Welcome May and Ernesto, SMC's Newest Interns
 May Keen, Water Quality Intern, and Ernesto Barahona, GIS Intern, recently joined the SMC team.
May will be working with various staff members to inspect stormwater best management practices, work with the Des Plaines River watershed and North Branch Chicago River watershed workgroups, help with aspects of water quality monitoring programs, and more!
Ernesto will be helping to maintain a GIS database of wetland jurisdictional boundaries, identify detention basins in the Lake Michigan Watershed, assist with the Lake County storm sewer network database, and create and enhance maps in ArcGIS online.
Please join SMC staff in extending a very warm welcome to May and Ernesto. The team looks forward to their accomplishments in the coming months.
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 SMC is seeking a GIS/Engineering Tech to assist in the inspection of permit and construction related developments in the field as well as assist in the collection of survey information using GPS technologies.
Candidates should have a bachelor’s degree with course work or professional experience in GIS and intermediate level experience with the ESRI ArcGIS software suite including proficiency with Collector for ArcGIS, Survey123, and ArcGIS Online.
Interested in joining the SMC team as the new GIS/Engineering Tech? Apply today.
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Upcoming Drainage Channel Clearing Project
 Fiddle Creek Branch A is suffering from drainage problems and is causing flooding for residents. SMC is overseeing a drainage channel clearing project. Drainage restoration will alleviate residential flooding. In late May, SMC began the process by capturing footage of Fiddle Creek Branch A with the drone. Through this footage, the team was able to see what areas are obstructed. Work to clear debris and other obstructions will begin in the coming weeks and will be performed by an outside entity.
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Recent Sponsorships
SMC gave a $500 sponsorship to Friends of the Chicago River for their annual cleanup day. Each year, volunteers help to remove debris, restore miles of river-side trails, plant native plants, and more at 70 sites across the Chicago area. This event has shown long-term improvements to the health of the Chicago River. In addition to sponsoring the event, SMC also acted as pick up location. Team captains from local sites picked up their stream cleanup supplies at the SMC office before the event.
 SMC and the Buffalo Grove Park District Environmental Action Team hosted a Community Spring Workday at Mike Rylko Park on Saturday, May 12, 2018. Workday activities included stream cleanup, invasive plant control, and planting in the woodlands and along streambanks.
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Annual Facility Inspection Report Submitted
Recently, the Stormwater Management Commission (SMC)
submitted its annual facility inspection report to the Illinois Environmental
Protection Agency on behalf of Lake County. This report is a yearly requirement
for Lake County’s National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES)
permit, which covers Lake County’s municipal separate storm sewer systems
(MS4s) discharge activities, provides monitoring and reporting requirements,
and defines measurable goals for water quality protection. The NPDES program
implementation helps to ensure that control measures are in place to reduce
pollution in our waterways. The Division of
Transportation, Planning, Building & Development, the Health Department,
Public Works, the Solid Waste Agency of Lake County, and Finance &
Administration Services provide SMC and the Lake County MS4 Program Coordinator
with support and oversight.
For more information on Lake County’s NPDES MS4 Program and
to find out what you can do to improve Lake County’s stormwater, please visit
the website. To view
the annual report, click here.
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