Commentary: The Chicago-Joliet water deal is a solid solution, but we should amend it to help all communities affected by the collapsing aquifer.
Thousands of gallons of water per minute are drawn from multiple wells at Joliet Public Utilities. Joliet voted to switch over to Lake Michigan water as groundwater depletion continues.
The megadrought in the West seems far from our reality, and schemes still pop up to siphon Great Lakes water westward. But we do have an in-state water crisis that is largely concealed from view. This invisibility results from the fact that the crisis lurks underground in the collapsing Cambrian-Ordovician aquifer beneath Will, Kendall, Kane, McHenry and Lake counties.
No doubt, they will also request Lake Michigan water. But, in ecological and legal terms, the Lake Michigan supply is not limitless. The U.S. Supreme Court mandates the Illinois diversion from the lake at a 40-year average of 2.1 billion gallons a day, or 3,200 cubic feet per second. If Joliet and members of its consortium hit the upper end of the limit promised in the Chicago deal, then the Illinois diversion limit will be met and other communities could be left high and dry.
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