not losing most of
that to evaporation. You want toput it down when it'll actually
soak into the ground and feedthe vegetation. That's one way
to do that. You can actually,you know, if you do have a
system that requires irrigation,you know, there are systems now
that will actually only water ifthe soil moisture indicates that
(29:10):
it's needed.
So not just a, you know, youknow, eight to nine every
morning, you know, you can havehave it set up so that it
actually measures the soilmoisture. And so you're
literally are only putting waterdown when it's necessary. And,
you know, different types ofsystems that are only, you know,
putting droplets down as opposedto big sprays. So, you know,
(29:32):
there are ways to doconservation there. One of the
things that we advocate for isreplacing turf grass with native
vegetation.
Our native vegetation doesn'tneed watering once it's
established. And the deep rootstructure of native plants. So
the, you know, native plantswill go down, you know, five,
ten, up to 15 feet or so. Andthat network of roots and that
(29:58):
those roots then restore thesoil health, put microorganisms
back in the ground. So thatentire soil profile of roots and
healthy soil become a giantsponge.
So it's reducing the need forirrigation. It's reducing the
need for any type of fertilizersbecause our native plants don't
need fertilizers, and then thatentire soil and root profile
(30:19):
become a giant sponge thatreduce flooding when we get too
much. So it can withstanddroughts when we have too little
water, and it can help withflood mitigation when we have
too much. Roots of turf grasstypically only go down about an
inch or two. And so all thatturf grass is actually
contributing to flooding andrequires irrigation.
(30:42):
So, you know, our the turf grassthat we use, you know, people
think Kentucky bluegrass. Thethe grass is not from Kentucky.
It's not native to the area. Itshouldn't be here. And it's not
to say get rid of all turfgrass, but when you've got acres
of, like, corporate land orMhmm.
You know, even parkland, youknow, you can be putting a
significant amount of that intonegative vegetation, providing
(31:06):
all these ecosystem services aswell as providing habitat for
wildlife. And so restoring thenatural hydrology and ecology of
our area while still having, youknow, that open view space that
you need. If you've got activeuse, you know, for ball fields
and recreation, you know, turfgrass, know, is not gonna hurt
(31:28):
anything. But just the how we'veconverted the entire landscape
to turf and pavement has hadvery detrimental impacts, and is
that something that'ssustainable into the future?
Going back to New Mexico wheremy friend and his wife built
their house, the entirecommunity is xeriscape, and
(31:49):
where they do have vegetation,it's required native vegetation,
and the only irrigation istreated wastewater.
There are ways that we can bedoing these things better. I
don't know that we need to dorock landscaping throughout our
area, but we have great paletteof native plants that can be
used. And, you know, once we getthose reestablished, they're
(32:13):
providing a whole litany ofbenefits to our communities.
And, you know, with floodmitigation, it's a big issue for
us. We're actually getting moreprecipitation, but in fewer and
fewer storm events.
So over the past forty years,even though we have periodic
droughts, the amount of rainthat we were getting is
increasing. Yeah. The the thenumbers that we have to use to
(32:34):
calculate storm events andflooding have actually changed
because of this. So these arethis is not just theoretical.
This is empirical data thatwe're working off of.
But we're getting in fewer andfewer storm events. So the
intensity of our storms isincreasing. Our built
environment is not built for theamount of rainfall that we're
getting today, let alonetomorrow. And certainly wasn't
(32:55):
built for a six inch stormevent. And so how are we gonna
manage this precipitation in ourbuilt environment?
The number one tool in ourtoolbox is native vegetation.
Mhmm. And so, you know, theseare things, you know, kinda go
going back to what worked beforewe change things and finding a
(33:16):
better balance. So those arethings that we advocate for. In
the county, we don't providewater, so we're not like, you
know, having to manage watermains and things like that.
But when you're talking about abigger scale, that's really
important. Know, us know, up youknow, when it comes time to
update your toilet, you know,there's no excuse for going to a
(33:40):
the high volume toilet system.There's so many different
options on the market. But whenwe're talking about converse
conservation in a municipality,a lot of it is re replacing the
broken water mains. So we loseso much water to cracks in our
systems that they're it'sdetrimental to our water
(34:00):
supplies.
So you're pumping that water outof the ground at great economic
and environmental expense,treating it to drinking water
standards at great economicexpense, pumping it all around
your city at great economicexpense, and to have that just
leak into the ground is wastefulboth economically and
(34:21):
environmentally. Andunfortunately, that water may
not be going back to the aquiferthat it came from. So, you know,
they may be taking are likelytaking it from a deeper aquifer
that has a layer of clay aboveit. And so that water is not you
know, even though that leak isin the same area, that may not
be getting back down into theaquifer where it can be used.
(34:44):
And so that's with the whencommunities go to Lake Michigan
water, that's one of the mainthings that they have to do is
bring their water loss down tovery low percentages and and
then do public education and alot of other things.
And like I said, Joliet, itreally has done a great job with
(35:05):
that as far as I understand it,and it will probably be a model
that a lot of communities willfollow with their own programs.
Amy Lefringhouse (35:13):
I will say, for the longtime listeners of
this podcast, we did not payScott to say that native plants
are always the answer. ButScott, you walked right into a
kind of a running thing in allof our podcasts where we were
like, it all comes back tonative plants, native
vegetation. But no.
Scott Kuykendall (35:33):
We do walk the talk. At our County
Administration Building inWoodstock, we we have two
demonstration gardens flankingthe entrance. And so we have a
rain garden demonstrationproject, and then we have a
xeriscape or dry prairiedemonstration project. And so
everybody coming and going fromthe County Building is walking
right past our demonstrationgardens.
Amy Lefringhouse (35:55):
That's it.
Scott Kuykendall (35:55):
And ten years ago, I you know, would hear, you
know, lots of snide commentswith people coming in the
building. Sure. Now 95% of thecomments I hear are positive.
People really are getting abetter understanding of the
benefits of native vegetation,and that's, you know, directly
due to efforts of, you know, youguys and other organizations
(36:17):
throughout the area. But from apractical perspective, native
plants are green infrastructurethat is being used in
municipalities and other placesto manage flooding.
It is one of the most powerfultools that we have, plain and
simple. One of the jokes that wehave in the sustainability realm
(36:39):
is nature's had four and a halfbillion years of research and
development. So there's not adesign problem that you can't
find a solution to in nature.And with our native plants, you
know, it's been right under ournose and under our feet, you
know, the whole time. You know,it it's very true.
So, know, we're definitely onthe same page there.
Erin Garrett (37:00):
I was just gonna say this just circles back to,
you know, we had Layne on thepodcast to talk about rain
gardens and native plants. We'vehad Eliana on the podcast to
talk about green storm waterinfrastructure. So, know,
everything you know, we choose atheme for a reason in water, but
everything kind of all comesback and wraps together and kind
of shows too how at differentscales it all pieces together.
(37:21):
Right? Actions that you take atyour home can make a difference,
but then our municipalities arelooking to make changes too, and
change can happen at that scaletoo, so you know, if you
practice these practices at homeand think it's important and
it's not happening in your citytoo, like bringing that up and
trying to advocate for that toois something that is you can
(37:41):
help make that difference.
And then you know you talkedabout changing out like your
toilet or your showerhead, know,when that need happens that you
need to replace it, know, lookfor that more energy efficient,
water efficient choice, and thenthat'll help save you money too,
which is always good. So right?It goes both ways. It's gonna be
helpful for the environment as awhole, but then helpful for your
(38:05):
wallet, which is always great.So just considering those
options, we've come such a longway, right, in the availability
of those different options andkind of the more accepted
practice of like this is whatwe're gonna do like when we
build new, it's a lot more lowflow faucets and things like
that are kind of the thestandard model, so it's good to
see those changes happen, and wedo see you know as our
(38:27):
populations continue toincrease, our water demand,
like, is going to continue togrow, and especially with, you
know, the changes we're seeingin our climate too.
Right? With just the differentway that water comes to us in in
different events, more droughtor you know, more rain at one
time, how much of that can wecapture? It's really important
to kind of think likeholistically, right, and like
(38:47):
the actions that that we cantake to try to help with with
that, know, issue that we'regonna be dealing with forever,
right, we're always gonna bethinking about because that
water resource is superimportant. So just kind of
wrapping things wrapping thingstogether, bringing together some
different pieces of of our ofour season this year. Mhmm.
Amy Lefringhouse (39:08):
Well, and Scott, we're really I mean, we
really wanted to feature you inin McHenry County. I know you
have a water resources actionplan and and I've looked through
that and if if folks on thepodcast want to look that up,
we'll put it in the show notes,but it's a good example, has a
great slideshow that shows someof the best management practices
and things that communities andindividuals can do. So we are
(39:29):
really appreciative that youcame, Scott, here to talk to us
and just give us someinspiration about what counties
and what communities are doingand that we can we might be able
to look for in our counties oradvocate for in our counties as
well.
Scott Kuykendall (39:45):
Yeah, we can learn from each other. And so
one of the things that we did iswe did three-dimensional mapping
of our subsurface geology. Sothat layer of sand and gravel
that I had talked about, youcan't look at the land surface
and know what's going onunderground. And, you know, the
one of the hydrogeologists Iworked with coined a phrase,
(40:06):
your geology is a complicatedbeautiful mess. And that's
because, you know, it evolved,you know, as the glaciers came
and went.
And so to understand oursubsurface geology, we did work
with the Illinois StateGeological Survey to do
three-dimensional mapping. Andso you can go on the website
that they created for us and runa transect line over your area
(40:29):
of interest. So, like, I'lltypically start out going from
west to east over an area. Solike if you wanna go over a town
or your house, and then it'llpull up a profile view of the
geology underneath that line.And it's color coded to show
lighter colors will be areasdominated by sand and gravel.
(40:50):
So those are our groundwateraquifers or the recharge to
those aquifers. The darkercolors, greens and blues are
areas dominated by clay. Sothose are the impermeable
layers. And so within seconds ofpulling up a map, you can have a
solid understanding of what'sgoing on under underground.
Amy Lefringhouse (41:10):
And that's available to anybody, Scott?
Scott Kuykendall (41:13):
Yep. Yep. So I've got links on our website,
and so I'll plug our websitetoo. For any of these water
elements that we've talkedabout, you can go on to
mchenryh20.com. Somchenryh20.com, and I've got
links to all these differentresources.
(41:33):
But because you can't understandwhat's going on, you know,
underground without, you know,having these types of tools, The
we're we're looking to use thisfor planning into the future and
understanding where the risk is.So the same areas that allow for
infiltration to occur also meansthat pollutants can infiltrate
down. And so often we've locatedindustrial development right
(41:56):
over the most sensitive rechargeareas. And so, you know, how do
we invite development in whilestill protecting our
groundwater? And so areas thathave more sensitive recharge
areas may not be the best forcertain types of development or
they should be implementing bestmanagement practices to prevent
that pollution.
(42:16):
The city or excuse me, thecounty of Boone right next to us
is investing in the samethree-dimensional mapping. And
then ultimately, it's probably afew years down the road, but
ultimately, we'd like to see thestatewide. This
three-dimensional mapping isevolved to the point where they
can do it using helicopters,where the the helicopter will
(42:39):
carry a ring and it's basicallykinda doing an MRI of the land
and actually able to see map thegeology down to the bedrock and
just run transects. And so thisis being done globally now to
get a better understanding ofour groundwater. And we can use
(42:59):
this for planning purposes toknow water, you know, water
availability and sensitivity,and make sure that we have the
ability to protect water longinto the future so that we can
have viability communities inthe long term.
And these are all just, youknow, fascinating things, but
they require us to, you know,wanna understand our where our
(43:24):
water comes from and how toprotect it. And, you know, I do
presentations at schools forgreen jobs. And so when I talk
about all these things, theseare career paths that all these
future generations are gonna,you know, have. In my
presentations, I'll show a slideshowing the population growth.
So my my parents, when they wereborn, they were 2,400,000,000
(43:47):
people.
We now have over 8,000,000,000people. How are we gonna provide
a good standard of living for8,000,000,000 people on a planet
with limited resources? And allthese challenges are gonna
create opportunities because wehave to figure these things out.
And so the three-dimensionalmapping, the groundwater
monitoring, all these types ofthings are, you know,
technologies that are beingevolved developed and evolved to
(44:11):
find solutions, they createopportunities for career paths.
So pretty fascinating stuff, andI'm really looking forward to
Boone County doing theirsbecause then we'll have
contiguous mapping across bothcounties.
And so like I said, if you areinterested in this, just go to
our website mchenryh200.com, andI've got links there. And then
(44:33):
the three or the McHenry Countywater resources action plan
basically has every issuerelated to water in the region
addressed in there. So anybodywanting to learn more about
water can pull up thatpublication on our website as
well.
Amy Lefringhouse (44:49):
I just looked up the helicopter. That's cool.
Scott Kuykendall (44:54):
That's gonna be done early early spring, I
believe. And so there thereprobably would be a fair amount
of press on that. Yeah. Theythey hired Boone County hired a
water resources specialist to,you know, try and address some
of the same things that I do inMcHenry County. And so this
really is a, you know, aregional thing that's being done
(45:16):
and a lot of cross collaborationwhere we're helping each other
out because this is such a bigissue.
Amy Lefringhouse (45:23):
We could ask a million more questions. I know.
But we probably should wrap upthis podcast. So we are so happy
that you've been here with us,Scott.
Scott Kuykendall (45:35):
My pleasure.
Erin Garrett (45:36):
Alright. So thanks so much, Scott, for sharing your
knowledge on the water resourcesin Northeast Illinois. We
chatted about so many differentthings. I learned so much. It's
fascinating.
We're gonna finish our episodewith our everyday observations.
So this is where we highlightkind of the normal, but
fascinating things we find inour environment that are super
interesting to us. So I'm gonnapick on Amy first. What is your
(45:58):
everyday observation?
Amy Lefringhouse (45:59):
Okay. Real quick. I know this is released
in the spring, and I think thisis pretty seasonally, I guess,
can go in into any season. But Idid a presentation the other
night about the naturaldivisions of Illinois to a club,
and I went to a basketball gamethis week in the kind of central
(46:22):
part of the state, and wow. I'mfrom West Central Illinois.
We talked about that. Maybewe've talked about that before,
but, you know, it's prettyrolling. There's some topography
over here on the West Side ofthe state, but I went to kind of
the I was in assumption, andwow, it is flat there.
Definitely in the Grand PrairieNatural Division Of Illinois
(46:48):
where it is flat, flat, flat. SoI guess just my everyday
observation was just looking atthe landscape around you, it's
just really neat when you cankind of identify those, you
know, different naturaldivisions in Illinois, and that
was, you know, one that kind ofhit me in the face this week.
Erin Garrett (47:07):
Thanks, Amy. Yeah. It's crazy. You know, we're
spread out all across the state,and it really does look so
different. Right?
Yeah. Most people think likeIllinois flat, but where a lot
of us are, it's not really likethat. Kind of in like the
different pockets where we don'treally have like the just the
flat you can Right. That'sright. Right.
(47:28):
Right. And you talk about we
Amy Lefringhouse (47:29):
talk about it all the time. We talk about it
to our master naturalists. Wetalk about the natural
divisions, then, you know, justto see some of those in the
landscape is, you know, oh,yeah. I recognize it. I see it.
Erin Garrett (47:41):
That's awesome. Thanks, Amy. Alright, Scott,
what's your everydayobservation?
Scott Kuykendall (47:45):
Well, just what's I had seen that you do
that question at the end, andwhat's really kind of had me
thinking is just being receptiveto opportunities to see things.
So driving to work yesterday, Iwas at a stoplight and I saw
movement in my periphery. And soI focused on it and it was a
(48:09):
juvenile bald eagle. And, youknow, I just happened to notice
it. So I grabbed my binoculars,which I always have on me, and
so I'm at the stoplight watchingthis bald eagle and just, you
know, try to keep my eye on whenthe light turns green, so I'm
just not one of just anotherguy, you know, holding up
traffic birding at thestoplight.
(48:31):
But I'm just, you know, I'mamazed that, you know, when I
was younger, I was completelyoblivious to what was going on
around me. And, you know, I Ispent twenty years as an
ecologist before doing a latelife career shift to this job.
But just to see a group of geeseflying up and just seeing
something different about thisone group and and then seeing
(48:54):
that it's a group of snow geesethat's flying overhead, not
Canada geese. So just if you're,you know, ready to be receptive
to opportunities, thoseopportunities will present
themselves. And then the otherthing is just the sense of
gratitude.
So every time I have a closeencounter with with wildlife, I
just am struck with a sense ofgratitude that the habitat is
(49:18):
there to support that animal andthat, you know, whatever powers
that be, you know, brought ustogether. You know, I've had
amazing interactions with foxesand other things right out the
back door of my my countybuilding. And, you know, just I
I'm always filled with a senseof gratitude for that
opportunity. So those are kindof the things that I had going
(49:39):
through my head regardingeveryday opportunities.
Erin Garrett (49:43):
I love that. Well, mine's gonna build off of yours,
Scott, because mine also has todo with the bald eagle. But this
fall, I was at Pere MarquetteState Park, and we were just
getting to the time when, youknow, it's time to see more
eagles, easier to find them. Sowe were there for a few days,
and we saw none, and I was sodisappointed. Come on.
It's like
Amy Lefringhouse (50:03):
I know.
Erin Garrett (50:03):
I didn't see any. But we were leaving. We were
driving and heading out of town,and then just driving along the
river there, I saw one and itwas like diving like it was
going to catch a fish, and itwas just like perfect. I'm like,
okay. The trip was complete.
And it was really cool. Itwasn't just sitting in a tree. I
(50:24):
actually got to see it inaction. So that was a case where
I was actively looking, wedidn't see anything, but then we
did find one at the end. So it'sjust kind of the icing on the
cake of that trip that we didactually get to see one, which
is really exciting.
So
Amy Lefringhouse (50:40):
I feel like it that's, like, always the case.
You know? You're I we'researching and searching and
searching to see something, andthen it always happens out of
the blue. Right? You're you'rejust you know, you don't you
don't know when it's gonnahappen, when nature's gonna
kinda almost, you know, hit you.
Scott Kuykendall (50:55):
There was a far side comic, a guy with his
binoculars, and, you know,there's nothing out here. And
behind him is like a pastoralsetting with bears and elk.
Amy Lefringhouse (51:05):
Right.
Scott Kuykendall (51:06):
So, yeah, I I I always feel like that far side
guy when I'm out looking forthings, but you're you're you're
receptive and and open for theopportunity when it did present
itself. So Bless. Know, that'sBe grateful for that
opportunity.
Erin Garrett (51:24):
Definitely. This has been another episode on the
Everyday Environment podcast.Check us out next week where we
talk with Margaret Schneemannabout water pricing.
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