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USGS will completely re-sample the entire NAWQA urban land-use network in northeast Illinois/ southeast Wisconsin. Analyses will include selected natural and anthropogenic organic compounds that may be wastewater indicators or pharmaceuticals.
Groundwater Climate Response Network – Climate response network continues as described. The USGS Illinois Water Science Center is working with the ISWS to install telemetry on several ISWS observation wells in the Mahomet aquifer and across the state to include in the USGS active-well network monitoring page—a Web mapping display showing the locations of observation and the water-level measurements. http://groundwaterwatch.usgs.gov/StateMaps/IL.html
Section 2. Strive to implement monitoring for emerging contaminants.
Dedicated Monitoring Well Network for Illinois Generic Management Plan for Pesticides in Groundwater – The IDA, under authority of the Illinois Pesticide Act (415 ILCS 60/1 et seq.) and a performance partnership grant agreement with U.S. EPA regarding the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act, is the state lead agency for the regulation of pesticide use in Illinois. The IDA is responsible for managing pesticide use to prevent adverse effects to human health and the environment.
U.S. EPA’s approach for addressing concerns about pesticides in groundwater is the nationwide regulation of pesticide use, supported by strong state and tribal roles in the local management of pesticide use to protect groundwater. Illinois, like many states, is voluntarily implementing the U.S. EPA-recommended provisions of pesticide management plans to protect groundwater. In June 2000 under the leadership of the IDA, the Pesticide Subcommittee of the ICCG approved the Illinois Generic Management Plan for Pesticides in Groundwater. The management plan, which was revised in 2006 (IDA 2006), describes the framework to be used by the State of Illinois for addressing the risks of groundwater contamination by pesticides.
The Illinois management plan relies on the IDA’s groundwater monitoring well network and the Illinois EPA’s public water supply well pesticide-monitoring sub-network to determine the occurrence of pesticides in groundwater and whether there are significant, spatial or temporal trends in pesticide concentrations. The management plan requires action by the IDA when pesticides are reported at concentrations greater than 10 percent of the groundwater reference value (or the minimum reporting level (MRL) if 10 percent of the reference value is less than the MRL). If pesticides are present at concentrations greater than the “action level” the IDA will conduct, with assistance from the Interagency Committee on Pesticides, the ICCG, the registrant, and other state and federal agencies, an evaluation to determine the appropriate course of action. At the very least, the presence of a pesticide in groundwater in concentrations greater than the action level would initiate a cause investigation. The components of the response plan in the Illinois Generic Management Plan for Pesticides in Groundwater that apply to the groundwater monitoring network are:
• Notify pesticide registrant;
• Identify cause;
• Perform vulnerability assessment and define response areas;
• Expand monitoring;
• Encourage adoption of voluntary best management practices;
