Environmental Progress - Summer 1996

First "Conservation 2000" Clean Lakes Grants Approved

Nearly $500,000 will be awarded in 1997 for lake improvement projects.

Slightly more than $290,000 has been awarded to five Illinois lakes in the first year of the Illinois Clean Lakes Program (ICLP) under Conservation 2000. Preliminary applications are now being accepted for the second round of grants, to be awarded in 1997.

The initial awards represent approximately half the $500,000 allotted to the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the first year of the six-year program. Over the six years, the lakes program will receive $7 million.

Lakes awarded grants, and the amounts they will receive, are Herrick Lake, DuPage County, $105,000; Otter Lake, Macoupin County, $62,110; Storey Lake, Knox County, $51,990; Gillespie Lakes (old and new), Macoupin County, $44,442; and Cherry Valley Lake, Winnebago County, $26,487.

Grants help fund either Phase I diagnostic/feasibility studies that identify causes of lake impairment, or Phase II implementation studies that develop technically and economically feasible restoration plans. The Herrick Lake grant is a Phase II funding project. The others are for Phase I programs.

The Illinois EPA expects to award approximately $500,000 for additional phase I and II Clean Lakes programs next year, from an anticipated '97 fiscal year allocation of $1 million in Conservation 2000 funds.

Illinois was a participant in the Federal Clean Lakes Program (FCLP) from its inception in the early 1980s, but funding under that program not been available for the last two years, and it does not appear likely that it will be funded in the future.

"Timing of the Conservation 2000 program is particularly fortunate," Illinois EPA Director Mary A. Gade said. "Many inland lake management programs in other states were left 'high and dry' when funding for the Federal Clean Lakes Program ended. Illinois is one of only a handful of states to have in place a long-term, state-supported program to assure continued efforts to protect and improve the state's lakes."

Because Illinois has in place a well-developed lake management program utilizing the services of several hundred volunteers, the state has been able to move forward in several lake study programs in addition to those utilizing the Clean Lakes Program grants. Funding from the Conservation 2000 program has allowed the Ambient Lake monitoring Program to expand by 66 percent, from 30 to 50 lakes; a chlorophyll a monitoring component has been added to the Volunteer Lake Monitoring Program at 50 lakes; two new program staffers were employed in Agency field offices to provide technical and educational assistance to lake homeowners and managers; and a series of information-education programs has been inaugurated.

The education programs include development of 'Lake Notes' fact sheets, weekend lake management workshops at selected lakes around Illinois, a lake education grant program for teachers and non-profit organizations, and placement of signs identifying VLMP and CLP lakes statewide.

Conservation 2000 is a six year, $100 million state initiative to protect Illinois' natural resources and expand the opportunity for quality outdoor recreational activities. It provides new program funding to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources and the Department of Agriculture, as well as the Illinois EPA.

By last fall's deadline for initial applications, the Illinois EPA had received 13 pre-applications for approximately $1.1 million in grants for projects expected to total about $2 million. Ten final applications, for nearly $1 million, were submitted in December 1995, for projects with a total projected cost of $1.7 million. The five grant recipients were selected from these ten.

Final applications for ICLP funding next year should be submitted by Oct. 31, 1996. It is anticipated that eight to 10 projects will receive assistance in FY '97.

Additional information about the program can be obtained from Gregg Good, ICLP coordinator, at 217-782-3362.