In Will County, the health of the DuPage River is more than water chemistry

SHOREWOOD – Channahon resident Randy Krbec said he spends about three hours almost every day at the flowing DuPage River near his home and boats, even when water levels are high.

Living in the second-to-last house to the Route 6 bridge, Krbec has noticed several changes in the river, ranging from the loss of wildlife and vegetation to the seemingly increasing flooding.

So when he attended a meeting Wednesday held by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Shorewood to discuss the merits of a DuPage River flood risk study, he told a panel of officials about the issues he has seen on the river.

“As far as trying to identify where the over-bank floods are, I’d say your easier question is where it isn’t,” Krbec said.

Residents and officials from the Army Corps and other organizations such as the Lower DuPage River Watershed Coalition have seen the river's health and regulation improve since the passage of the national Clean Water Act in 1972.

But natural changes in the river and man-made devices such as dams and water runoff systems have altered the river’s ecosystem and increased its flooding capabilities, potentially affecting the lives of 900,000 residents.

Flooding impact

The study aims to investigate the over-bank and backwater flooding on the DuPage River and its tributaries, Army Corps Col. Christopher Drew said to the nearly 50 people at the meeting.

“This is a critical part of the study process,” Drew said Wednesday. “The purpose of tonight is to gather input and determine the scope of input.”

The Army Corps is paying for half of the $3 million study, with the Will County Executive’s Office and the DuPage County Stormwater Management Planning Committee splitting the remaining balance.

Army Corps project manager Imad Samara presented facts of the study and study area spanning 40 communities, including Bolingbrook, Channahon, Crest Hill, Joliet, Minooka, Naperville, Plainfield, Romeoville and Shorewood in Will County.

The study includes a public input period ending Dec. 4. Then the Army Corps will evaluate several options and formulate a tentative plan. A public review of the plan will be held in January 2017, with a final report preparation and Congress-level review and approval. The plan is set to be submitted to Congress in 2018.

The Army Corps also held similar meetings in Bolingbrook and Wheaton.

Three “hundred-year floods,” or floods that exceed the statistical water height limits that come once every century, have hit the DuPage River watershed in the past 20 years.

Several residents at the Shorewood meeting shared their firsthand experiences with the floods.

Joliet resident Joann Parks said her home has been hit three times by flooding from the DuPage River, and she rebuilt her home from the 2008 flood – only to be hit again by the 2013 flood.

“It’s a beautiful home, but who is going to buy it under these circumstances?” Parks said, adding it didn’t seem right to the homeowners along the watershed that action to control the flooding may not be taken for at least another three years during the term of the study.

Shorewood resident Mary Ruth Wirth said she has lived along the river more than 60 years and the flooding today is similar to the flooding in the 1950s and 1960s.

“I think that people have been given the idea that they live in a safe area, but some of these areas have flooded for years,” Wirth said. “Nobody paid any attention to them. Now, all of a sudden, it’s an issue.”

Some residents offered solutions to the flooding problems, such as Plainfield resident Tom Mooney, who said the Shorewood dam – like the Pilcher Park dam in Joliet – should be removed because it serves no purpose and flooding can cause widespread damage to homes.

River health

Flooding also affects the river’s health, said Jennifer Hammer, coordinator with the Lower DuPage River Watershed Coalition.

“Some of the impacts of flooding is small-scale,” Hammer said. “With development, it’s changed the whole system. Now you collect water off of roofs and driveways, and it doesn’t have the opportunity to infiltrate the ground. It all goes to the river very quickly.”

Hammer said the ground normally acts as a natural filter that contributes to groundwater sources and underground tributaries to the DuPage River. But the quickness of the water heading to the stream through man-made systems, such as wastewater treatment plants, has contributed to a rise in sediment, an erosion of stream banks and an impact on the natural habitat.

The coalition measures the health of the river by the wildlife in it.

The river has been getting healthier over the years. But the introduction of additional nutrients in the river has contributed to a loss of river life in areas of the lower DuPage River watershed because of an increase in algae and plants that take away oxygen from water life.

Hammer said it also has altered the physical attributes of the river, which is something that isn’t much measured by Environmental Protection Agency standards when regulating wastewater treatment plants.

“Everyone looks at the chemistry of the river,” Hammer said. “The water can be clean enough to drink. But if there’s no habitat for the fish to live, protect them from high flows or provide places for them to lay eggs or find food, it doesn’t really matter if the water is clean.”

But the major issue the coalition is dealing with is trying to inform municipalities, counties and other entities that use road salt of how it debilitates natural water sources.

Water runoff carries road salt, along with water softeners from groundwater sources, changing the chloride levels of water.

Hammer said normal limits for chlorides in rivers are about 500 milligrams per liter, but data suggests bug and fish populations start going down once levels hit 100 to 120 milligrams per liter.

Tara Neff, a water resource assistant with The Conservation Foundation – an organization that also oversees the health of the DuPage River – said communities need to find a balance between maintaining public safety and using less salt.

“Everybody is doing studies, from IDOT to the cities,” Neff said.

Those studies range from how much salt trucks’ speed affects application to how far salt scatters when it hits the road.

Shorewood public works employees have discussed how to mitigate the application of road salt, including pre-wetting the salt to increase its effectiveness and sending operators to sessions hosted by the watershed coalition, Public Works Supervisor Chris Drey said.

Plainfield also is using several methods to reduce its road salt use and impact on the river, but also is using contractors to help clean the roads this winter.

“Our contractors follow the same procedures that employees do,” Director of Public Works Allen Persons said.

Hammer and Neff said residents can help by not putting natural materials such as leaves, grass clippings and twigs in the rivers or down sewer drains.

“Just because it’s natural doesn’t mean it’s OK,” Hammer said, noting that natural waste decays more quickly and adds nutrients to the streams, which can cause harm to water and bug life.