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"Sustainable approaches to water
use can benefit future generations, and Illinois is no exception.
The Illinois State Water Survey recently compiled important water
supply issues in a
question-answer format on the Web for public viewing and
comment," says Derek Winstanley, ISWS chief.
"Drawing on the experience of
survey scientists and backed by data collected and maintained at the
ISWS, this site provides answers about water availability and use in
Illinois, effects of water quality on water supplies, costs of water
supplies, legal issues, and information about where to find water
resources data. It also includes links to more detailed discussions,
reports and other water resources agencies in Illinois and the
country," adds Winstanley.
Abundant water resources have been
of great benefit to Illinois citizens, agriculture and industry.
More than 2 billion gallons of water are used each day for drinking,
irrigation and industrial purposes. Another 17 billion gallons per
day are used in the generation of power for homes, offices and
businesses.
"As Illinois continues to grow,
careful stewardship becomes increasingly important to ensure the
future availability of clean water at reasonable cost. Water
shortages are projected for some areas of northeastern Illinois by
2020 if action is not taken," says Winstanley.
Fresh water is essential not only
for human survival, but also for healthy ecosystems and sustainable
development of society. Yet pollution, overconsumption, and poor
water management have reduced the availability of fresh water to the
extent that water shortages now affect one out of every three people
on earth. World
Water Day calls for an awareness of the importance of fresh
water and of measures to reduce the incidence of people being
without access to safe water.
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"Wise planning and management of
water resources is necessary to provide adequate supplies of clean
water at reasonable cost, to protect our state's precious water
resources and ecosystems, to reduce water conflicts, and to support
economic growth. Wise planning is based on sound technical
information, taking into account such matters as climatic variations
and change, renewable yields of surface waters and aquifers,
opportunities for the conjunctive use of surface water and
groundwater, and water conservation and reuse," says Winstanley.
The mission of the ISWS is to
characterize and evaluate the availability, quality and use of the
atmospheric, surface water and groundwater resources of Illinois and
to make resulting data and information available to the public,
decision makers, planners and managers. Since its establishment in
1895, the ISWS has been nationally and internationally recognized as
a leader in collection and interpretation of water resources and
atmospheric data. The agency, a division of the Illinois Department
of Natural Resources, is located on the campus of the University of
Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
[Illinois
State Water Survey press
release] |
