About The Illinois State Water Survey

Illinois Water Supply Planning

Ensuring adequate and reliable supplies of clean water for all at reasonable cost requires the ISWS to think ahead into the near future. As a state, we need to know how much water will be available, how much water we will need, what the options are for providing additional supplies, reducing demand, and what the impacts and costs will be.

To that end, since 2006 the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) has funded the Illinois State Water Survey to lead regional water supply planning activities. Eleven planning regions have been defined throughout the state, and the Water Survey has done work for the East Central Illinois Basin RegionKankakee SubregionKaskaskia River Basin RegionMiddle Illinois RegionNortheastern Illinois RegionRock River Region, and American Bottoms Region. Future water supply planning will be conducted in the remaining regions.

Illinois map of water planning regions

The East Central Illinois Region encompasses Cass, Champaign, Dewitt, Ford, Iroquois, Logan, Macon, Mason, McLean, Menard, Piatt, Sangamon, Tazewell, Vermilion, and Woodford counties. The Kankakee Watershed Region contains Kankakee, Iroquois, and Ford counties. The Northeastern Illinois Region comprises the greater Chicago region, including McHenry, Lake, DeKalb, Kane, DuPage, Kendall, Will, Grundy, and Cook counties. The Middle Illinois Region consists of LaSalle, Livingston, Marshall, Peoria, Putnam, Stark, and Woodford counties. The Kaskaskia River Region includes Bond, Christian, Clay, Clinton, Coles, Cumberland, Douglas, Effingham, Fayette, Jasper, Jefferson, Macoupin, Madison, Marion, Monroe, Montgomery, Moultrie, Perry, Randolph, Richland, St. Clair, Shelby, Washington, and Wayne counties. The Rock River Region covers Jo Daviess, Stephenson, Winnebago, Boone, Carroll, Ogle, Whiteside, Lee, Rock Island, Henry, and Bureau counties.

A key component of this water supply planning work is groundwater modeling. The Illinois Groundwater Flow Modeling Framework is capable of assessing a wide variety of groundwater issues at local, regional, and interstate scales.

The Water Survey has created multiple interactive maps to help people understand water use and issues in Illinois. One of these interactive maps identifies where each of the more than 1,300 communities in Illinois obtains its water for municipal, industrial, and residential use. 

Illinois State Water Survey

2204 Griffith Dr., MC-674
Champaign, IL 61820-7463
217-333-2210
Email us with questions or comments.

 

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