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Sierra Club Report Card Gives Fox River Creeks High Marks,
But Rapid Development Poses Tough Tests

Smart Growth, Better Pollution Controls Needed to Keep
High Quality Waters in Face of Widespread Development

Sierra Club today released the results of three years of tests on eleven creeks which empty into the Fox River stretching from Elgin to Yorkville. Based on their findings, Sierra Club is calling for measures to protect the streams from pollution in the face of rapid suburban development.

“Here in the Fox River Valley, we are blessed with some of the highest quality creeks in Illinois”, said Fran Caffee, chair of the Valley of the Fox Group. “But if future generations are to also see them as clean, clear waters, we will all have to do our part to protect them as rapid development changes the landscape around us.”

From 2000 to 2003, volunteers with the Sierra Club Valley of the Fox Group’s Clean Water Task Force tested the waters of the 11 creeks that flow into the Fox River between Elgin and Yorkville. On a quarterly basis, they sampled the levels of phosphates, nitrates, ammonia, sulfates, chlorides and turbidity in each creek. The grades for each stream on the report card issued today are based on these tests, as well as information collected by volunteers with Illinois’ Riverwatch program and Friends of the Fox River’s Watershed Monitoring Network.

Sierra Club leaders were pleased to find several creeks in a relatively pristine state. For example, Ferson Creek received an ‘A-’ grade. It had the lowest average levels of chloride and turbidity of all streams sampled. The St. Charles Park District’s wetland restoration at Otter Creek Bend Wetland Park was noted as a model for wetland and creek management.

In contrast, the Skyway Branch of Norton Creek received a ‘C’ grade, the lowest on the report card. This creek branch had the highest average levels of most of the pollutants measured. During the time the volunteers were collecting samples, this tributary to Norton Creek received poorly-treated effluent from Valley View’s Skyline Sewage Treatment Plant. Today Valley View’s sewage goes directly to the much better operated Fox River Water Reclamation District’s South Plant on the Fox River, removing a significant source of pollution to this branch. The report calls for monitoring to document the current, and hopefully improved, state of this tributary.

For all of these creeks to keep their passing grades, Sierra Club is calling on state and local governments to take action to protect them in the face of rapid development. These keys to clean water include:

• Minimization of new pollution from expanding sewage treatment plants
• More consideration for creek impacts when approval for sewer line extensions by Illinois EPA and the Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission
• Continued removal of dams on the creeks to provide free-flowing stream habitat
• Expanded open space holdings along the creeks for wildlife corridors and creek buffers
• Better controls on the quality of stormwater runoff from urbanizing areas
• Continued IEPA support for the Fox River Study Group

Sierra Club is also applauding the administration of Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich for a new proposal to protect high-quality streams in fast-developing areas like the Fox River watershed. One proposal would require new or expanded wastewater treatment plants to include limits on phosphorus pollution, and another would reform the process for approving new sewer line extensions to give more consideration to water pollution concerns.

“Governor Blagojevich and his team are working hard to protect these waters for future generations. His proposals for better pollution controls and better planning for new wastewater service will help protect these creeks, and the Fox River, for drinking water and for wildlife,” said Jack Darin, Director of the Sierra Club, Illinois Chapter.

Sierra Club is also hopeful for the future of these creeks thanks to many ongoing local volunteer and government efforts to monitor and protect them. The Report Card lists 10 examples of these activities.

“Clearly the people of the Fox River Valley want these streams protected, and more and more of them are working hard to reach that goal,” said Dr. Cynthia Skrukrud, Clean Water Advocate for the Sierra Club, Illinois Chapter. “Hopefully new and long-time residents of the area can use this report to get to know their local creek, and how they can help protect it.”

The Scope
In May 2003 volunteers with the Valley of the Fox Group of the Illinois Chapter of the Sierra Club collected their final samples for the Group’s “Adopt-A-Creek” effort. Eleven tributary creeks draining to the Fox River between Elgin and Yorkville (a distance of 34.6 river miles) were regularly tested on a quarterly basis for three years. During the same period of time, some of these same creeks were the subject of short, intense investigations named “Case Studies” which involved weekly monitoring over a four-to-six-week period.

Volunteers monitored the chemical and physical water quality of 11 tributaries to the Fox River with the dual objectives to learn more about the health of these tributaries located in the most urbanized and rapidly urbanizing area of the Fox watershed and to establish baseline conditions of the creeks to which future monitoring results could be compared. The effort was also undertaken to complement the biological and habitat monitoring being performed by volunteers with the Illinois Dept. of Natural Resource’s Riverwatch Network and Friends of the Fox River’s Fox River Watershed Monitoring Network programs. In addition, the idea was to supplement Illinois EPA monitoring efforts which occur infrequently on the smaller tributaries in this Central Region of the Fox River watershed.

The group’s “Adopt-a-Creek” project gathered 12 quarters of water sampling data from 19 sites on 11 tributaries from August 2000 to May 2003. In addition, 9 “Case Studies,” which involved more intensive, short-term studies of individual creeks, were completed.

The results of these two efforts are detailed in the Report on the Tributary Streams of the Middle Fox River, Illinois (March 2004) and in case study reports for Tyler Creek, Mill Creek, Ferson/Otter Creek, Brewster Creek, Norton Creek, Indian Creek, Mahonney Creek, Waubonsee Creek and White Creek. This report card summarizes that data.

In order to organize our findings, a metric was developed which ranked the streams based on the water quality measurements taken by our group and other volunteer monitoring programs. We organized the data in this manner as a means to educate the public about the quality of Fox River tributaries in our area. Use of volunteer data for such purposes is encouraged by the USEPA.

The Grades
The enclosed map illustrates the relative quality of the 11 Fox River tributaries studied by our group. Each stream was graded based on its measured levels of pollutants (phosphates, nitrates/nitrites, turbidity, chlorides, sulfates, ammonia) and its pH. In addition, we incorporated, if available, what other volunteer monitors (IDNR Riverwatch Network, Friends of the Fox River’s Fox River Watershed Monitoring Network) are reporting on the quality of these streams. We also report any important issues affecting water quality which we are aware of in the tributary watershed.

Our Recommendations
Much is happening in the Central Region of the Fox River Watershed. This most urbanized region of the Fox River in Illinois is seeing more and more land developed in its tributary watersheds. This report card summarizes what Sierra Club has learned about the health of those tributaries through our own monitoring efforts and that of state agencies and other volunteer monitoring efforts. Based on our observations, we recommend actions be taken by citizen volunteers along with local and state agencies in the future to monitor and maintain and/or improve the health of these streams.

Top 10 Good Things Happening in the Central Fox River Region

1. The Blackberry Creek Alternative Futures Project is demonstrating how communities can design new development to prevent flooding. Kane County Dept. of Environmental Management is bringing the lessons learned to communities in other tributary watersheds to the Fox River.

2. More and more people are helping clean up the Fox River and its tributaries each year. A variety of organizations including Sierra Club, Batavians for a Healthy River and Friends of the Fox have clean up days.

3. Kane County is placing signs with creek names on bridges, identifying them as ‘Kane County Streams.’

4. The dam removal on Brewster Creek is being carefully documented and studied to inform future dam removal projects.

5. The Fox River Study Group is using computer modeling of the Fox River Watershed to determine how to best resolve current water quality issues in the Fox River and to prevent future problems on streams throughout the watershed.

6. At a number of Riverwatch sites, a steadily increasing “biodiversity” of invertebrate fauna is being found.

7. The Village of East Dundee is planning a sewage treatment plant upgrade that will be designed to remove nutrients from its effluent.

8. Kane and DuPage counties have adopted local ordinances to reduce the destruction of wetlands which do not fall under the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers jurisdiction. Kendall County is working on wetland protection in that county. Wetlands are vital for their ability to store flood waters, cleanse water of pollutants and provide wildlife habitat.

9. At a 2001 Friends of the Fox River-sponsored ‘Mussel Talk & Walk’ with Roger Klocek, Director of Conservation at the Shedd Aquarium, volunteers found 11 species of freshwater mussels in Tyler Creek, an indicator of the good water quality and habitat of this tributary.

10. The Waubonsie Creek Restoration Project, a collaboration of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Illinois Dept. of Natural Resources with the Waubonsie Creek Committee is restoring the Waubonsee Creek ecosystem through dam modification and removal to provide fish access to spawning habitat, instream habitat improvement through riffle creation and wetland restoration.

Keys to Clean Water: How We Can Help the Fox River's Creeks

Monitoring Activities

• Sierra Club should monitor the Skyway Branch of Norton Creek to document the improvements expected in water quality now that this intermittent tributary is no longer receiving a discharge of poorly-treated sewage.

• Sierra Club should also reinstitute a monthly or bimonthly monitoring program on Tyler Creek to track any changes in water quality as more and more homes are constructed in this watershed.

• Mill Creek, Indian Creek, White’s Creek and Mahonney Creek could benefit from yearly biological monitoring. It is recommended that volunteers trained in Riverwatch protocols adopt sites on these creeks.

• The one “excellent” rating of Mill Creek obtained by Friends of the Fox River monitors should be followed up with biological monitoring at other sites on the creek.

Preservation Activities

• Counties, municipalities and township open space districts should continue to expand their open space holdings along creeks to provide wildlife corridors and buffers to filter pollutants from runoff before it reaches the creeks.

Restoration Activities

• Because of habitat benefits of free-flowing streams, efforts to remove more dams on Waubonsee Creek and Brewster Creek as well as the Fox River itself should be supported by citizens, local governments and state agencies. Improved fish passage leads to repopulation of both fish and mussels to parts of the streams which the dams had previously blocked.

• Illinois EPA should continue its support of the Fox River Study Group’s efforts to model the levels to which nutrients in wastewater effluent as well as stormwater and tributary runoff contribute to low dissolved oxygen problems in the Fox River. The Agency should also move quickly forward with its plans to establish a water quality standard for phosphorus for bodies of water throughout Illinois.

• Kane County needs to resolve the problem of erosion created by ATVs at Fox River Bluffs Forest Preserve to prevent further degradation of Norton Creek.

Prevention Activities

• The Facility Planning Area process should be revamped so natural resource concerns are addressed early on, before development plans are approved and sewer lines are extended into new areas in the watersheds of quality tributaries.

• As more land is developed and paved over, good control of stormwater is needed to prevent flooding and to preserve water quality. Communities can help prevent water pollution through the development of a good stormwater control program that reduces the discharge of pollutants to streams, as now required by the Illinois EPA through the Municipal Separate Storm Sewer Systems (MS4) permit program.