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Archive for the ‘Well Water Quality’ Category

Flood Zones

Excerpt from FEMA Preliminary Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM) panel 0178 in Hoffman Estates | Courtesy of Illlinois State Water Survey on behalf of FEMA

Submitted by Shelly Fuller

Updates to portions of Cook County’s and Kane County’s Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRMs) are nearly complete.

The new maps will provide both counties with up-to-date flood risk information and tools that can be used to enhance local mitigation plans and help officials and residents make better decisions about reducing flood risks and purchasing flood insurance.

Areas of revision are within the Poplar Creek and Spring Creek watersheds and include portions of: Barrington Hills, Cook County (unincorporated areas), Elgin, Hoffman Estates, Inverness, Schaumburg, South Barrington, Streamwood, Kane County (unincorporated areas) and South Elgin.

The mapping project is part of a nationwide effort led by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to increase local knowledge of flood risks and support actions to address and reduce those risks.

The work has been led by FEMA Region V, in partnership with local community officials and the Illinois State Water Survey.

Before the new Flood Insurance Rate Map is finalized, a 90-day appeal period will give residents and business owners a chance to provide additional technical data or non-technical comments for FEMA’s consideration.

FEMA encourages residents and business owners to review the proposed map changes, learn about local flood risks and potential flood insurance requirements, and share any concerns or questions.

If members of the affected communities notice incorrect information that does not involve changing the flood hazard-related information-such as a missing or misspelled road name or an incorrect corporate boundary-a written correction, or “comment,” can be submitted.

If members of the communities have concerns about certain areas of the map and have technical and scientific information-such as detailed hydraulic or hydrologic data-that can be used to improve the maps, they may file an appeal during the 90-day appeal period. All comments and appeals must be submitted through the local officials. Because submitting an appeal requires some time and effort, we encourage property owners and renters to review the updated flood maps now.

If you are interested in submitting an appeal, we highly recommend that you first discuss it with your local officials so they can provide guidance on the process. For more details about this process, visit www.floodmaps.fema.gov/fhm/BFE_Status/bfe_main.asp.

Read more here.

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arbor2

By Russell Lissau – Daily Herald

A plan to provide South Barrington homes and businesses with drinking water from Lake Michigan is in the works.

The village board on Thursday agreed to extend a contract with a firm investigating whether dumping the current well-based system in favor of water from the lake is feasible.

The extension will allow a Chicago engineering firm, Greeley and Hansen, to continue its preliminary research, which will give village officials more information about what is needed to connect to the lake, Village Administrator Robert Palmer said.

The board is considering joining the Northwest Suburban Municipal Joint Action Water Agency, a consortium of Cook County towns that buys Lake Michigan drinking water from Chicago.

South Barrington officials are eyeing that system because it already serves nearby suburbs along the Jane Addams Memorial Tollway, Palmer said.

South Barrington’s current water system serves about 400 homes west of Bartlett Road, the Arboretum of South Barrington shopping center and other customers, Palmer said.

Homes elsewhere in town have their own wells.

Read more here.

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The Barrington Hills Park District Advisory Committee meets tomorrow evening at 7 PM.  Some of the topics on their agenda include:

  • Grounds / Landscaping Committee
  • Motorized vehicles in Forest Preserve
  • Additional clear-view windows to be added to the indoor arena for winter
  • Dust-free driveway and parking lot solution

A copy of their agenda can be viewed here.

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Sarah Glees of West Dundee

Sarah Glees of West Dundee wins a $500 scholarship from the One Earth Young Filmmakers Contest for her film “The Long-Lived Effects of the Long Meadow Parkway.” Funds for the scholarship were provided by the Environmental Law and Policy Center. (Courtesy of One Earth Young Filmmakers Contest)

By Lisa Files
One Earth Film Festival

West Dundee resident Sarah Glees will be awarded an Environmental Action Award in the One Earth Young Filmmakers Contest for her film “The Long-Lived Effects of the Long Meadow Parkway.”

The award consists of a $500 scholarship from the Environmental Law and Policy Center. Glees plans to use the funds to help pay for Elmhurst University, where she is a senior.

The Long Meadow Parkway (under construction) has a four-lane Fox River bridge crossing, which is meant to alleviate traffic in Kane County, Illinois.

Glees begins her 7-minute film “The Long-Lived Effects of the Long Meadow Parkway” with an interview with Parkway opponent Sue Harney, a Dundee Township Trustee and former Dundee Township Supervisor from 2000-17.

Harney explains that trucking companies wanted the Parkway to serve logistics hubs where items are stored or manufactured and then trucked out. Her main concern is contamination of the Fox River from heavy metals such as arsenic and chromium released from tires, hydraulic fluid, gas leaks, and the fine particulate matter from exhaust.

“It’s so long-lived and so very fine that when it gets into the water and the river, the fish have the same problem we do,” Harney said “It gets into their bodies and their gills. It’s like a slow poison.”

Glees suggests possible solutions such as electric trucks, which have no emissions, and permeable pavement, which reduces runoff and the cost of water treatment. She writes in her contest submission: “It means so much to share this story and hopefully evoke change.”

Since its inception in 2013, the One Earth Young Filmmakers Contest has grown from a local, Oak Park, Illinois, project to a highly competitive international competition garnering 403 submissions.

Countries such as Brazil, Australia and Mexico and states such as California, Georgia and Indiana will be represented among this year’s winners at the Global Awards Celebration at 11:30 a.m. Sunday, Sept. 17, in person at the Gene Siskel Film Center, 164 N. State St., in Chicago, or online virtually anywhere in the world.

“The Long-Lived Effects of the Long Meadow Parkway” will premiere at this special event. Free tickets are available at tinyurl.com/yfc23awards.

“The secret ingredient to our success is youth. They have opinions, ideas and viewpoints about the climate emergency,” said contest Founding Director Sue Crothers. “It’s hard for people to deny what’s happening when they’re living through extreme floods, fires, and tornadoes. And the younger generations have something to say about the mess our generation has made.”

The Young Filmmakers Contest asks students from age 8 to 25 to create a 3- to 8-minute environmental film that inspires change or action. Animated or stop-motion films can be a minimum of 45 seconds long.

The deadline each year is June 25, which gives individuals and school groups the entire academic year to submit their film projects.

The call for entries for 2024 will open soon on Film Freeway at filmfreeway.com/OneEarthYoungFilmmakersContest.

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The Barrington Hills Park District Board will hold their regular monthly meeting this evening in person and remotely via Zoom at 7:00 PM. A copy of their agenda can be viewed here. Instructions for accessing the meeting remotely can be found  here.

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The Barrington Hills Park District Board will be meeting this evening in person and via webcast at 7:00 PM when the Board has two agendas to cover.

The first agenda is for the regular monthly District meeting, and a copy can be viewed and downloaded here.

The second is for the, “Decennial Committee Meeting,” and topics include:

  • Review of the Efficiencies and Increased Accountability of the Barrington Hills Park District to Prepare the Report for the County Board of Cook, Lake, and McHenry Counties, and
  • Survey of Residents in attendance for input on matters discussed in the meeting of the Barrington Hills Park District Decennial Committee on Government Efficiency

A copy of that agenda can be viewed and downloaded here.

Instructions for accessing the meeting remotely can be found here.

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The Barrington Hills Park District Board will hold a, “Decennial Committee on Local Government Efficiency,” meeting this evening in person and via Zoom at 7:00 PM. A copy of the meeting notice can be viewed and downloaded here.

Additionally, the District web page reads, “June 14, 2023 Board Meeting Agenda (posted on June 12),” indicating the Board may have intended to have a regular monthly meeting tonight as well. However, no agenda is posted, and per state law, “Public bodies that have a website must post the agenda of any regular meetings of the governing body (i.e. County Board, Board of Trustees, Board of Commissioners, School Board, etc.) at least 48 hours prior to said meeting.”

Instructions for accessing tonight’s meeting(s) remotely can be found here.

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The Barrington Hills Park District Board will hold a special meeting this evening in person and via Zoom at 7:00 PM. Topics on their agenda include:

  • Swear In New Commissioner
  • Election Of Board President, Vice-President, Appointment Of Secretary And Treasurer
  • Horizon Farm Track Proposal

A copy of their agenda can be viewed here. Instructions for accessing the meeting remotely can be found here.

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FPDCC

The Barrington Hills Park District will be hosting a special meeting tonight with the Cook County Forest Preserve District to discuss the Master Plan for the Horizon Farm property. The meeting begins at 7:00 PM at the Riding Center located at 361 Bateman Rd, and will also be available for participation via Webex remotely.

The meeting agenda for the Forest Preserve District portion of the discussion includes:

  • Open trails
  • Ongoing improvements

Then, the 2023 Horizon Farm master planning priorities follows including:

  • Track
  • Barn 11
  • Other amenities (parking lots, comfort stations, signage, etc.)
  • Maintenance of future Horizon trail system
  • Spring Creek trail system

Conspicuously absent from the agenda are topics such as hiking and walking, bicycling, cross-country skiing and birding.

After this portion of the meeting, Park District Commissioners will vote on the proposed (and clearly confidential), “Combined Budget & Appropriations Ordinance 2-08-2023-01.”

A copy of the agenda can be viewed here, and instructions for accessing the meeting remotely can be found here.

Related: “Park District hosting February 8th Cook County Forest Preserve District discussion,” “Grazing livestock can provide habitats for disappearing grassland birds

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RCBH-logo-4-768x421

The Barrington Hills Park District Board will hold their regular monthly meeting this evening in person and via Zoom at 7:00 PM. A copy of their agenda can be viewed here. Instructions for accessing the meeting remotely can be found here.

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