Water 2050: Northeastern Illinois Regional Water Supply/Demand Plan

CMAP facilitated the work of the Regional Water Supply Planning Group (RWSPG) and led the development of Water 2050: Northeastern Illinois Regional Water Supply / Demand Plan, published in 2010. Water 2050, a science-based and stakeholder-driven plan for avoiding imbalances between water supply and demand, seeks to ensure that our region's relatively finite water supplies will be available for years to come, even as millions of new residents are expected by mid-century. Water 2050 makes recommendations that are designed to be implemented by a variety of stakeholders within the existing institutional structure of water supply planning and management. The cornerstone of the plan is a water use conservation and efficiency strategy that can reduce a significant percentage of new water demand. The four broad water use management techniques explored include water use conservation, water rate structures, graywater, and wastewater reuse. Each management technique is outlined in the plan and followed with an integrated set of detailed recommendations aimed at the responsible stakeholders: State of Illinois, CMAP, County governments, and public water suppliers. Water 2050 was used to inform the water and energy conservation recommendations in GO TO 2040.

Water 2050 included water demand scenarios to inform the discussions of water availability and management approaches, The regional water demand study, Regional Water Demand Scenarios for NE IL: 2005-2050, estimated future water use for five water sectors in the 11 counties of northeastern Illinois. In 2018, CMAP, in partnership with the Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant and the University of Illinois Extension, updated the regional water demand forecast to the year 2050 for the seven counties of northeastern Illinois using the latest CMAP Socioeconomic Forecast. This revised forecast, the ON TO 2050 Regional Water Demand Forecast, was used to inform the water supply planning recommendations in ON TO 2050.