🐟 Mainstream - August 2024

Lake County, Illinois sent this bulletin at 08/07/2024 01:00 PM CDT

The Lake County Stormwater Management Newsletter - August 2024

SMC Site Tour 2024

The SMC Team recently toured several wetland project locations in the north part of Lake County to see the improvements they’ve made to the environment. On July 9, they boarded the bus at CPF early in the morning and departed to their first destination, Third Lake Dam.

At the site, Third Lake President, Butch Buckley, shared the history of the project and details about the dam, which controls the lake level and assists with keeping the water healthy by limiting invasive species.

The next stop was Lindenhurst, where the team learned more about a pilot SMC Beaver Dam Program to limit flooding. A large colony of beavers have taken up residence on a small stream that crosses IL Route 45, which has caused the roads to flood from the large dams they’ve created that interrupt the flow of the stream. This program is working to limit that.

Two stops were at Lake County Forest Preserves in Antioch, Ethel’s Woods and Pine Dunes. Ethel’s Woods is the sight of a dam removal that allowed a creek to begin flowing in its natural route again. Staff hiked up a small hill to enjoy the scenic overlook of the winding waterway.

Staff then visited Pine Dunes Preserve to enjoy the panoramic views of prairie and wide variety of native plants. Over 300 acres were added to the Pines Dunes Preserve in 2018 as a wetland mitigation project after O’Hare Airport was expanded. This involved the removal of manmade drainage features to reestablish natural water flow, removal of nonnative species, control of invasive plants, and the planting and seeding of diverse native prairie species, including 4,800 native tree and shrub plantings.

The last stop of the tour was at Bevier Park in Waukegan. This park has been recently updated with new playground equipment, a kayak/canoe launch and a dock to enjoy the pond and fish. Staff of the Waukegan Park District shared information about the park’s transformation, pond excavation, and what they learned from the process to share with SMC staff.

Annual SMC site tours help staff learn more about conservation efforts countywide across municipalities and organizations, and inspire them to learn about different processes to work to keep Lake County’s watersheds healthy.

Join Our 2024 HOA Vendor Expo & Hybrid Workshop

Bring a friend to attend this free Homeowners Association Workshop on Thursday, Sept. 12. Hosted by the Lake County Stormwater Management Commission this event will include an in-person Vendor Expo and hybrid workshop (in-person and via Zoom). View the workshop agenda here

Vendor Expo: 4:30 (in-person)
HOA Workshop: 5:30 - 8:30 p.m. (hybrid)

Where: Central Permit Facility, Second Floor Large Conference Room, 500 W. Winchester Road Libertyville OR via Zoom

Register: Each attendee should RSVP individually. In-person space is limited to 80 participants.

Contact Sharene Gould Dulabaum with questions.

Illinois Association for Floodplain and Stormwater Management

Calling all Illinois Floodplain Administrators!

FEMA manages the National Flood Insurance Program which includes more than 22,600 participating communities. This year, FEMA’s Floodplain Management Division is conducting a historic survey about the training and overall needs of Floodplain Administrators. The survey is open through Aug. 30.

This survey is to be filled out by the person formally designated as your community’s Floodplain Administrator in 2024. Each National Flood Insurance Program participating community may only submit one response. Once a survey is submitted for a Participating Community, additional responses are not permitted. The designated administrator may collect input from others to provide a single community response which covers the full perspectives and needs of all who support the floodplain management work within the community.

How will completing the survey benefit your day-to-day work? The survey will allow FEMA to learn about your overall training needs as well as the challenges and barriers you face in meeting those needs. Hearing directly from Floodplain Administrators will help our organization better serve you. Survey findings will inform a five-year National Floodplain Administrators Training Strategy that will be coordinated by the Floodplain Management Division.

TAKE THE SURVEY HERE

Purpose of the survey:
• Determine the training needs and preferences of Floodplain Administrators.
• Learn about the challenges that FPA’s face in obtaining training.
• Results of the survey will inform FEMA’s National Floodplain Administrator Training Strategy for the next five years.

Questions?
Should you have any questions about the survey, please contact fema-fpmtraining@fema.dhs.gov.

Are You Registered? Sign-up Today!

Aug. 27
SMC INFLOW Training

New to the INFLOW system? SMC is hosting an INFLOW Instructional Webinar and Q&A on Aug. 27 at 10 a.m. Click here to register

Aug. 28
2024 Midwest Beaver Summit

Attend the virtual 2024 Midwest Beaver Summit on Aug. 28 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., presented by the Illinois Beaver Alliance, LC Nature Park, and the Superior Bio-Conservancy. This event is completely virtual and free. Zoom information will be provided prior to the event. Click here to learn more about the Midwest Beaver Summit.

Sept. 11
Manitou Creek - Fish Lake Drain Watershed Plan Update

The next stakeholders planning meeting is scheduled for Sept. 11, from 10 to 11:30 a.m. at the Round Lake Area Library. For more information visit the Fox River Watershed Webpage.

Sept. 16-19
Wetland Delineations: Corps Manual & Regional Supplement Class

Hosted by the Institute for Wetland and Environmental Education and Research this September 16-19 in Wheaton. This course is designed for students with the ability to identify wetland plants. It is appropriate for required hours toward the Society of Wetland Scientist's Professional Wetland Scientist certification program. For more information and to register go to Wetlanded.com/Course_Descriptions.cfm

Reminder: Requests for Proposals

WMB Request for Proposals Now Open

As a reminder, we are now accepting request for proposals for the annual Watershed Management Board (WMB) funded projects for Fiscal Year 2025. This opportunity is available to all local watershed groups, landowners, homeowners associations, units of municipal, township, and county governments, land conservancies and trusts, park districts, and other land managing agencies. All project proposals must be submitted electronically through SMC's INFLOW proposal intake site and received no later than 2 p.m. on Sept. 13, via the SMC INFLOW portal.

SMC staff will review all proposal submissions based on the project prioritization criteria and will make recommendations to the WMB for their approval of projects at the Nov. 20 WMB meeting. Project proposals recommended for funding by the WMB will be forwarded to the December 2024 SMC meeting for final approval and funding appropriations.

SMC staff is available to meet with applicants to assist with project proposal preparations through Friday, Aug. 23. To receive assistance, please contact one of the program contacts to set up a pre-submittal meeting. Note that a limited number of appointment times are available and all pre-submittal meetings will be scheduled on a first come, first served basis. For more information, visit SMC's website.

Lake Michigan Watershed PCB & Mercury Pollutant Sampling Program Request for Proposals

SMC is coordinating a Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) compliance task on behalf of the MS4 permit assigned to Lake County. They are requesting a proposal from qualified interested firms to design and implement a sampling program to evaluate the baseline pollutant levels of PCBs/mercury in stormwater and in solids using USEPA-approved test methods. Firms also will need to provide a report evaluating the levels of PCBs and Mercury supported with sampling data, potential source areas of the pollutants, and recommendations for achieving TMDL compliance.

The Request for Proposal for Lake Michigan Watershed PCB & Mercury Pollutant Sampling Program deadline is Friday, Aug. 23, 2024 at 12:00 p.m.

For consideration, submit PDF copies of your focused, concise proposal response to the Attention of: Anna Niedzinski, Stormwater Coordinator via the upload function under your registration in the Lake County Purchasing Portal. Please note, any proposals received after the submittal deadline will not be reviewed.

Wetland Restoration Fund Fee Change

On July 11, the SMC approved the updated in-lieu mitigation fund fees below for each of the four major watersheds in Lake County, which became effective on that date. The updated fees represent an approximate 5.5% increase from the previous August 2022 fees, based on 2022-2024 comparative costs published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, using the Consumer Price Index (CPI) Inflation Calculator tool.

North Branch-Chicago River Watershed - $191,500 per acre
Lake Michigan Watershed - $185,000 per acre
Des Plaines River Watershed - $128,000 per acre
Fox River Watershed - $120,500 per acre

The required mitigation replacement ratios are specified in WDO Section 1007.02. SMC created the Wetland Restoration Fund (WRF) program on November 3, 2005, as an in-lieu fee alternative for wetland mitigation in watersheds that do not have available wetland mitigation bank credits. The fund only compensates for impacts to Isolated Waters of Lake County (IWLC).

For Non IWLC-Certified Communities: SMC will verify the final IWLC impact acreage and inform the applicant of the required mitigation and in-lieu fee amount. All required fees, including the applicable permit review fees and mitigation in-lieu fee, must be received by SMC prior to issuance of the IWLC impacts approval for the development.

For IWLC-Certified Communities: The IWLC-Certified community will verify the final IWLC impact acreage and inform the applicant of the required mitigation and in-lieu fee amount. The IWLC-Certified Community will provide SMC with the final IWLC impact acreage, mitigation fee amount due and applicant contact information. SMC will notify the IWLC-Certified community and applicant in writing once SMC receives the in-lieu fee. The IWLC-Certified community can then issue the IWLC impacts approval for the development.

Note: In both review scenarios above, the permit applicant shall provide SMC or the IWLC-Certified Community with correspondence (letter or e-mail) from the mitigation bank administrator(s) confirming there are no available mitigation credits at their bank(s) in the watershed where the IWLC impacts will occur.

For questions, please contact SMC Principal Wetland Specialists Bill Santelik or Juli Crane.

SMC Staff Spotlight

Meet Our New Intern!

Please join us in welcoming Anushka Hebbar to our team. Anushka is a 2024 graduate of Indiana University with a Bachelor of Science in Public Affairs and a Major in Financial Management. Last fall she interned with the Global Business Alliance in Washington D.C. as a State Government Affairs Intern. During her time at SMC, Anushka will be assisting Sharon Osterby with work program items.

Pictured above: Anushka was on-site at Sylvan Lake Dam to learn more about the FEMA project and assist SMC drone pilot Michelle Pope while she took aerial photos with the drone.