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Kendall Co. Plan Consortium Minutes 2008 09-18-08 APPROVED Kendall County Planning Consortium Yorkville Library Thursday, September 18, 2008 In Attendance: Anne Lucietto, Yorkville Charley Wunder, Yorkville Richard Scheffrahn , Yorkville Sandy Adams, Yorkville Travis Miller, Yorkville Stephanie Boettcher, Yorkville Sandy Adams, Yorkville Ralph Pfister, YBSD Sandy Bell, Big Rock Judy Sollinger, Oswego Jonathan Hall, Joliet Tom LeCuyer, Plano Jerry Elliot, Sugar Grove Township Dan Nagel, Sugar Grove Township Pete Wallers, EEI Matt Schury, Kendall Co. Record Yorkville Plan Commission Chairman Anne Lucietto opened the meeting at 7:05 pm. She introduced Pete Wailers, President of Engineering Enterprises, one of three representatives from this area on the Regions Water Supply Planning Group, The other two delegates are Jerry Dudgeon from Kendall County and Mayor Tom Weisner of Aurora, , The mission of the group, which was initiated by the governor in January 2006, is to develop a regional water supply management plan for the 11 county area through the year 2050. There is a comparable group that works in the southern part of the state. The group is 35 members strong, with members having expertise from government, water suppliers, environmentalists, businessmen, agriculture, real estate, education and waste water suppliers. The group meetings are open to the public, and meet alternately in Chicago and throughout the 11 county region. By 2030, the population will nearly double in these counties. The largest use of water is power generation, followed by business,private wells, mining, agriculture and public supply. Seventy seven percent of a day's water source is from Lake Michigan, which is a fixed amount of 2.1 million gallons. This was set by a 1967 court decision. As of yet, Kendall County is not using any water from this source. Mr. Wallers said in order for this to happen there needs to be abandonment of deep wells and further piping into the area. More work is needed to assess reasonable expected withdrawals for the region, and Mr, Wallers is encouraged that resource mapping is becoming available in more counties. A regional deep aquifer system model has been developed with help from Kane County. This modeling indicates withdrawals, current and future, that exceed the sustained yield of the aquifer. The first of three reports was completed in.June of this year and is a draft of demand scenarios. The observations are that voluntary conservation, as well as best management and conservation practices need to be practiced. An alliance in Chicago, after conducting a conservation study, showed a potential per capita per day reduction of 30% water savings. Simple measures can be used to save water, including the use of ultra low flushing toilets and new effective shower heads. One of the measures under consideration by some municipalities would set a predetermined usage amount per household. If this was exceeded the user would be charged as much as 13%more after exceeding the usage. Water conservation is needed and benefits include sustaining the water supply, lower energy costs, potentially, and environmentally, increasing the stream flows and raising the groundwater table. The meeting was adjourned at 7:45 pm. Minutes submitted by Annette Williams