Illinois Groundwater Protection Program Report-January 2000 Page 49
The committee successfully completed a pilot project modeled after the Illinois Middle School Groundwater
Education program by partnering with the Kane County Regional Office of Education. The project
culminated in a workshop for Kane County middle and high school teachers on February 6, 1998. On
March 19, 1999, the project was repeated in Will County. Between the two county workshops nearly
100 teachers were introduced to Illinois’ ground water curriculum, H2O Below, and were provided a
ground water model and other tools to bring ground water education into the classroom. Planning has
already begun to host another workshop for Kendall-Grundy county teachers in March, 2000. As a result,
the committee has been successful in adopting this ground water middle school program throughout the
Region.
Other ground water education activities held by the Northeastern Committee include:
- the “Groundwater Protection Field Day” held in Kankakee on Saturday, May 1, 1999 which focused
on educating the general public and promoting the Home ACRE package;
- a workshop held in November, 1998 targeted at water supply operators and local officials which
highlighted the work of 8 communities in northern Illinois who were taking action to protect their
drinking water supplies;
- the development of a ground water resource lending library and Internet sites for teachers to access;
and
- ground water educational presentations by the Kane/McHenry County Retired and Senior Volunteer
Program (RSVP) volunteers at area schools as part of the Source Water Mentor Initiative pilot project.
CENTRAL REGIONAL GROUNDWATER PROTECTION PLANNING COMMITTEE
The Central Committee has accomplished a number of activities over the past two years. These activities
can be broadly categorized as: public education, and local government/business assistance. After two years
of working to develop a County Groundwater Protection Ordinance, Tazewell County formally adopted
an ordinance on April 29, 1998. The city of Pekin had adopted a similar Groundwater Protection
Ordinance in 1995, but a portion of Pekin’s community wells recharge areas extended beyond the city’s
boundaries. The passing of this ordinance will help to protect the quality of water from these wells and
other groundwater protection zones within the county. The Education Subcommittee has also developed
a web page to advocate region-specific groundwater protection issues. Copies of the city of Pekin and the
Tazewell County Groundwater Protection Ordinance can be found on the Central Region Groundwater
Protection Committee’s web site at http//www.dpc.net/.crgw.
The Central Committee, with assistance from the Illinois EPA has also been able to provide P2 Interns to
work with local business’ within the region. To date, two interns have worked out of the Tazewell County
Health Department to conduct waste minimization assessments for local businesses within recharge areas
of community water supply wells. This effort has proven to be an extremely successful program with 34
businesses having assessments completed over a two year period.
To help measure the effectiveness of the first year intern recommendations, five local business agreed to
participate in re-assessments during the second year.. During the re-assessment, it was found that all
