Legislative Catch-ups

We haven’t run a legislative update in a long time! To make up for our lapse, here’s a long list of some what’s going on in the Illinois General Assembly this spring session. 

Water Pollution Control Loan

HB 4382

Synopsis:

• An amendment to the Environmental Protection Act
• Removes a provision requiring a local 30% match for total project cost for projects funded through grants
• Allows the IEPA to provide financial assistance for any project eligible for assistance under the Federal Water Pollution Control Act

Status:

• Introduced January 29, 2014
• Placed on the House calendar for a second reading on March 26, 2014

Coal and Coke Regulation
HB 5939

Synopsis:

• Is an amendment to the Environmental Protection Act
• Regulates the storage, processing, and transloading of coal and coke
• Requires minimum setbacks for coal and coke facilities (5,000 feet for the property line of a residence, childcare service, school, etc.)
• Sets limits for fugitive dust from facilities
• Requires permits for construction and operations of facilities
• Regulates the loading, unloading, paving, and cleaning of facilities
• Requires monitoring, recording keeping, and reporting to the IEPA

Status:

• Introduced February 14, 2014
• Assigned to the House Environment Committee in early March
• Currently accumulating lots of co-sponsors

Nuisance Organisms

HB 5869

Synopsis:

• An amendment to the Fish and Aquatic Life Code
• Any individual who knowingly imports any nuisance organisms into Illinois is guilty of a Class C misdemeanor or a fine not exceeding $1,500 per organisms imported, maximum fine not to exceed $25,000
• Nuisance organisms are nonnative aquatic organisms that could alter or threaten the ecosystem or native or naturalized fish and other organisms

Status:

• Introduced February 14, 2014
• Currently a floor amendment has kicked it back to the Rules Committee

Anything related to the Fox Waterway

Since the Fox Waterway seems to be stirring a lot of discussion in the General Assembly, we grouped all these measures together.

SB 2696

Synopsis:

• Dissolves the Fox Waterway Agency Act
• Dissolves the Fox Waterway Agency
• Assigns assets and property to the Department of Natural Resources
• Status:
• Introduced January 28, 2014
• Second reading was added to the Senate calendar on March 26, 2014

HR 0934

Synopsis:

• Declares the House’s opposition to SB 2629

Status:

• Introduced March 20, 2014
• Adding co-sponsors at the moment

SB 2732

Synopsis:

• Amendment to the Fox Waterway Agency Act
• If any dredging or restoration work is done on the channel using public funds, then the water in the channel remains a public waterway open and accessible to the public
• If only private funds are used for dredging and maintenance, then property owners adjacent to the channel have the right to close the channel to public access, so long as the closing is posted

Status:

• Introduced and referred to Assignments January 28, 2014

Illinois Water 2014 Call for Sessions

As the snow melts and it seems like spring may someday arrive, it’s also time to start planning for our biennial Water Conference. Illinois Water 2014 is scheduled for this October 14 and 15 at the University of Illinois’s Illini Union. We have exciting plans for plenaries, student poster sessions, and a water careers panel, but we need your help to create an engaging and timely lineup of sessions and speakers. If you have a research project or concept you’ve been developing and you’d like an opportunity to present and discuss it with your peers, we invite you to submit a session proposal. We’ll be accepting proposals until March 28. Please see the Water 2014 website for more information on how to submit a session proposal or for help in developing your ideas.

Photo by Anjanette Riley

Research Highlights: Biofuels and Midwestern Water Use

Photo by Irene Miles

On its millions of acres of farmland, Illinois grows enough corn and soybeans to produce more ethanol than any other state in the US. If Illinois farmers decided to grow perennial grasses for biofuel rather than corn and soybeans, though, how might the way Illinois uses water and fertilizer change? That’s what Andy VanLoocke and Carl Bernacchi wanted to know, and they won an IWRC Annual Small Grant to fund their search for an answer. At the end of their project, Andy and Carl told us about their findings, what the research could mean for Illinois water resources, and what Andy is doing with his new PhD.  

What exactly does “cellulosic biofuel feedstock” mean?

A cellulosic biofuel feedstock is a crop that is grown primarily to convert the cellulose, most of a plant’s structural material, into a fuel like ethanol. This is in contrast to the “grain or oil” being used to produce ethanol or biodiesel, because with cellulosic feedstocks the energy source isn’t limited to the seed of the crop, like with corn or soybean. 

Would you please give us a quick overview of the whole project, not just the IWRC-funded piece?

The overall goal of this project was to come up with a quantitative way to assess large-scale land use shifts across the Midwest that are associated with biofuel production. We also looked at the impacts this could have on the critical aspects of our agro-ecosystems, such as the cycling of carbon, water, and nutrients. Within the context of the IWRC funding, we were particularly focused on ecosystem water use, such as determining how producing cellulosic bioenergy crops would alter stream flows and water quality of our rivers. 

Would you talk about the models you used a little bit: what is IBIS, how do you determine model inputs, and how accurate are the results?

Because we are asking questions on such a large scale, and with numerous hypothetical scenarios, we had to use computer models to answer our research questions. To model the production of the crops we chose an ecosystem model called Agro-IBIS, which stands for the Integrated BIoSphere model – Agricultural version. We ran this model in conjunction with a stream flow and nutrient transport model called Terrestrial Hydrology Model with Biogeochemistry (THMB).

To conduct this research, we fed the ecosystem model (Agro-IBIS) climate data including temperature and precipitation. The model then simulated the uptake of carbon through photosynthesis, the loss of water through transpiration and evaporation, and a range of other outputs. We also input management information into Agro-IBIS, such as crop type and fertilization rates that are used with the climate data to determine how much carbon, nitrogen, and water are entering and leaving a given location (typically the size of a county). The results of Agro-IBIS are then given as inputs into THMB, which simulates the movement of water and nitrogen runoff from each location, through the various rivers and streams of the Mississippi River Basin, and eventually out to the Gulf of Mexico. 

We compare the model results to any available observations we can find to insure the model is accurate. For the new cellulosic biofuel crops, information is limited, but we have been able to compare the model predictions for key components of the carbon, water, and nitrogen cycles for a few locations in Central Illinois. So far the models do a pretty good job simulating what we have seen in the field. Given the limited data, there are uncertainties when scaling from the well-measured areas to the whole region. We can increase the confidence in the model over larger spatial scales by modeling existing crops (corn, soy, and wheat), which we have much more information on, and determine how well the modeled data and measured data agree.

What were your major findings? 

The primary question we were trying to address is: What impact would large-scale production of cellulosic feedstock in the Midwest have on water quality and quantity in the Mississippi River Basin? We know from observations that Miscanthus and Switchgrass, the two major leading candidate cellulosic feedstocks and our study focus, use more water than corn and soybean, but require less fertilizer to achieve high yields. When we expanded the study with the computer models we found that, as long as we kept production less than the current fraction levels (i.e. ~40% of corn grain goes to ethanol each year), there was a minimal impact on streamflow for most of the Mississippi River Basin. At the same time we saw that we could significantly improve water quality if we followed these production scenarios. 

6 Ways to Love your Watershed

This Valentine’s Day, why not spare a thought for your watershed when considering the loved ones in your life? That area of land around you that drains to a common water body, your watershed, does hard work to give you clean and sustaining water. But rather than chocolate and flowers, it would probably prefer you invest in some of these goodies:  

1. You should probably learn the name of the object of your affection. EPA’s Surf Your Watershed will allow you to do so by searching your zip code, city name, local stream name, or even its Hydrologic Unit Code (HUC). 
2. Once you’ve found your watershed, you have the opportunity to look at your watershed’s health. Impairments listed for each watershed will tell you what ails your beloved. IWRC’s watershed is afflicted with high phosphorus and nitrogen levels and a very small number of scary things like DDT.
3. Knowing what hurts your watershed means that you can help heal it. And when it comes to watersheds, the little things really do count, like washing your car at the carwash where the water gets treated. You could also try doing the things you hear about all the time: don’t litter, don’t dump, especially around storm drains, turn off the water when brushing your teeth (or find out your water footprint and cut down on all your water use), use natural lawn care, and safely dispose of unwanted medicines.
4. Like making anyone feel appreciated, a little quality time can work wonders. Your local non-profits, schools, and municipalities probably sponsor watershed cleanup days. Consider participating. You can find cleanup opportunities all over the nation through organizations like American Rivers, which runs the National River Cleanup, or the Ocean Conservancy, which coordinates the International Coastal Cleanup. More locally, the Alliance for the Great Lakes runs the Adopt-a-Beach program to both clean and monitor the Great Lakes. And if you really want to get crazy, the National Great Rivers Research and Education Center runs a citizen science program to monitor Illinois’s streams called RiverWatch. Trainings teach volunteers how to use macroinvertebrates and water chemistry to determine the health of their local watersheds.
5. We talk about the things we love. Want to gab about your watershed? Why not join us at Illinois Water 2014, or sign-up for updates from your local watershed groups (helpfully listed on Surf Your Watershed)? Have an idea for what to talk about at Water 2014? Let us know!
6. But most of all, don’t forget your watershed. Don’t just think about it on Valentine’s Day. What you do upstream will end up in someone else’s downstream, whether that’s his or her back yard, drinking water, food, habitat, national park, or means of making a living. Our actions always draw a reaction. It’s a basic law of physics, and it’s true for water, too.

A New Year, a New Posting Schedule and IWRC Updates

When we first launched the blog, we planned to post once a week on Wednesdays. If you’ve followed us for any amount of time, you’ve probably noticed that we haven’t kept that schedule, ever. But, with a new year comes the opportunity to readjust. Consequently, we’ve decided to start posting on the second and forth Thursdays of a month. News items, PSAs, funding announcements, calls for papers, and so on will be posted as needed. Those items will also continue to be posted on our Facebook page and Twitter feed, so for regular updates and content from your friendly Illinois Water Resources Center, please like us on Facebook or follow us @IllinoisWater. If you have items you would like posted to any of these outlets, feel free to contact us through Facebook, Twitter, or good, old-fashioned email: iwrc[at]uiuc.edu or cmlay[at]Illinois.edu.

And now, a few big news items for 2014:

• Save the Date: Water 2014 is coming! We are pleased to announce that Water 2014 will take place October 14^th and 15^th at the Illini Union on the University of Illinois campus. More details to follow, but feel free to contact us if you have ideas or would like to sponsor a portion of the event.
• National Competitive Grants Program: It seems that funding will most likely be available this year for the Water Resources Research National Competitive Grants Program. As we’ve noted on our blog and social media outlets, these applications are due to us February 20^th. Please contact us if you have questions or would like help preparing your application. The full RFP is available on the NIWR webpage.
• Keep an eye out for our Annual Small Grants: We are working on final details for our own RFP, so check our blog, website, and social media for new details from us.