USA: Corps Seeks Comments on Des Plaines River Report

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has released for public review Documentation of Changes to the Draft Integrated Feasibility Report and Environmental Assessment for the “Upper Des Plaines River and Tributaries, Illinois and Wisconsin Integrated Feasibility Report and Environmental Assessment,” originally released to the public on Sept. 3, 2013.

The document was prepared based on public comment and outlines proposed changes to the variety of potential flood risk management and ecosystem restoration projects that could be implemented along the Upper Des Plaines River – an area that extends approximately from southern Racine County, Wis., to Riverside, Ill.

The primary changes being proposed are the removal of the proposed Aptakisic Creek Reservoir as a potential site for compensatory storage needed to prevent impacts from three proposed levees in Cook County and replacing it with two new compensatory storage reservoir sites, which together will provide the required storage to mitigate for floodplain impacts from the construction of the levees.

The first site is a reservoir at Fullerton Woods Forest Preserve in River Grove and the second is at the Harry Semrow Golf Driving Range in Des Plaines.

“Public engagement in our planning process is a key factor in developing sound engineering solutions for flood risk management and environmental restoration in the Upper Des Plaines Watershed,” said Jeffrey Zuercher, Project Manager, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Chicago District. “Based on the public input we received on the original report, we were able to revise the plan to include these two new alternatives which, when combined, will provide the same amount of compensatory storage as the original reservoir.”

This document is part of a larger report that proposed the construction of levees, reservoirs and other features to reduce flood damages in the Upper Des Plaines River watershed. The plans also include proposed ecosystem restoration features that would restore over 10,900 acres of native marsh, meadow, prairie, savanna, woodland and forest habitats in the watershed.

[mappress]

Press Release, January 20, 2014