Water Supply Planning: Illinois Water Inventory Program (IWIP)
Principal Investigator: Kelly, Knapp
Project Staff: Healy, Hlinka, McConkey, Rogers, Wilson
Sponsors: Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR)
Project Period: 2014–2016
The IWIP program is the foundation of water supply planning, as well as for understanding the future water needs of the citizens of Illinois long after the planning process has been implemented. Water demand scenarios are important information needed for the planning regions, and require water withdrawal data collected by IWIP. Continued tracking of water withdrawals is necessary to evaluate how those demand projections compare with actual withdrawals. In addition, groundwater withdrawal data can be very helpful for interpreting other groundwater data, including modeling the future impacts of withdrawals during climate extremes. IWIP is currently being upgraded, moving from relying on paper reporting to a digital, more automated process. The major water users that report withdrawals to IWIP include public water systems, industrial/commercial entities, and agricultural irrigators. The amended Water Use Act (Public Act 096-0222) makes reporting of high-capacity irrigation pumping for IWIP mandatory starting in 2015.
The main objectives of current work on the IWIP program include: (1) migrating IWIP into a completely digital program; (2) improving data quality by eliminating manual data entry by IWIP staff; and (3) incorporating a useable agricultural irrigation reporting system into the IWIP program.
Current activities include (1) revision of IWIP procedures and forms with a goal to develop electronic webforms to be beta tested in 2015 for the 2014 reported data; (2) working with the Northwest Water Planning Alliance (NWPA) to electronically collect water use data from their approximately 75-member public water systems in northeastern Illinois; and (3) developing and evaluating irrigation estimation methods, as well as implementing an outreach program to educate irrigators and irrigation stakeholders on reporting water use starting in 2015.
Selected Related Publications
Water Withdrawals in Illinois, 1984 - Kirk, James R., Kenneth J. Hlinka, Robert T. Sasman, and Ellis W. Sanderson, 1985 ISWS C-163 NTIS#: PB87-119368
Water Withdrawals and Use in Illinois, 2010 - Bryant, Tim, Scott Meyer, 2013 ISWS CR 2013-0
A Summary of Pumpage from the Cambrian-Ordovician Aquifers of Northeastern Illinois, 2000-2004. - Burch, Stephen L., H. Allen Wehrmann., 2007 ISWS DCS 2007-03
State Water Plan Task Force Special Report on Ground-water Supply and Demand in Illinois - Bowman, Jean A., 1991 ISWS RI-116 NTIS#: PB92-178151.
Website
https://www.isws.illinois.edu/groundwater-science/illinois-water-inventory-program
