Ground Truthing - What's Out There?

View from Anderson Road

Looking S along Anderson Road

Culvert from Wauconda WWTP on L, runoff on R.
WWTP Expansion is still under construction.
Meanwhile, lawn fertilizer on surrounding residential development likely contributes as much P as the WWTP.

Vince, Jean, Mike, viewing the origins of a man-made stream.

Algae grows when there are too many nutrients, P and N, in the water.

Cladophora algae grows in filmy strands along the bottom.

Poor quality muddy stream bed and eroding banks.

The stream widens into a small water body, impounded by a man-made 5' berm across the floodplain. More muddy bottom, likely sediment from the WWTP and erosion.

Oily looking film on the water is natural Manganese compound.

More algae. Too much nutrient.

W of the berm, the floodplain widens, and the stream wriggles across it. Surprisingly, the area was dry and firm enough to walk on without getting wet feet.

Looking E, back at the 5' berm. We discuss filling the pond and leveling the berm, then adding a low rock barrier to distribute the water across the floodplain.

Looking E at the berm.
Where would the water level end up?

Looking ENE at the point where the creek cuts through the berm.

Was this pond made by bulldozing the wetland soils to make the berm?

Reed canary grass is ubiquitous, probably planted by the federal government to reduce erosion, but now blocks re-growth of almost anything else.

More Cladophora.

Looking S, just behind the thin tree line is a tall earthen dike, doubtless constructed to protect the new homes from flooded basements.

At a different entrance farther S, looking WSW from a resident's yard. Water in the foreground is consistently several feet above levels typical for the past 30 years.

What is making the water rise here? More exploration will be needed to understand how this site presently works, and what can be done to improve it.