Environmental Progress - Spring 1996

Watershed Management Program Seeks Citizens' Comments

New initiative focuses on entire watersheds as basic management units in effort to protect or restore Illinois water resources.

The Illinois EPA has begun a series of statewide workshops seeking citizen input into the Agency's new Watershed Management Program (WMP), which is aimed at protecting or restoring Illinois' water resources. Watersheds are regions draining into rivers, river systems or other bodies of water.

The first of these sessions was conducted in early March 1996, in the Cumberland County town of Greenup, to obtain comments regarding development of the WMP.

In these workshops, Agency representatives describe the WMP. Workshop participants then comment on the proposed program and recommend additional WMP considerations.

Traditional approaches to water quality programs evaluate possible contaminants by individual chemicals and sources. Federal and state agencies, usually working within specific political boundaries, seek solutions through a command-and-control regulatory approach that concentrates on chemical effects and human health impacts.

The WMP instead emphasizes common-sense approaches recognizing the need for involvement by citizens and by those having to comply with environmental laws. The final WMP looks holistically at the range of problems affecting a given watershed, recognizing that most watersheds face an array of interrelated concerns rather than a single problem.

The WMP focuses on the total spectrum of water resrouce issues. State and local agencies consider numerous physical and biological effects and seek nonregulatory compliance assistance in areas determined by natural boundaries (watersheds).

For additional information, contact Carol Fuller, Illinois EPA Office of Community Relations (OCR), at 217-524-8807; Bill Hammel, Illinois EPA OCR, at 217-785-3924; or Gary Eicken, Illinois EPA watershed coordinator, at 217-782-3362.

[Photo Caption: Illinois EPA personnel recently presented the Agency's new Watershed Management Program with Farm Bureau members in Casey, Ill.]