Kane County Groundwater Sustainability

Groundwater Science

Kane County Groundwater Sustainability

Campton_Twp_Landscape

Photo by Daniel R. Hadley, ISWS

Groundwater is the primary source of drinking water for municipalities and individual homeowners in Kane County, IL. There are three major aquifer systems in Kane County: the shallow sand and gravel aquifers that are predominately located in bedrock valleys, the underlying shallow bedrock aquifer consisting of fractured and weathered dolomites, and the deep regional sandstone aquifer consisting of the St. Peter and Ironton-Galesville sandstones. As water levels decline in the deep sandstone aquifer, communities may have to become more reliant on shallow groundwater resources to meet demand. However, the shallow aquifers are more vulnerable to contamination due to faster recharge rates and the presence of numerous vertical flow pathways. Both the potential increase in use of the shallow aquifers and water quality concerns are prompting communities to evaluate the sustainability of using shallow groundwater resources far into the future.

The Illinois State Water Survey (ISWS) and the Illinois State Geological Survey (ISGS) have conducted numerous studies in Kane County, including large-scale measurements of shallow water levels, mapping of aquifers, and development of regional and local scale groundwater flow models.

Kane County has sponsored a three-part study to understand current shallow aquifer resources: groundwater sustainability modeling, a county-wide groundwater quality study, and establishing a groundwater monitoring network. This groundwater sustainability modeling seeks to utilize the Kane County Groundwater Flow model developed in 2009 by the ISWS to estimate sustainable supply of shallow groundwater for municipalities, map areas where there have been changes in natural groundwater discharge to streams as a result of withdrawals or land use change and create maps of shallow aquifer vulnerability based on demands and water quality concerns. The water quality study is a follow-up study to similar county-wide studies conducted in 2003 and 2015 and now completed and published. As new monitoring wells are established, they are added to the Kane County monitoring well web page.

The ISWS will work closely with the Northwest Water Planning Alliance (NWPA), Kane County communities, industries, and other stakeholders throughout the duration of the project.