Woods & Wetlands

Wetland Protection

Is Your Wetland "ADID" ?

Updated 7/24/05

Contact the Lake County Soil and Water Conservation District
or the Lake County Maps Department

ADID maps are now available on-line at Lake County Maps Online. Click on Environment, select your area on the map, click on Topic, and then click ADID Wetlands. Since 2000 isolated wetlands have been protected by Lake County and reclassified as LCWI Wetlands. Click on that to compare what was jeopardized by the Supreme Court SWANCC decision.

If you're not web-savvy, call them (847-223-1056) and ask them to send you the LCWI/ADID maps and the ADID (Advanced Identification Study) report for your area. ADID wetlands are shown on the LCWI maps. Each is identified by an index number, which corresponds to a "Site Data Sheet" found in a report titled "Advanced Identification (ADID) Study: Lake County, Illinois, November 1992." This Background is largely from that report.

Background

In the late-1980’s, the US Department of Agriculture, Soil Conservation Service was required to identify wetlands in agricultural areas according to the "Swampbuster" provisions in the 1985 Food Security Act (Farm Bill). In 1990, this turned into a multi-agency comprehensive wetland inventory for all of Lake County including urban areas.

The result was the Lake County Wetland Inventory, or LCWI. Wetlands identified on the maps are based upon off-site determination criteria found in the "1989 Federal Manual for Identifying and Delineating Jurisdictional Wetlands."

The LCWI classifies wetlands into five categories:

Wetlands. Areas exhibiting soil, vegetation and hydrologic conditions that clearly define a wetland according to the Federal methodology described above.
Farmed Wetlands. Agricultural areas that have been cleared, partially drained, or filled. These areas are saturated enough or have enough ponded water that generally the area is too wet to plant or harvest, or yields are significantly reduced. These areas may not be regulatory wetlands, but these do indicate areas of naturally occurring ponding and provide opportunities for wetland restoration.
Artificial Wetlands. Man-made areas on non-wetland soil. These areas typically occur as farm or detention ponds and are not considered regulatory.
Converted Wetlands. Areas that have been drained or filled and no longer exhibit wetland characteristics but which may restorable in some cases.
Non Wetlands. Areas that are either upland areas within wetlands or areas identified in the older USF&WS National Wetlands Inventory (NWI) but currently exhibit none of the required wetland criteria.

In 1992, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) started a program designed to identify wetland sites that would be considered unsuitable for disposal of dredged or fill material. This program was the Advanced Identification Study (ADID). The ADID study was conducted by a committee consisting of engineers, soil scientists, water quality experts, planners and wetland biologists from a variety of local, state and federal agencies. The purpose was to develop detailed evaluation criteria for determining High Quality Wetlands based upon three functional values: habitat, stormwater storage, and water quality.

Habitat. Wetlands that met any one of the following habitat criteria were considered to be of high functional value:

Presence of State threatened or endangered species.
Designation as a natural area on Illinois Department of Conservation’s Illinois Natural Areas Inventory.
Presence of high quality wildlife habitat.
Presence of high quality plant communities.
Presence of stream or stream segment of high biological value.

Sites that met either of the first two standards were automatically designated ADID High Functional Value sites. For the remaining three standards, a screening process eliminated sites that showed a high degree of disturbance (ditching, draining activities, flooding due to filling activities). Consideration was also given to surrounding land use, habitat structure, vegetation/open water ratio, and soils. Each wetland was scored and ADID High Functional Value designation was based upon this score.

Stormwater Storage and Water Quality. Every wetland greater than five acres was evaluated based upon the following four criteria:

Stormwater storage: 50% outside a mapped floodplain and capable of significant ponding.
Shoreline/bank stabilization: vegetation at least 10 ft. wide along a perennial stream or 20 ft. wide adjacent to 100 ft. of open water.
Sediment/toxicant retention: located so that it receives stormwater runoff and capable of providing significant sedimentation/pollutant removal.
Nutrient Removal / Transformation: located upstream of a lake larger than 6 acres and capable of sufficient retention time to allow effective nutrient removal.

A wetland site was designated ADID High Functional Value if it met three of these four criteria.

The LCWI/ADID maps have not been updated since their release in March, 1993.

The Federal Wetlands Protection Act requires that a Wetland Delineation be performed on all wetlands prior to development/impact. Since 1993, these Wetland Delineations represent the only wetland identification and evaluation activities above and beyond the original LCWI/ADID activities. A Wetland Delineation must be performed by a qualified biologist or conservationist and must be performed in accordance with Chapter 6 of the Lake County Stormwater Management Commission’s Technical Reference Manual.

The keeper of all wetlands is the USACOE. The USACOE regulates all wetland activities through a permitting process.

If a Wetland Delineation indicates an impacted area of less than 1/3 acre, no permit is required and a developer may pretty much do as he pleases.

If a Wetland Delineation indicates an impacted area of 1/3 acre to 3 acres, a general permit may applicable depending on the nature of the proposed wetlands impacts. A general permit is a blanket authorization granted by the USACOE for certain kinds of projects. A general permit does not require a public comment period or a public hearing.

If a Wetland Delineation indicates an impacted area of 3 acres or more, than an individual permit is required and an application describing the wetlands plan is made with the USACOE. An individual permit application requires a public comment period and may require a public hearing on the plan.

All wetland applications and permits are kept with the USACOE.

At this time, the set of LCWI/ADID maps and USACOE wetland applications / permits represent the complete identification and status of wetlands in Lake County.

It is possible to get on the notification list for wetland applications by calling the USACOE regulatory branch.

Need Help? E-mail us (ADID Help) with your progress and your questions, and we'll do what we can.

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