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