Can Illinois Provide Adequate Supplies of Clean, Secure Water at Reasonable Cost?
What options and opportunities exist for solving the state’s water-supply problems and meeting increasing future demand? Two general areas of action exist: better management of existing resources, and enhancement and growth of available supplies. Both solutions require careful planning. A long-recognized means to increase supplies is through reuse of water. Post-treatment of water used for one purpose allows second and third cycles of usage for a given volume of water. Such reuse requires planning and coordination of treatment and downstream activities. Some Illinois locations already are reusing water. Another obvious action is to continue reducing pollution of streams and shallow aquifers, which requires careful monitoring of water quality, and incentives to minimize pollution. Considerable progress has been made, but there are even more opportunities. A long-recognized water management tool to enhance supplies is increased water conservation. During droughts many Illinois communitie
