Water Resources Planning

Welcome to CMAP's water website.  Beyond this homepage, you may choose to explore our Water Quality Management activities, including information about watershed planning, facility area reviews, and the Volunteer Lake Monitoring Program.  Or you may choose to explore our Water 2050 Implementation work, with related resource offerings and programs.   

 

CMAP's role in planning for water resources in the 21st century is firmly rooted in the history of regional planning in northeastern Illinois.  With the recent publication of Water 2050, produced in conjunction with the Regional Water Supply Planning Group, CMAP continues a long tradition of thinking about and planning for our region's water supplies that dates back to 1966 with publication of "Technical Report No. 4."  Today, Water 2050 brings together the most recent scientific studies on water demand and supplies, best professional judgment on how to avoid imbalances, and diverse stakeholder input.  The result is a blueprint of over 240 recommendations for maintaining the prosperity of our region; a prosperity, broadly defined, that depends on adequate and affordable water for all users.

 

CMAP is already implementing Water 2050 recommendations and we will support implementation efforts by collaborating with others and providing technical assistance to public water suppliers.  One of CMAP's first implementation actions for Water 2050 was to become an U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) WaterSense Promotional Partner. In line with WaterSense, CMAP promotes water efficient fixtures such as high efficiency toilets and showerheads both in Water 2050 and GO TO 2040.  GO TO 2040, the region's first comprehensive plan, builds on Water 2050 in important ways and will ensure that agency efforts to provide leadership and assistance will remain consistent and constant. 

 

Related to the relative availability of our region's water supplies and how well they are expected to meet increasing demand, issues of water quality are also an important part of regional planning.  CMAP is the delegated authority for the region's areawide water quality management plan.   Thus, CMAP is obligated to outline management strategies for eliminating point- and nonpoint-source pollution, protecting groundwater, and disposing of wastewater throughout the seven-county region.  CMAP, as did the Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission before it, employs a collaborative watershed approach to planning that seeks to protect and/or remediate water quality. Water pollution prevention and groundwater protection is the shared responsibility of state and local governments along with individual farm operators for controlling agricultural nonpoint-source pollution.  To learn more about CMAP's water quality related initiatives, please visit the Water Quality Management page.

 

CMAP, in partnership with Illinois Indiana Sea Grant and the University of Illinois Extension, has developed an expert-reviewed manual that explores full-cost pricing as a tool for local decision makers interested in sustainably managing community water supply -- Full-Cost Water Pricing Guidebook for Sustainable Community Water Systems. Visit www.cmap.illinois.gov/water-2050/full-cost-water-pricing to download the guidebook. To learn more about the Full Cost Pricing Program contact MSchneemann@cmap.illinois.gov or visit  www.iisgcp.org/water_supply/water_rates.html.

 

For more information on Water Resources Planning, please contact Tim Loftus at 312-386-8666 or email tloftus@cmap.illinois.gov.