Lunch and Learn
Illinois River Past, Present, and Future
Irreversible Reaction: Illinois River to Waterway
Richard Lanyon, Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (retired), Author
The Illinois River, a product of the Wisconsin Glacial Episode, morphed into the Illinois Waterway over the past two centuries, a determined effort to have nature serve national and local economic development. The lower Illinois River was first to experience changes to serve settlement and industries. Then the Illinois & Michigan Canal opened the navigable link to the Chicago River and Lake Michigan. Drainage and levee districts have isolated about half of the floodplain from the river channel and the Illinois General Assembly authorized the Sanitary District of Chicago to create the first segment of the deep waterway early in the 20th Century. A state project completed by the federal government followed, extending the deep waterway to Starved Rock. Added flow and sewage from Cook County adversely impacted the Illinois Waterway until sewage treatment plants and water quality standards brought some ecological recovery late in the Twentieth Century. Meanwhile, passive agricultural practices were replaced by industrial agriculture practices, loading the Illinois River with nutrients and sediments. Point sources of pollution are tightly controlled by environmental regulations while incentives and voluntary programs are being used to control non-point sources. Ecological restoration of the watershed is being attempted, but is it possible to restore a river that is so extensively modified? If and when a nutrient control strategy is decided, will it achieve the desired result? And what to do about those unwelcome fish?
Better known as Dick, Richard Lanyon retired from his position as executive director of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (MWRD), a position that he held for over four years, at the close of 2010. As executive director, he directed the day-to-day operations of MWRD, which included 2,100 employees serving 5 million people in Cook County and the industrial equivalent of another 4 million people. MWRD provides wastewater and stormwater management and other related services to protect the environment. Dick’s career at MWRD spanned nearly 48 years. In 2012, he published Building the Canal to Save Chicago, a historical documentary of the first project of MWRD. Dick received the 2013 Abel Wolman Award from the Chicago Metro Chapter of the American Public Works Association for the single best new book on public works history. Other awards include the American Society of Civil Engineer’s National Government Civil Engineer of the Year Award in 1999, Distinguished Alumnus of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2003, the Edward J. Cleary Award from the American Academy of Environmental Engineers and Scientists in 2011, and the Distinguished Service Award from the National Association of Clean Water Agencies (NACWA) in 2011. He is also a past president of the Illinois section of the American Society of Civil Engineers and holds bachelor and master of civil engineering degrees from the UIUC. In 2013, Dick was inducted into the NACWA Hall of Fame. Dick has been involved in a variety of technical activities for the above and other organizations, and he has served in a number of leadership roles on environmental protection and water resource management matters for federal, state, and local agencies and organizations. He is currently providing technical guidance for teaching stormwater management concepts to third- and sixth-grade students in the Evanston/Skokie School District 65. Dick served on the Evanston Public Library Board of Directors and as alderman of the 8th Ward on the Evanston City Council. He is currently the chairman of the Evanston Utilities Commission. He and his wife Marsha reside in Evanston, and he continues to be an advocate for sensible and sustainable water management in the urban environment.
Illinois Waterway Public-Private Partnership (P3) Demonstration Project
Hank DeHaan, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Rock Island District
The nation is experiencing serious problems in maintaining its infrastructure to keep people safe and support the economic viability of the country. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) operations and maintenance (O&M) budget has not kept up with inflation which has led to many of its navigation structures falling into serious disrepair. Alternative funding sources are now being considered to help resolve this issue.
The Illinois Waterway (IWW) includes eight locks and dams that were largely constructed in the 1930s. It serves as an important component of the nation's inland navigation system. For example, more than 26M tons/$10B in commodities were shipped through the IWW LaGrange Lock in 2014. With the lack of sufficient O&M funding, deferred maintenance now exceeds $600M on the IWW. This has led to increasing service interruptions and reduced system reliability. In 2014 commerce was significantly impacted with more than 50% of the vessels experiencing delays at most of the IWW locks and dams.
The 2014 Water Resources Reform and Development Act offers new alternative financing authorities which could help address USACE unfunded maintenance, including a new Public-Private Partnership (P3) Program. Prior to full authorization, several P3 Demonstration Projects are proceeding to help inform this new program. The IWW was selected for this effort to help better understand the opportunities and challenges of implementing an inland navigation P3 Project. USACE along with the Illinois Soybean Association other industry and state partners are analyzing possible scenarios for an IWW P3 Project. These proposals range from supplementing maintenance to reduce risk of major break downs to implementation of the Navigation Ecosystem Sustainability Program lock expansions as authorized in WRDA 2007. USACE continues to work with partners, stakeholders and senior decision makers to develop and advance the IWW P3 Demonstration Project.
Hank DeHaan obtained a master of geography degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with an emphasis in fluvial geomorphology and GIS and is a certified project manager. For almost 25 years, he has used his education and training to manage Mississippi and Illinois River projects. Earlier in his career, Hank worked for several state agencies and was a teacher at St. Mary’s University in Winona, Minnesota. He then moved on to perform research and author reports as a physical scientist for the U.S. Geological Survey. For the past 13 years, Hank has worked for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) on navigation, environmental restoration, and flood damage reduction projects located throughout the Mississippi River basin. He currently serves as chief of the Operations Division Technical Support Branch in Rock Island District, overseeing navigation channel maintenance and natural resource management in USACE mission areas throughout the five-state region of the district.
Illinois River Past, Present, and Future
Irreversible Reaction: Illinois River to Waterway
Richard Lanyon, Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (retired), Author
The Illinois River, a product of the Wisconsin Glacial Episode, morphed into the Illinois Waterway over the past two centuries, a determined effort to have nature serve national and local economic development. The lower Illinois River was first to experience changes to serve settlement and industries. Then the Illinois & Michigan Canal opened the navigable link to the Chicago River and Lake Michigan. Drainage and levee districts have isolated about half of the floodplain from the river channel and the Illinois General Assembly authorized the Sanitary District of Chicago to create the first segment of the deep waterway early in the 20th Century. A state project completed by the federal government followed, extending the deep waterway to Starved Rock. Added flow and sewage from Cook County adversely impacted the Illinois Waterway until sewage treatment plants and water quality standards brought some ecological recovery late in the Twentieth Century. Meanwhile, passive agricultural practices were replaced by industrial agriculture practices, loading the Illinois River with nutrients and sediments. Point sources of pollution are tightly controlled by environmental regulations while incentives and voluntary programs are being used to control non-point sources. Ecological restoration of the watershed is being attempted, but is it possible to restore a river that is so extensively modified? If and when a nutrient control strategy is decided, will it achieve the desired result? And what to do about those unwelcome fish?
Better known as Dick, Richard Lanyon retired from his position as executive director of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (MWRD), a position that he held for over four years, at the close of 2010. As executive director, he directed the day-to-day operations of MWRD, which included 2,100 employees serving 5 million people in Cook County and the industrial equivalent of another 4 million people. MWRD provides wastewater and stormwater management and other related services to protect the environment. Dick’s career at MWRD spanned nearly 48 years. In 2012, he published Building the Canal to Save Chicago, a historical documentary of the first project of MWRD. Dick received the 2013 Abel Wolman Award from the Chicago Metro Chapter of the American Public Works Association for the single best new book on public works history. Other awards include the American Society of Civil Engineer’s National Government Civil Engineer of the Year Award in 1999, Distinguished Alumnus of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2003, the Edward J. Cleary Award from the American Academy of Environmental Engineers and Scientists in 2011, and the Distinguished Service Award from the National Association of Clean Water Agencies (NACWA) in 2011. He is also a past president of the Illinois section of the American Society of Civil Engineers and holds bachelor and master of civil engineering degrees from the UIUC. In 2013, Dick was inducted into the NACWA Hall of Fame. Dick has been involved in a variety of technical activities for the above and other organizations, and he has served in a number of leadership roles on environmental protection and water resource management matters for federal, state, and local agencies and organizations. He is currently providing technical guidance for teaching stormwater management concepts to third- and sixth-grade students in the Evanston/Skokie School District 65. Dick served on the Evanston Public Library Board of Directors and as alderman of the 8th Ward on the Evanston City Council. He is currently the chairman of the Evanston Utilities Commission. He and his wife Marsha reside in Evanston, and he continues to be an advocate for sensible and sustainable water management in the urban environment.
Illinois Waterway Public-Private Partnership (P3) Demonstration Project
Hank DeHaan, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Rock Island District
The nation is experiencing serious problems in maintaining its infrastructure to keep people safe and support the economic viability of the country. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) operations and maintenance (O&M) budget has not kept up with inflation which has led to many of its navigation structures falling into serious disrepair. Alternative funding sources are now being considered to help resolve this issue.
The Illinois Waterway (IWW) includes eight locks and dams that were largely constructed in the 1930s. It serves as an important component of the nation's inland navigation system. For example, more than 26M tons/$10B in commodities were shipped through the IWW LaGrange Lock in 2014. With the lack of sufficient O&M funding, deferred maintenance now exceeds $600M on the IWW. This has led to increasing service interruptions and reduced system reliability. In 2014 commerce was significantly impacted with more than 50% of the vessels experiencing delays at most of the IWW locks and dams.
The 2014 Water Resources Reform and Development Act offers new alternative financing authorities which could help address USACE unfunded maintenance, including a new Public-Private Partnership (P3) Program. Prior to full authorization, several P3 Demonstration Projects are proceeding to help inform this new program. The IWW was selected for this effort to help better understand the opportunities and challenges of implementing an inland navigation P3 Project. USACE along with the Illinois Soybean Association other industry and state partners are analyzing possible scenarios for an IWW P3 Project. These proposals range from supplementing maintenance to reduce risk of major break downs to implementation of the Navigation Ecosystem Sustainability Program lock expansions as authorized in WRDA 2007. USACE continues to work with partners, stakeholders and senior decision makers to develop and advance the IWW P3 Demonstration Project.
Hank DeHaan obtained a master of geography degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with an emphasis in fluvial geomorphology and GIS and is a certified project manager. For almost 25 years, he has used his education and training to manage Mississippi and Illinois River projects. Earlier in his career, Hank worked for several state agencies and was a teacher at St. Mary’s University in Winona, Minnesota. He then moved on to perform research and author reports as a physical scientist for the U.S. Geological Survey. For the past 13 years, Hank has worked for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) on navigation, environmental restoration, and flood damage reduction projects located throughout the Mississippi River basin. He currently serves as chief of the Operations Division Technical Support Branch in Rock Island District, overseeing navigation channel maintenance and natural resource management in USACE mission areas throughout the five-state region of the district.