Asset Publisher

A Water Conservation and Efficiency Plan for Evanston

The City of Evanston is located in northern Cook County, drawing water directly from Lake Michigan for its municipal water supply.  The City has a long standing commitment to sustainability and the City's Strategic Plan identified environmental sustainability as one of the three guiding values for Evanston along with economic viability and strengthening community.  

Now, the City of Evanston is working with CMAP's Local Technical Assistance (LTA) program to develop a Water Conservation and Efficiency plan as an implementation strategy of the Evanston Climate Action plan.  Unanimously adopted in November 2008, the Climate Action Plan calls for achieving a 13 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and outlines over 200 strategies including water-related strategies to reach this goal. 

During the first phase of the plan, an existing conditions report will be created in order to understand the current water supply conditions for the City of Evanston, including such conditions as billing systems, water supply ordinances, previous planning efforts, and water audit information.  In phase two, City and CMAP staff will undertake an extensive community outreach process to garner input on past, current, and future water conservation and efficiency efforts.  The end goal is to integrate feedback into the final plan by selecting program components that the community is willing to support.  Phase three will result in a final plan for the City of Evanston with recommendations for continued improvement in the areas of water efficiency. 

Final Water Conservation & Efficiency Plan

Click here to download and view the final Evanaston Water Conservation & Efficiency Plan, accepted by Evanston City Council August 2012. 

Click here to download view the final Evanston Water Conservation & Efficiency Plan Community Outreach Summary

Contacts

Catherine Hurley, Village of Evanston Sustainable Program Coordinator (sustainability@cityofevanston.org  or 847-488-8069)

Kendra Smith, CMAP Associate-Outreach & Community Engagement (ksmith@cmap.illinois.gov or 312-386-8774)

Project News Coverage

Water report: Sip, don't gulp, Evanston Now, August 13, 2012.

Joint Initiative Looks at City's Water Supply, Evanston Roundtable, May 9, 2012.

Web Content Display

 

Local Technical Assistance Program

The LTA home page has details of activities sponsored by the HUD Sustainable Communities grant to CMAP for support of community projects that advance the principles of GO TO 2040.  Planning assistance and grants for local projects across metropolitan Chicago are now available through the Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) Community Planning Program and CMAP Local Technical Assistance Program at www.rtachicago.com/applications.
 

CASE STUDIES

An interactive map of local case studies describes projects and people that exemplify the goals and objectives of GO TO 2040. 
 

CMAP's Local Ordinances and Toolkits program provides resources to municipalities interested in pursuing policies that are aligned with GO TO 2040 recommendations.