Upper Des Plaines River  Ecosystem Partnership 32400 N. Harris Road, Grayslake, Illinois 60030 847-548-4062 Fax: 847-548-4063 http://www.desplainesriver.org

The Upper Des Plaines River Ecosystem Partnership has very serious concerns regarding this request for a permit to discharge fill into 12.85 acres of wetland for a commercial development in the Indian Creek watershed at Half Day Road and Milwaukee Avenue in Lincolnshire, Lake County, Illinois. We firmly believe that your office should deny this permit application. The basis for our objection to this permit application will be outlined in our comments below.
 

1.    Inadequacy of permit application

There is so much necessary and required information that has not been included with this permit application. We believe that with the lack of information contained within the permit application there is no basis upon which the Corps could issue a permit.

The following are many of the questions that have not been answered and areas of concern that have not been addressed by the applicant.

A. Where will the proposed wetland mitigation for this permit be located?  On a site nearby?  On a site in the Des Plaines Watershed? Or in a totally different area?

B. Is there any wetland bank acreage available for this much mitigation? If so, where?

C. The mitigation acreage appears to be too low. Shouldn't the mitigation be 12.85 acres x 1.5l acre = 19.275 acres, not the 14 acres in the application?

D. Isn't the 5.275 acres of offsite fee in lieu an excessively high amount?

E. Why was no hydrology provided with the application?

F. Why are there no buffers from the development to the wetlands?

G. Why have no performance criteria been included in the permit application?

H. The wetland delineation included was done for a road crossing not for commercial development on the whole site. Why was no new delineation included with the permit application?

I. Why was no upland alternative included with the permit application?

J. The Des Plaines River as a whole and this area, in particular, already suffer from overbank flooding on a regular basis. Have the impacts of the loss of almost 13 acres of wetland next to the Des Plaines River floodplain on the whole Des Flames River Corridor been adequately evaluated?

K. Has the value of the habitat on the site been assessed?

L. What species will be displaced by this proposed filling?

M. Is there a biological assessment of the site?


2.    Non-Compliance with the Watershed Restoration Action Strategy for the Upper Des Plaines River (WRAS)

The Upper Des Plaines River originates in Racine and Kenosha Counties in southeastern Wisconsin and flows through Lake and Cook Counties in northeastern Illinois.  The drainage area of the watershed is approximately 346 square miles, and incorporates a diversity of land cover and land uses.

In addition to disturbing natural areas, commercial and residential development throughout the watershed have greatly reduced the water-holding capacity of the landscape and increased the impermeable land cover. This has dramatically changed the intensity and impact of flood events which continue to increase as more development occurs within the watershed. Projections for population growth within the watershed suggest that flood damage will be even greater in the future. Non-point source pollution associated with increasing urbanization and stormwater runoff also severely impacts water quality and its capacity to support human uses and wildlife populations.

Because of the variety of conditions in the watershed, a regional plan is necessary to address the multiple impacts and impairments existing in the watershed in order to protect, enhance and restore the upper Des Plaines River basin to a healthy state. In summer 2000, a Watershed Restoration Action Strategy for the Upper Des Plaines River was approved. This plan provides the planning and implementation tools to meet our watershed goals.

The proposed permit application's request to fill in wetlands is in direct opposition to the following objectives and strategies of the WRAS:
 

A.    Objective: Reduce the impact of urban development on natural habitats.
 
• Support land development and management practices that protect and conserve the biologic diversity and water resources of the watershed.
• Adopt and enforce ordinances that protect natural areas from new development.  This may include zoning regulations, subdivision regulations, and zoning overlays.
•  Review all development plans for conformity to natural area protection standards.
B.    Objective: Reduce flooding and flood damages in the upper Des Plaines basin.
 
• Identify potential floodwater storage sites in Illinois and Wisconsin designed to be natural-looking and aesthetic and enhance the environment and with recreational and water quality benefits where feasible.
• Restore degraded and drained wetlands throughout the watershed.


C.    Reduce non-point source pollution due to runoff from urban, agricultural, and developing landscapes.
 

• Maintain, restore, and enhance natural drainage systems that can serve multiple objectives such as stormwater conveyance and habitat.
• Maintain natural drainage systems and conveyance capacity.


D.    Objective: Protect and/or restore natural aquatic and riparian habitat and the natural hydrology of the watershed.

• Protect water bodies and other natural areas from damaging modifications such as draining, filling, dredging, clearing, and straightening.
• Protect natural stormwater storage areas within the watershed including wetlands, depressional areas, and floodplains.
• Acquire, protect, restore, and/or construct wetlands within the watershed to provide habitat, floodwater detention capacity, and water cleansing.

3.    Non-compliance with the Recommendations and Guidance for Feasibility Study including the Scope of Work for the Upper Des Plaines River and Tributaries Phase II Study

In spite of numerous flood control efforts, the Des Plaines River is one of the most flood-prone waterways in the region. According to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, damaging floods have occurred once or twice per decade since 1930 with the most recent flooding occurring in 1996. Devastating floods in the late 1980s in Lake and Cook Counties caused over $100 million in damage. This situation is expected to worsen as more of the watershed is converted to impervious surfaces and urban uses.

The Corps of Engineers Phase I Feasibility Study indicated the average annual flood damages on the mainstem are projected to increase by 26% by 201 0. Over the last several years, key state and local agencies and stakeholders along with the Corps have been working to identify ways to provide a higher level of protection than the 25 percent reduction provided by the Phase I Upper Des Plaines River Project authorized in the Water Resources Development Act of 1999 and to incorporate ecosystem restoration and recreation into an overall plan.

A recommendation and guidance report was approved and signed by the local sponsors, stakeholders and the Army Corps this spring. The local sponsors and the Corps are now proceeding to draft a Project Management Plan and Cost Share Agreement based an the goals and objectives of the guidance document.

The guidance document recognized that flood prevention measures are just as important as reduction in existing flood damages. NIPC and SEWRPC have projected large increases in population, households and employment in the headwaters of the watershed.  The cumulative impact of the increase in impervious surface areas on flood flows and watershed resources could be significant unless an aggressive flood prevention plan is implemented. The required floodplain management plan component of the Phase II Study is at least as important as the flood damage mitigation plan component.

The Phase II Study is committed to achieving flood management through ecosystem restoration and water quality improvement. Considerable time, effort and money will be spent in the next three years locating and evaluating sites along the mainstem and its tributaries where these goals can be achieved.

To permit the filling of almost 13 acres of wetland adjacent to the Des Plaines River is in total opposition to all of the work that has been done and the work currently being done as part of the Phase II study.

It is our firm conviction that the only possible action for the Corps to take on this permit application is a swift and forthright denial.