Protecting our water supply with helicopters? How communities are tackling water challenges

Erin Garrett: 00:06

Welcome to another episode of the Everyday Environment podcast where we explore the environment we see every day. I'm your host, Erin Garrett.

Amy Lefringhouse: 00:14

And I'm your cohost, Amy Lefringhouse.

Erin Garrett: 00:17

And today, we are here with Scott Kuykendall, who is the water resources specialist for McHenry County. Welcome, Scott.

Scott Kuykendall: 00:26

Hello.

Erin Garrett: 00:27

Happy to have you. Excited to chat with you today on the pod. But before we get started, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do in your role for McHenry County?

Scott Kuykendall: 00:39

Yeah. I'm the water resources specialist for the McHenry County Department of Planning and Development. So my role with the county is I help oversee the county's scientific research in the water resources, and we've done more to study our water in McHenry County than any any other county in the state, and that's why I accepted the position when it opened up. I also help develop public policy to protect our our water, and then I do lots of public education and outreach, which I find extremely gratifying.

Amy Lefringhouse: 01:05

For our listeners, Scott, tell us where McHenry County is.

Scott Kuykendall: 01:09

Okay. Yeah. So we're in the Northeast corner of the of the of the state, right on the border of Wisconsin. So Lake Geneva, Wisconsin is just to our north, and we're about sixty five sixty five miles Northwest of Chicago.

Erin Garrett: 01:22

That's great. And for our longtime listeners, you know that I'm in Southern Illinois, but I grew up in McHenry County, so I'm excited to be chatting with Scott today because I'm talking about home, but hopefully we'll have some, you know, relevant information for all of our stakeholders listening in today, so definitely don't click skip right now because you heard we're not talking about your county. Definitely lots of great information that we're going to be chatting about, so let's jump right in and you know start. We're going be talking a little bit about the water resources that we have, but kind of our drinking water today, right Scott? So when we

Scott Kuykendall: 01:57

That's a big focus of what I do. So in McHenry County, we're a % reliant on groundwater. And so our water source is, you know, a very specific type of water. And so we need to protect the recharge areas to the the those water resources. And most people don't understand where their water comes from, so that's why public education and outreach is so important.

Amy Lefringhouse: 02:21

So tell us a little bit more about that sourcing of the drinking water in Northeastern Illinois. So go into a little bit more detail about that. You mentioned groundwater. So I know there's I mean, we say groundwater. Oh, yeah.

Amy Lefringhouse: 02:36

It's water beneath our feet. Right? But go into, like, there's a lot of complex, you know, things that are happening under our feet. Right? And so just tell us a little bit more about where our drinking water comes from in Northeastern Illinois.

Scott Kuykendall: 02:52

Yeah. It's really a pretty fascinating subject. So, yeah, when people think of Northeastern Illinois, they immediately think of Lake Michigan. And so a lot of Northeastern Illinois does get their water from Lake Michigan, and it's a great source of water. But it is isolated to the Chicagoland area and the collar communities around Chicago.

Scott Kuykendall: 03:13

And many of those communities up until the eighties were also on groundwater, But our communities outside of the Chicago collar county communities are all reliant on groundwater or river water for their drinking water. And when we talk about groundwater, it's not just a homogenous or a single layer of of groundwater that is being drawn from. There are lots of different sources of groundwater and different types of materials. So when we talk about groundwater, it's soil or rock underground that is able to hold water and provide that water for drinking water purposes. And in Northeastern Illinois, we have our upper most layers a layer of sand and gravel that was deposited as the glaciers came and retreated.

Scott Kuykendall: 03:58

So this was the last period of glaciation. And so our surface geology in this area is only about 12,000 years old. I just came back from New Mexico where surface geology was over a billion years old. So Yeah. A very different type of geology in our area.

Scott Kuykendall: 04:17

But that sand and gravel is permeable. So when it rains or snow melts, water is able to percolate down through the sand and gravel, fill the pore spaces between the sand and gravel particles and create a water table that we're able then to drill down into and pull water out. And so a well is, you know, basically like the straw that we put down into the ground to pull water out. And we talk about the sand and gravel layer. It's not just a single layer of sand and gravel.

Scott Kuykendall: 04:44

You've got layers of sand and gravel intermixed with layers of clay, which is not permeable. And so, you know, we have to know where the layers of sand and gravel are in order to access our drinking water. But the great thing about the sand and gravel aquifers is that they are perfectly renewable as long as we don't pave over everything or pollute the aquifers. Every time it rains or snow melts, that water is getting recharged locally. We have control over that.

Scott Kuykendall: 05:15

So if as long as we take care of our aquifers, it really is a renewable resource. In many parts of the country that rely on groundwater, when they pull water out of the ground, the land actually subsides and the poor spaces that can allow infiltration or store that water collapse forever. Our geology is stable, so we can have seasonal rise and fall or, you know, experience periods of drought where the water tables will drop. But as long as we're not pulling that water out faster than it's naturally being recharged, that groundwater table will fill back up. And so it really is a perfectly renewable system.

Scott Kuykendall: 05:54

Then below the layers of sand and gravel is a layer of shallow bedrock, which is composed of either dolomite or limestone. And that's a hard rigid rock, so it doesn't have the pore spaces of sand and gravel, but it can have lots of cracks and fissures. And where those the the bedrock is aligned to allow water to accumulate, so like a concave shape, And the cracks and fissures are aligned to what allow water to transfer, you know, through the the rock that can hold a lot of water and can be a great source of groundwater aquifer for communities. And then below that, have three layers of sandstone, and the sandstone is very ancient rock. It's basically sand that has been compressed into rock.

Scott Kuykendall: 06:43

So the pore spaces are very, very tiny, but it encompasses such a large area, it can hold a lot of water. The upper most aquifer is called the Saint Peter Aquifer, and that's largely been desaturated. We pulled most of the water out of that, and it's a soft friable rock, so it's prone to just breaking apart and destroying the pumps. So we really don't use that upper most one. The main aquifer that we use throughout Northeastern Illinois in the deep aquifer is the Ironton Galesville.

Scott Kuykendall: 07:15

And our wells going down into that are typically around 1,500 feet. So too deep for most residences to access, but municipalities and industries will drill high capacity wells down into that aquifer. And that's important to understand because those high capacity wells withdraw an enormous amount of water. And so the Ironton Galesville is not recharged locally. The water we get from that is actually from North Central Wisconsin where that rock is actually at the surface.

Scott Kuykendall: 07:48

So when it rains or snow melts, water is able to get into that aquifer, but it'll take a thousand years or thousands of years for water to land up in North Central Wisconsin, make its way down towards us. So the recharge through that aquifer is very, very slow. And particularly in the Joliet area, the water table in that aquifer has been drawn down by over 900 feet. And so that's considered a dying aquifer. It's not renewable.

Scott Kuykendall: 08:16

And so our local sand and gravel and limestone aquifers throughout Northeastern Illinois are gonna be more and more important moving into the future. And we can talk a bit more about the Ironton Galesville because there are some big changes that are taking place in Northeastern Illinois.

Amy Lefringhouse: 08:36

Well, it's really fascinating because if you that is a lot of information that Scott just threw out at y'all. I sound like Abigail saying y'all, but but in reading the blog, Scott's put in some really wonderful graphics that you can reference. So if you are thinking about these layers that are under your feet and you wanna see what it looks like in a graphic, be sure to check out the blog because it's really it's really a great representation of what he's talking about. But when I when I when I read through it and I looked at it, I was just wondering, you guys have studied, you know, really deeply what your groundwater layers and your geology and everything in there in McHenry County, you know, and and I know that you had provided a map of the sources, you know, where different communities up there in Northeastern Illinois get their water, drinking water from. Where could people go, you know, to study or just find out where their own water comes from, Scott?

Amy Lefringhouse: 09:41

Are there places they can they can easily find that online?

Scott Kuykendall: 09:45

Well, guess different sources. You know, if you are within a municipality, the first place I would look is municipalities or public work water suppliers have to provide a consumer confidence report every year. Mhmm. And so your town will have a water quality report or a consumer confidence report that they publish every year. Some communities do a really good job of using that publication to explain exactly where the water is coming from.

Amy Lefringhouse: 10:14

Okay.

Scott Kuykendall: 10:14

So, you know, they'll say we have six wells, three of those are in the deep aquifer, two of them are in the sand and gravel aquifer, and one is in the the shallow bedrock aquifer. Okay. And so the communities that put that information in really can dial in exactly where your water is coming from. A lot of communities, especially smaller communities that don't have a lot of staff to do additional writing will pretty limited in what they're telling you. The the state has Illinois State Water Survey has a program called ILWATER.

Scott Kuykendall: 10:53

And ILWATER, you can it's a map, interactive mapping system, and you can open up the map and zoom in to your community and it'll show a bunch of blue dots. Next to the blue dots is a number and that's showing the depth of the wells. So each of the blue dots is representing a well and then the number is representing the depth of that well. And then you can click on the blue dot and it'll pull up the well log. So when drillers are drilling the wells, they record the geology that they encounter as they go down.

Scott Kuykendall: 11:25

You can actually see a geologic record of your well, and it's it's really fascinating. So people who want to take a deeper dive, pun intended, you know, it's it really is very fascinating. And so that's that would you know, if I'm traveling around, that's probably where I would look. Other communities may have more localized information that I'm not aware of. Mhmm.

Scott Kuykendall: 11:48

At at Henry County, we actually have a lot of different things that we're working on. So we worked with the US geological survey, and this is one of the scientific things that I help manage. We have a network of 37 groundwater monitoring wells distributed around the county. Every 15 minutes, it's taking a water level measurement, transmitting that data up to the US geological survey satellites, and then they maintain that data for us and actually created a a interactive map. And so you can go on to our map, and it'll show where all the wells are located.

Scott Kuykendall: 12:24

And then you can click on any one of those wells and pull up data since 2009. And it shows the the rise and fall that occurs naturally year after year, but it also since we've been capturing since 2009, we've now captured multiple periods of extreme drought where the water table drops precipitously and then the recovery. So 2012 was a a period the February was a period of major drought throughout the Midwest. It was a catastrophic drought, and so water tables dropped. That was followed by a period of record rainfall where by 2017, we were experiencing major flooding throughout the region.

Scott Kuykendall: 13:09

And then in 2020, the rain just stopped, and it stopped for pretty much three years. And so the the water table drew down again. And so you can see how the different aquifers in the county react to both periods of drought and periods of record rainfall because the different aquifers do react very differently depending on the amount of clay that may be overtopping it, you know, how shallow it is. So we really are collecting great data that we're using to understand how much water is available for future development and potential concerns for you know, if if water levels aren't are are dropping, you know, we can use that to try and find what is the cause of that that drawdown and are there solutions to that. You know, when we're talking about water, at least in my role, I'm not thinking about water just right now.

Scott Kuykendall: 14:02

I'm thinking about what is the water supply, water quality into the future. So I'm looking a hundred years in the future. The demand that's placed on our water today is not the demand that's being gonna be placed on our water tomorrow. Right. Population will increase.

Scott Kuykendall: 14:18

New technologies will come in. You know, right now, data centers are kind of one of the biggest concerns when it comes to water because they have to use so much water to cool down all the equipment. And so they are massive, massive consumers of water. So every time you're using the cloud for data storage, you're actually using water. Most people don't think about the consequences of these things.

Scott Kuykendall: 14:45

So that's part of what I do.

Amy Lefringhouse: 14:47

That is so crazy. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to step over you, Erin, but I just had this conversation like two days ago about data centers and their water usage. And not we weren't really talking about Illinois, but I guess now that you say it, Scott, I'm like, oh, yeah. Up in, you know, Northeastern is where a lot of those are going.

Amy Lefringhouse: 15:07

And but we were talking about out West about data centers and, you know, water shortages out there. So that's crazy how that comes up in those two two conversations at once.

Scott Kuykendall: 15:20

Right. Yeah. So that, you know, the kind of the one of the things that's being focused on is the the nexus between water, food, and energy. Because energy is also part of the mix. You are pumping water from deeper and deeper or pumping more and more water, you have to use more energy.

Scott Kuykendall: 15:37

Then you have to treat more water to drinking water standards. You have to pump that around town. You have to recover that water, and then you have to treat that water. So that requires an enormous amount of energy. Sure.

Scott Kuykendall: 15:48

So, you know, all these things are intertwined. And, you know, I I I'll go ahead and you know, as long as we're talking about connections, part of what I focus on is not just our our groundwater for drinking water, but the the connection between our our land use, our natural resources, our surface waters, and our groundwater. All of those are intertwined. If we're using water excessively, we can be drawing down resources that would otherwise be available for wetlands or wildlife. And so, you know, I'm very cognizant of, you know, the human element of things, but I am also very concerned with maintaining the the the natural health of our of our nation.

Scott Kuykendall: 16:33

And if how we manage the land has a direct impact on our groundwater recharge and water quality. Water, when it infiltrates down through the sand and gravel, is not just stored underground still. Water is in constant motion. So water is moving downward and recharging our water table, but it's also over a period of days, months, years, or decades moving laterally and providing a base flow of cool, clean water to our lakes, rivers, streams, and wetlands. And that's why water will still be flowing in a stream at the end of summer when we haven't had rain for months.

Scott Kuykendall: 17:08

It's because that groundwater is slowly moving and providing a base flow of cool, clean water. If we are pulling too much water out of the ground, we're removing that water source to our lakes, river streams, and wetlands. And once again, that's just not something that people usually think about. And then when we pave over the land, water is no longer able to recharge our aquifers, but it's also not moving into the ground and providing that base flow. You're creating an impermeable surface, whether it's pavement or rooftops, that water is hitting that paved surface and rushing off to instead of groundwater fed systems, it's rushing off over the surface into our lake, river streams, or wetlands, creating a flood followed by drought, flood, drought, flood, drought.

Scott Kuykendall: 17:57

So instead of a base flow of cool clean water, we have completely altered the hydrology. And so that's hot dirty water, so as that water passes over the surface, it's collecting any of the salt from our road salt, it's collecting any of the oils from our cars, it's collecting any of the detergents that we put on the ground. Anything that we put into the air onto the land can ultimately be a source of water pollution. And so we're dumping hot dirty water over the surface into our water bodies instead of maintaining that base flow. And so all of these are things that we need to be cognizant of when we're doing land use planning, but rarely are these things taken into consideration.

Scott Kuykendall: 18:36

But it will have long term impacts if we don't manage land use properly.

Erin Garrett: 18:42

That's crazy. And I've been thinking this whole time is when you talk about the the aquifers that do recharge, right, and that act as that more renewable resource, I just am trying to imagine the amount of water that our communities use on a daily basis versus like the amount that comes from the sky, and it just doesn't balance in my brain. Is it mean, you talked about how you have you've been monitoring long term, so there are times when, you know, the water table will change, and you'll have more and less, like, we relatively, like, staying somewhat equal or, like, what are the other options when it is really low? Like, how does that all work?

Scott Kuykendall: 19:22

Well, that's why a lot of communities did shift from groundwater to Lake Michigan, And and that's a really complex issue, but an example right now that's occurring is Joliet. The Joliet area has been reliant 100% on the deep bedrock aquifers, that Ironton Galesville aquifer. So like our wells in that aquifer about 1,500 feet deep. So that's been their source of water and the water table has been drawn down by over 900 feet. And they literally have less than ten years worth of water left.

Scott Kuykendall: 19:57

And so they are in the process of getting a they're gonna be building a pipeline to by city of or Lake Michigan water from the city of Chicago. That's gonna be extremely expensive water. And basically, water utilities will triple what they are now. And so, know, these are not simple solutions and the city it's not just the city of Joliet, It's all the industries in their area as well that are taking unregulated amounts of water out of that aquifer. But they don't have an alternative.

Scott Kuykendall: 20:33

They work with the state. They and they really have done a great job evaluating their options. But the only viable option was to construct a pipeline and get Lake Michigan water. And they are quite a ways away from the lake. They have to go through a a permitting process to get authorization to withdraw water from the lake from Lake Michigan.

Scott Kuykendall: 20:56

So it is not a light decision that was made, but, you know, what I talk a lot about is water is necessary for all life. Whether in the topics, the tundra, or the Midwest, Every living thing on the planet needs water. Because water is so essential to life, it's also our number one economic driver. Nobody's gonna invest in homes or businesses if they don't have access to safe, clean, reliable, and affordable water. So our water is our economic driver.

Scott Kuykendall: 21:21

So they they really have no choice but to find an alternate source. And but it is an expensive solution. We do have communities in our area that are looking at the viability of Lake Michigan water because they're so reliant on the deep aquifer as well. If they are able to get it, we still have between thirty and fifty thousand private wells in our area relying on that sand and gravel aquifer. So no matter what, our future is gonna be dependent on that sand and gravel aquifer and the shallow bedrock below that.

Scott Kuykendall: 21:56

And so if you do get Lake Michigan water, you're subject to very strict water conservation practices. And then as communities grow on renewable resources, you know, water supplies, they're gonna have to practice conservation as well. So conservation is critical to our future. You know, not not just because it's an environmentally right thing to do, but because it is necessary for our economic development. And so once people understand the the nuances of all this, you know, it's this is important to everybody.

Scott Kuykendall: 22:29

And that's why our county really has invested in understanding what our supplies are, what is the future demands that we're gonna face, and do we have enough. And so, you know, these are very real issues that need to be taken very, very seriously. And it it's absolutely fascinating. I'd I I think I mentioned I just got back from a trip to New Mexico. And, you know, I being the water nerd that I am, I Mhmm.

Scott Kuykendall: 22:55

Spent a fair amount of my time learning their water resources. And especially I got was visiting friends and family out there, so I'm concerned about, you know, their water availability. And, you know, out west, they are, you know, really having to go to extreme lengths to maintain water supplies. And one of the main things that's being developed now is actually wastewater reuse and treating wastewater to drinking water standards and then pumping that into your aquifer to recharge the aquifer artificially. And I love it as a concept.

Scott Kuykendall: 23:32

And if we only had organic things in our day to day lives, I think it would be a relatively easy thing to do. But we have between 40,000 and 80,000 chemicals in our day to day life. And, you know, can we realistically remove all those chemicals prior to pumping that into our groundwater? So I I I'm very concerned about it, but to many parts of the country and the world, there are not gonna be any any alternatives. And it's also important to note that all the water that's on the planet is all the water that's ever been on the planet and all we'll ever have.

Scott Kuykendall: 24:08

So we're not able to make more water. The water that we have is all we have. And so it's been recycled many times over. And so, yeah, we're just emulating that nature by reusing it. The ick factor that people might have, they're they're gonna have to get over that.

Scott Kuykendall: 24:27

And we have to develop better technologies so that we can clean the water properly. My biggest concern, if you have dirty water above ground, you know, that's, you know, something you can deal with. Once you pump it into the aquifer, then it's a chronic problem that is gonna be much more difficult, much more expensive to address. And so I wanna make sure we're only pumping clean water into the aquifers if that's the the method that we're gonna use for conservation and water reuse. So very fascinating subject, and people around the world are working very hard on this.

Scott Kuykendall: 25:05

A lot of people just think, oh, well, we'll just do desalinization. And desalinization is part of the the future of water, but that requires a lot of energy. It's very energy intensive, and then you have byproducts at the end of that. You've removed all these materials. What do you do with those materials?

Scott Kuykendall: 25:27

That creates a whole new set of problems. So it's not none of these things are flipping a switch and, you know, finding a clean solution. You know, our best option is not to cause a problem in the first place. So, you know, kinda circle back to water conservation. Water conservation is critical to our future.

Scott Kuykendall: 25:45

And, you know, the technologies that are being developed really are are fascinating, and, you know, can generate a lot more wealth doing the right thing than the than the wrong thing. And so, you know, a lot of companies have invested very heavily in developing, you know, toilets, water fixtures that provide good service while conserving water. And, you know, I just invested in a new showerhead and part of my solution was I have a low flow showerhead that actually works real well. It's actually nicer than any other showerhead I've had, but it has a hand wand sprayer, and I put on a shutoff valve so that you it you turn it and it just goes to a trickle. And so if you're lathering up or you're washing something, you don't need to have the water going full blast the whole time you're doing that.

Scott Kuykendall: 26:40

You know, it's a relatively little things, but $12, but it's probably saved me over $12 in water loss. And, you know, I'm lowering my water footprint. So there are things that each of us can be doing that, you know, aren't that big of a deal. And, you know, the process of actually doing you know, finding these things out was a lot of fun, at least for a water nerd like me.

Erin Garrett: 27:03

Mhmm. Yeah. That's great. And that makes me think of, you know, there's lots of individual practices that we can take into account, but I'm kind of curious about, like, broader conservation practices that maybe have been implemented in McHenry County. I know growing up in Algonquin, we had, like, the signs about, like, when you can water outside, and it's, like, based on, I'm assuming, a lot of it had to do like if we were in a drought, it had red and it was like no outdoor watering, or it was like every other day you could water outside and only during certain hours, like are those some of the things that come from the work that you're doing, or is that other practice, or are there other guidelines and things like that that are in place?

Scott Kuykendall: 27:45

I'm glad you brought up Algonquin. Algonquin is one of the communities. It's half in McHenry, half in Kane County, but they've been true leaders in so many different things. We we partner with them on what we refer to sensible salting. Algonquin is a is a great community that really has done some wonderful things when it comes to conservation on many different levels.

Scott Kuykendall: 28:07

You know, the watering restrictions. So typically, you'll have odd or even days. So if your address ends in a odd number, you can water on these days. If you it's a even number, you can water on those other days. And so there are different ways municipalities will approach that.

Scott Kuykendall: 28:27

And then sometimes they'll also have, you know, you know, red, yellow, or green depending on the on the level of drought. It can require different types of and typically, you only wanna water between, like, six and eight and and, you know, daylight early daylight hours or late daylight hours so that when you're putting your water on the lawn, you're not losing most of that to evaporation. You want to put it down when it'll actually soak into the ground and feed the vegetation. That's one way to do that. You can actually, you know, if you do have a system that requires irrigation, you know, there are systems now that will actually only water if the soil moisture indicates that it's needed.

Scott Kuykendall: 29:11

So not just a, you know, you know, eight to nine every morning, you know, you can have have it set up so that it actually measures the soil moisture. And so you're literally are only putting water down when it's necessary. And, you know, different types of systems that are only, you know, putting droplets down as opposed to big sprays. So, you know, there are ways to do conservation there. One of the things that we advocate for is replacing turf grass with native vegetation.

Scott Kuykendall: 29:41

Our native vegetation doesn't need watering once it's established. And the deep root structure of native plants. So the, you know, native plants will go down, you know, five, ten, up to 15 feet or so. And that network of roots and that those roots then restore the soil health, put microorganisms back in the ground. So that entire soil profile of roots and healthy soil become a giant sponge.

Scott Kuykendall: 30:08

So it's reducing the need for irrigation. It's reducing the need for any type of fertilizers because our native plants don't need fertilizers, and then that entire soil and root profile become a giant sponge that reduce flooding when we get too much. So it can withstand droughts when we have too little water, and it can help with flood mitigation when we have too much. Roots of turf grass typically only go down about an inch or two. And so all that turf grass is actually contributing to flooding and requires irrigation.

Scott Kuykendall: 30:42

So, you know, our the turf grass that we use, you know, people think Kentucky bluegrass. The the grass is not from Kentucky. It's not native to the area. It shouldn't be here. And it's not to say get rid of all turf grass, but when you've got acres of, like, corporate land or Mhmm.

Scott Kuykendall: 30:58

You know, even parkland, you know, you can be putting a significant amount of that into negative vegetation, providing all these ecosystem services as well as providing habitat for wildlife. And so restoring the natural hydrology and ecology of our area while still having, you know, that open view space that you need. If you've got active use, you know, for ball fields and recreation, you know, turf grass, know, is not gonna hurt anything. But just the how we've converted the entire landscape to turf and pavement has had very detrimental impacts, and is that something that's sustainable into the future? Going back to New Mexico where my friend and his wife built their house, the entire community is xeriscape, and where they do have vegetation, it's required native vegetation, and the only irrigation is treated wastewater.

Scott Kuykendall: 31:56

There are ways that we can be doing these things better. I don't know that we need to do rock landscaping throughout our area, but we have great palette of native plants that can be used. And, you know, once we get those reestablished, they're providing a whole litany of benefits to our communities. And, you know, with flood mitigation, it's a big issue for us. We're actually getting more precipitation, but in fewer and fewer storm events.

Scott Kuykendall: 32:25

So over the past forty years, even though we have periodic droughts, the amount of rain that we were getting is increasing. Yeah. The the the numbers that we have to use to calculate storm events and flooding have actually changed because of this. So these are this is not just theoretical. This is empirical data that we're working off of.

Scott Kuykendall: 32:44

But we're getting in fewer and fewer storm events. So the intensity of our storms is increasing. Our built environment is not built for the amount of rainfall that we're getting today, let alone tomorrow. And certainly wasn't built for a six inch storm event. And so how are we gonna manage this precipitation in our built environment?

Scott Kuykendall: 33:03

The number one tool in our toolbox is native vegetation. Mhmm. And so, you know, these are things, you know, kinda go going back to what worked before we change things and finding a better balance. So those are things that we advocate for. In the county, we don't provide water, so we're not like, you know, having to manage water mains and things like that.

Scott Kuykendall: 33:28

But when you're talking about a bigger scale, that's really important. Know, us know, up you know, when it comes time to update your toilet, you know, there's no excuse for going to a the high volume toilet system. There's so many different options on the market. But when we're talking about converse conservation in a municipality, a lot of it is re replacing the broken water mains. So we lose so much water to cracks in our systems that they're it's detrimental to our water supplies.

Scott Kuykendall: 34:01

So you're pumping that water out of the ground at great economic and environmental expense, treating it to drinking water standards at great economic expense, pumping it all around your city at great economic expense, and to have that just leak into the ground is wasteful both economically and environmentally. And unfortunately, that water may not be going back to the aquifer that it came from. So, you know, they may be taking are likely taking it from a deeper aquifer that has a layer of clay above it. And so that water is not you know, even though that leak is in the same area, that may not be getting back down into the aquifer where it can be used. And so that's with the when communities go to Lake Michigan water, that's one of the main things that they have to do is bring their water loss down to very low percentages and and then do public education and a lot of other things.

Scott Kuykendall: 35:01

And like I said, Joliet, it really has done a great job with that as far as I understand it, and it will probably be a model that a lot of communities will follow with their own programs.

Amy Lefringhouse: 35:13

I will say, for the longtime listeners of this podcast, we did not pay Scott to say that native plants are always the answer. But Scott, you walked right into a kind of a running thing in all of our podcasts where we were like, it all comes back to native plants, native vegetation. But no.

Scott Kuykendall: 35:33

We do walk the talk. At our County Administration Building in Woodstock, we we have two demonstration gardens flanking the entrance. And so we have a rain garden demonstration project, and then we have a xeriscape or dry prairie demonstration project. And so everybody coming and going from the County Building is walking right past our demonstration gardens.

Amy Lefringhouse: 35:55

That's it.

Scott Kuykendall: 35:55

And ten years ago, I you know, would hear, you know, lots of snide comments with people coming in the building. Sure. Now 95% of the comments I hear are positive. People really are getting a better understanding of the benefits of native vegetation, and that's, you know, directly due to efforts of, you know, you guys and other organizations throughout the area. But from a practical perspective, native plants are green infrastructure that is being used in municipalities and other places to manage flooding.

Scott Kuykendall: 36:32

It is one of the most powerful tools that we have, plain and simple. One of the jokes that we have in the sustainability realm is nature's had four and a half billion years of research and development. So there's not a design problem that you can't find a solution to in nature. And with our native plants, you know, it's been right under our nose and under our feet, you know, the whole time. You know, it it's very true.

Scott Kuykendall: 36:57

So, know, we're definitely on the same page there.

Erin Garrett: 37:00

I was just gonna say this just circles back to, you know, we had Layne on the podcast to talk about rain gardens and native plants. We've had Eliana on the podcast to talk about green storm water infrastructure. So, know, everything you know, we choose a theme for a reason in water, but everything kind of all comes back and wraps together and kind of shows too how at different scales it all pieces together. Right? Actions that you take at your home can make a difference, but then our municipalities are looking to make changes too, and change can happen at that scale too, so you know, if you practice these practices at home and think it's important and it's not happening in your city too, like bringing that up and trying to advocate for that too is something that is you can help make that difference.

Erin Garrett: 37:43

And then you know you talked about changing out like your toilet or your showerhead, know, when that need happens that you need to replace it, know, look for that more energy efficient, water efficient choice, and then that'll help save you money too, which is always good. So right? It goes both ways. It's gonna be helpful for the environment as a whole, but then helpful for your wallet, which is always great. So just considering those options, we've come such a long way, right, in the availability of those different options and kind of the more accepted practice of like this is what we're gonna do like when we build new, it's a lot more low flow faucets and things like that are kind of the the standard model, so it's good to see those changes happen, and we do see you know as our populations continue to increase, our water demand, like, is going to continue to grow, and especially with, you know, the changes we're seeing in our climate too.

Erin Garrett: 38:35

Right? With just the different way that water comes to us in in different events, more drought or you know, more rain at one time, how much of that can we capture? It's really important to kind of think like holistically, right, and like the actions that that we can take to try to help with with that, know, issue that we're gonna be dealing with forever, right, we're always gonna be thinking about because that water resource is super important. So just kind of wrapping things wrapping things together, bringing together some different pieces of of our of our season this year. Mhmm.

Amy Lefringhouse: 39:08

Well, and Scott, we're really I mean, we really wanted to feature you in in McHenry County. I know you have a water resources action plan and and I've looked through that and if if folks on the podcast want to look that up, we'll put it in the show notes, but it's a good example, has a great slideshow that shows some of the best management practices and things that communities and individuals can do. So we are really appreciative that you came, Scott, here to talk to us and just give us some inspiration about what counties and what communities are doing and that we can we might be able to look for in our counties or advocate for in our counties as well.

Scott Kuykendall: 39:45

Yeah, we can learn from each other. And so one of the things that we did is we did three-dimensional mapping of our subsurface geology. So that layer of sand and gravel that I had talked about, you can't look at the land surface and know what's going on underground. And, you know, the one of the hydrogeologists I worked with coined a phrase, your geology is a complicated beautiful mess. And that's because, you know, it evolved, you know, as the glaciers came and went.

Scott Kuykendall: 40:14

And so to understand our subsurface geology, we did work with the Illinois State Geological Survey to do three-dimensional mapping. And so you can go on the website that they created for us and run a transect line over your area of interest. So, like, I'll typically start out going from west to east over an area. So like if you wanna go over a town or your house, and then it'll pull up a profile view of the geology underneath that line. And it's color coded to show lighter colors will be areas dominated by sand and gravel.

Scott Kuykendall: 40:50

So those are our groundwater aquifers or the recharge to those aquifers. The darker colors, greens and blues are areas dominated by clay. So those are the impermeable layers. And so within seconds of pulling up a map, you can have a solid understanding of what's going on under underground.

Amy Lefringhouse: 41:10

And that's available to anybody, Scott?

Scott Kuykendall: 41:13

Yep. Yep. So I've got links on our website, and so I'll plug our website too. For any of these water elements that we've talked about, you can go on to mchenryh20.com. So mchenryh20.com, and I've got links to all these different resources.

Scott Kuykendall: 41:33

But because you can't understand what's going on, you know, underground without, you know, having these types of tools, The we're we're looking to use this for planning into the future and understanding where the risk is. So the same areas that allow for infiltration to occur also means that pollutants can infiltrate down. And so often we've located industrial development right over the most sensitive recharge areas. And so, you know, how do we invite development in while still protecting our groundwater? And so areas that have more sensitive recharge areas may not be the best for certain types of development or they should be implementing best management practices to prevent that pollution.

Scott Kuykendall: 42:16

The city or excuse me, the county of Boone right next to us is investing in the same three-dimensional mapping. And then ultimately, it's probably a few years down the road, but ultimately, we'd like to see the statewide. This three-dimensional mapping is evolved to the point where they can do it using helicopters, where the the helicopter will carry a ring and it's basically kinda doing an MRI of the land and actually able to see map the geology down to the bedrock and just run transects. And so this is being done globally now to get a better understanding of our groundwater. And we can use this for planning purposes to know water, you know, water availability and sensitivity, and make sure that we have the ability to protect water long into the future so that we can have viability communities in the long term.

Scott Kuykendall: 43:15

And these are all just, you know, fascinating things, but they require us to, you know, wanna understand our where our water comes from and how to protect it. And, you know, I do presentations at schools for green jobs. And so when I talk about all these things, these are career paths that all these future generations are gonna, you know, have. In my presentations, I'll show a slide showing the population growth. So my my parents, when they were born, they were 2,400,000,000 people.

Scott Kuykendall: 43:48

We now have over 8,000,000,000 people. How are we gonna provide a good standard of living for 8,000,000,000 people on a planet with limited resources? And all these challenges are gonna create opportunities because we have to figure these things out. And so the three-dimensional mapping, the groundwater monitoring, all these types of things are, you know, technologies that are being evolved developed and evolved to find solutions, they create opportunities for career paths. So pretty fascinating stuff, and I'm really looking forward to Boone County doing theirs because then we'll have contiguous mapping across both counties.

Scott Kuykendall: 44:25

And so like I said, if you are interested in this, just go to our website mchenryh200.com, and I've got links there. And then the three or the McHenry County water resources action plan basically has every issue related to water in the region addressed in there. So anybody wanting to learn more about water can pull up that publication on our website as well.

Amy Lefringhouse: 44:49

I just looked up the helicopter. That's cool.

Scott Kuykendall: 44:54

That's gonna be done early early spring, I believe. And so there there probably would be a fair amount of press on that. Yeah. They they hired Boone County hired a water resources specialist to, you know, try and address some of the same things that I do in McHenry County. And so this really is a, you know, a regional thing that's being done and a lot of cross collaboration where we're helping each other out because this is such a big issue.

Amy Lefringhouse: 45:23

We could ask a million more questions. I know. But we probably should wrap up this podcast. So we are so happy that you've been here with us, Scott.

Scott Kuykendall: 45:35

My pleasure.

Erin Garrett: 45:36

Alright. So thanks so much, Scott, for sharing your knowledge on the water resources in Northeast Illinois. We chatted about so many different things. I learned so much. It's fascinating.

Erin Garrett: 45:45

We're gonna finish our episode with our everyday observations. So this is where we highlight kind of the normal, but fascinating things we find in our environment that are super interesting to us. So I'm gonna pick on Amy first. What is your everyday observation?

Amy Lefringhouse: 45:59

Okay. Real quick. I know this is released in the spring, and I think this is pretty seasonally, I guess, can go in into any season. But I did a presentation the other night about the natural divisions of Illinois to a club, and I went to a basketball game this week in the kind of central part of the state, and wow. I'm from West Central Illinois.

Amy Lefringhouse: 46:27

We talked about that. Maybe we've talked about that before, but, you know, it's pretty rolling. There's some topography over here on the West Side of the state, but I went to kind of the I was in assumption, and wow, it is flat there. Definitely in the Grand Prairie Natural Division Of Illinois where it is flat, flat, flat. So I guess just my everyday observation was just looking at the landscape around you, it's just really neat when you can kind of identify those, you know, different natural divisions in Illinois, and that was, you know, one that kind of hit me in the face this week.

Erin Garrett: 47:07

Thanks, Amy. Yeah. It's crazy. You know, we're spread out all across the state, and it really does look so different. Right?

Erin Garrett: 47:14

Yeah. Most people think like Illinois flat, but where a lot of us are, it's not really like that. Kind of in like the different pockets where we don't really have like the just the flat you can Right. That's right. Right.

Erin Garrett: 47:28

Right. And you talk about we

Amy Lefringhouse: 47:29

talk about it all the time. We talk about it to our master naturalists. We talk about the natural divisions, then, you know, just to see some of those in the landscape is, you know, oh, yeah. I recognize it. I see it.

Erin Garrett: 47:41

That's awesome. Thanks, Amy. Alright, Scott, what's your everyday observation?

Scott Kuykendall: 47:45

Well, just what's I had seen that you do that question at the end, and what's really kind of had me thinking is just being receptive to opportunities to see things. So driving to work yesterday, I was at a stoplight and I saw movement in my periphery. And so I focused on it and it was a juvenile bald eagle. And, you know, I just happened to notice it. So I grabbed my binoculars, which I always have on me, and so I'm at the stoplight watching this bald eagle and just, you know, try to keep my eye on when the light turns green, so I'm just not one of just another guy, you know, holding up traffic birding at the stoplight.

Scott Kuykendall: 48:31

But I'm just, you know, I'm amazed that, you know, when I was younger, I was completely oblivious to what was going on around me. And, you know, I I spent twenty years as an ecologist before doing a late life career shift to this job. But just to see a group of geese flying up and just seeing something different about this one group and and then seeing that it's a group of snow geese that's flying overhead, not Canada geese. So just if you're, you know, ready to be receptive to opportunities, those opportunities will present themselves. And then the other thing is just the sense of gratitude.

Scott Kuykendall: 49:10

So every time I have a close encounter with with wildlife, I just am struck with a sense of gratitude that the habitat is there to support that animal and that, you know, whatever powers that be, you know, brought us together. You know, I've had amazing interactions with foxes and other things right out the back door of my my county building. And, you know, just I I'm always filled with a sense of gratitude for that opportunity. So those are kind of the things that I had going through my head regarding everyday opportunities.

Erin Garrett: 49:43

I love that. Well, mine's gonna build off of yours, Scott, because mine also has to do with the bald eagle. But this fall, I was at Pere Marquette State Park, and we were just getting to the time when, you know, it's time to see more eagles, easier to find them. So we were there for a few days, and we saw none, and I was so disappointed. Come on.

Erin Garrett: 50:03

It's like

Amy Lefringhouse: 50:03

I know.

Erin Garrett: 50:03

I didn't see any. But we were leaving. We were driving and heading out of town, and then just driving along the river there, I saw one and it was like diving like it was going to catch a fish, and it was just like perfect. I'm like, okay. The trip was complete.

Erin Garrett: 50:21

And it was really cool. It wasn't just sitting in a tree. I actually got to see it in action. So that was a case where I was actively looking, we didn't see anything, but then we did find one at the end. So it's just kind of the icing on the cake of that trip that we did actually get to see one, which is really exciting.

Erin Garrett: 50:39

So

Amy Lefringhouse: 50:40

I feel like it that's, like, always the case. You know? You're I we're searching and searching and searching to see something, and then it always happens out of the blue. Right? You're you're just you know, you don't you don't know when it's gonna happen, when nature's gonna kinda almost, you know, hit you.

Scott Kuykendall: 50:55

There was a far side comic, a guy with his binoculars, and, you know, there's nothing out here. And behind him is like a pastoral setting with bears and elk.

Amy Lefringhouse: 51:05

Right.

Scott Kuykendall: 51:06

So, yeah, I I I always feel like that far side guy when I'm out looking for things, but you're you're you're receptive and and open for the opportunity when it did present itself. So Bless. Know, that's Be grateful for that opportunity.

Erin Garrett: 51:24

Definitely. This has been another episode on the Everyday Environment podcast. Check us out next week where we talk with Margaret Schneemann about water pricing.