My Advocate Testimony Yesterday!

Yesterday was a big day, the state board that will decide on a certificate of need for Advocate Healthcare's proposed hospital was in town taking testimony on the why Round Lake will be a great site for the hospital!

There is some nice coverage from the Daily Herald, News Sun and the Round Lake Journal in the papers.

While all the experts and health care providers were debating the merits of which hospital should be built, the real world intruded and this is what happened. There was an accident in Grayslake, and there was an accident in Fox Lake as well and there was someone airlifted to Advocate Lutheran General from Grayslake. Kind of ironic, especially since this type of traffic issue, was going on all day, I would hope the persons transported by ambulance were okay in Lake County Traffic.

Along with a host of others, I testified. What follows below is a transcript of my testimony that I will give yesterday at the Round Lake Beach Civic Center.

My name is Bill Gentes and I serve as the Mayor of Round Lake.

Round Lake is proud to be the potential home of Advocate’s proposed hospital. Our residents are united as one towards achieving this goal.

Last year in a speech to the Round Lake Chamber of Commerce, I made a loud call for a hospital in western Lake County. I appointed a citizen-driven Hospital Task Force to identify and address the needs of our surrounding communities and attempt to attract a hospital to our region.

What this Task Force found was no surprise. There was an urgent need—not just from Round Lake—but from concerned citizens of the Round Lake area and well beyond—that they will not take their health needs lightly.

I stand today in support of Advocate with my fellow mayors from Fox Lake,
Hainesville, Lake Zurich, Old Mill Creek, Round Lake Beach, Round Lake Heights, Round Lake Park, Island Lake, Third Lake, Volo and Wauconda, who like me, recognize the significant lack of health care within reasonable reach of our communities. Each Village submitted a formal resolution to the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board stating this need.

We also recognize the lack of nearby healthcare will only get worse as each of our communities continues to grow. These communities currently represent over 130,000 people and that does not include the nearly 30,000 who live in unincorporated areas adjacent to these communities.

Western Lake County and Eastern McHenry County struggle with a significant lack of transportation infrastructure. Getting to a hospital is hard and getting harder. This village is pushing big projects that will solve big problems, the Route 120 bypass - is one of them - which will end on Round Lake’s and Advocates front door step and will give Lake and McHenry County desperately needed traffic relief, and make access to a Advocate’s Lake County Hospital easy from all compass points via Route 120, Route 60, and US Route 12

I am thrilled that Advocate wants to make this substantial investment in my community. The economic impact of a new hospital is significant: it means more jobs, supply and equipment purchases, construction work and support to local business.

Let me be clear what this hospital can and will do for this region. Coupled with Baxter Healthcare’s adjacent technology campus, which employees 2,300 people, we would be creating one of the largest clusters of healthcare jobs in the Chicagoland area. Over 1,000 directly related new jobs will be created in the surrounding communities.

It’s easy to see that a hospital will provide jobs and health security to our neighbors, but building an Advocate hospital means much more – commitment to our communities. Advocate hospitals have been serving Chicagoland for over 100 years, and I am confident they are here to stay for the next 100 years. Why am I confident? Because as a not for profit system, Advocate is a mission driven organization dedicated to serving communities.

We all know that there is a for-profit provider touting a competitive hospital proposal that will offer property tax benefit. In my opinion, all that Advocate brings in community benefit and charity care far outweighs any property tax contribution we could imagine. In fact, the Advocate system dedicates roughly a quarter-billion dollars or so annually in community programs and services throughout Chicago and the suburbs.

The Village of Round Lake supports Advocate Health Care’s plans to build a hospital in western Lake County.

I respectfully ask the Illinois Health Facilities Board to do the same. Thank you.

Baxter and Fenwal Announce a Sale of Some of the Round Lake Transfusion Business

More information: The transfusion therapies is a small group housed in the Round Lake Campus - 40 - 100 employees, they have been purchased by the investment groups and will move off campus and they will become a stand alone company called FenWal, Ron Labrum - former local president of Cardinal/Allegiance, and a former Baxter Guy will become the president.

Fenwal Launched as Independent Corporation Following Completion of Divestiture From Baxter Healthcare Corporation

ROUND LAKE, Ill., March 1 -- Fenwal Inc. today announced its launch as an independent company. The new corporation is formed upon Baxter Healthcare Corporation completing the sale of its Transfusion Therapies business to Texas Pacific Group (TPG) and Maverick Capital, Ltd.

Established by TPG and Maverick Capital, Ltd. as an independently operated company, Fenwal now becomes one of the world's largest suppliers of products and services to the transfusion medicine industry. Since it was first established in 1949, the Fenwal brand has become recognized around the world as being synonymous with innovation in transfusion medicine.

"More than 50 years ago, this business was created with a single purpose: to support the mission of health-care providers to save and improve lives by providing high quality, innovative blood collection and processing products and services," explains Ron K. Labrum, President and CEO of Fenwal. "Today, this purpose is renewed as Fenwal once again becomes an independent company."

A pioneer in the science of transfusion medicine, Fenwal has introduced technological breakthroughs that have helped make blood collection and blood therapy a reality, and its advanced technologies have helped to ensure a safe and plentiful global blood supply. "We are focused on delivering new and better solutions and products that are developed in collaboration with our customers, and backed by the service and support expected of an industry leader," said Labrum. "As an independent business, Fenwal will have a singular focus and resources to continue investment in research and development, as well as pursue opportunities to shape the future of transfusion medicine."

Baxter will continue to provide certain manufacturing, distribution and support services to Fenwal for a period of time following the close, under transition agreements signed by the companies. "As the transfer of ownership occurs, our first priority is to maintain excellence in customer service and to execute a seamless transition of ownership," said Labrum.

TPG is a private investment partnership that was founded in 1992 and currently has more than $30 billion of assets under management. With offices in San Francisco, London, Hong Kong, New York, Minneapolis, Fort Worth, Melbourne, Menlo Park, Mumbai, Shanghai, Singapore and Tokyo, TPG has extensive experience with global public and private investments executed through leveraged buyouts, recapitalizations, spinouts, joint ventures and restructurings.

Dallas and New York-based Maverick Capital, Ltd., a manager of private investment funds, is also an investor in this transaction.

Fenwal Inc. has five manufacturing plants located in Haina, Dominican Republic; San German and Maricao, Puerto Rico; La Chatre, France; and Bir Drassen, Tunisia. The company has approximately 3,500 employees worldwide, and annual sales of more than $500 million.

Fenwal's global team is focused on the development, manufacture and global marketing of products that allow blood centers, hospital blood banks, and plasma collection centers throughout the world to collect, separate, process, filter, store and administer whole blood and blood components for therapeutic use. To enhance the safety of transfusion medicine, Fenwal has focused on improved patient protection and has played a key role in developing automated systems and safety systems for whole blood collection. From the first fully automated blood cell separator to the most advanced apheresis technology, Fenwal continues to be a world leader in the development of innovations that change the practice of transfusion medicine.

Current product development is focused on systems that facilitate the process of cell separation using automated methods, systems to remove leukocytes (white cells) from blood components, and other processes to aid in ensuring a safe and available global blood supply.



Here is the Baxter Press Release

Baxter Completes Sale of Transfusion Therapies Business

DEERFIELD, Ill., March 1, 2007 - Baxter International Inc. (NYSE:BAX) announced today that it has completed the sale of its Transfusion Therapies business to Texas Pacific Group (TPG) and Maverick Capital Ltd. for $540 million.

TPG and Maverick Capital, Ltd. have established the new independent company as Fenwal Inc. Fenwal becomes one of the world's largest suppliers of products and services to the transfusion medicine industry, with a product portfolio of manual and automated blood-collection products and storage equipment, approximately 3,500 employees, and five manufacturing facilities located in Haina, Dominican Republic; La Chatre, France; Maricao and San German, Puerto Rico; and Bir Drassen, Tunisia.

Baxter will continue to provide certain manufacturing, distribution and support services to Fenwal for varying periods of time following the close, under transition agreements signed by the companies.

TPG is a private investment partnership that was founded in 1992 and currently has more than $30 billion of assets under management. TPG has extensive experience with global public and private investments executed through leveraged buyouts, recapitalizations, spinouts, joint ventures and restructurings.

Dallas and New York-based Maverick Capital, Ltd., a manager of private investment funds, is also an investor in this transaction. Baxter International Inc., through its subsidiaries, assists healthcare professionals and their patients with the treatment of complex medical conditions, including hemophilia, immune disorders, cancer, infectious diseases, kidney disease, trauma and other conditions.

The company applies its expertise in medical devices, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology to make a meaningful difference in patients' lives.

Baxters 75th Anniversary

Yesterday was Baxter Healthcares 75th anniversary. I was invited to speak to the celebration at the Round Lake campus. I was suprised to see how many people attended almost 1,800 of the 2,500 employees. Since its founding in 1931, the company has remained committed to applying innovative science to help save and sustain lives worldwide. I talked a little bit about how Round Lake and Baxter worked together, and I declared today Baxter Healthcare Day in Village of Round Lake

Daily Herald Article on Water Part 2

In a continuing effort to keep my hands off the laptop I am posting part two of an excellent article in last week Daily Herald on water. I have written about our water issues in the past here and here for you to review. For those of you interested my shoulder is doing much better and I am exercising immense control in not writing some thing about the 120 Bypass CPC we had tonight!

A source deep in the Earth
By Patrick Garmoe Daily Herald Staff Writer

When most people in the Fox Valley and western Lake County turn their faucets, they tap into a process that began decades before. More than 100 years ago, water pouring out of suburban faucets this minute started its trek with a fall from the sky — in western Illinois, Wisconsin or even Minnesota.

After hitting Earth, the water seeps down, sometimes hundreds of feet below the surface, and then heads east. Over months, years, even centuries it creeps toward Chicago’s suburbs. Water pressure and slopes in the Earth pull and push the water into aquifers, layers of rock filled with water.

In the suburbs, wells reach down into those aquifers and pump the water up to pipes, and then to homes from Lake in the Hills to Batavia. This might sound strange to some, but it’s not as odd as another popular myth. Local engineer Larry Thomas sometimes still has to dispel the tale that the water around here somehow comes from Lake Superior.“No, it comes from Boone County. Sorry. It’s just not quite as romantic,” said Thomas, chief operating officer for Crystal Lake engineering firm Baxter and Woodman.

Water stays hidden
Northern Illinois homes sit above rock- and water-filled layers of ground called aquifers. “It’s a firm surface. It’s not hollow. It’s not a river running underground. It’s not a hollow underground lake you can put a boat in,” said Al Wehrmann, director of the Center for Groundwater Science at the Illinois State Water Survey.

When rain falls onto the Earth, what doesn’t end up in rivers slowly makes its way to the aquifers. The water then travels from west to east down an underground slope toward Lake Michigan or the Fox River.

In this area, there are two main types of aquifers from which we get drinking water. Shallow aquifers are nearer to the surface — normally 30 to 400 feet down — and consist predominantly of sand and gravel deposits packed with water. If one was opened, it would look like mud. Beneath them, under 600- to 2,000-foot-thick layers of rock, lie deep aquifers.

The deep aquifers consist of large layers of limestone and sandstone. Water creeps through this porous stone at sometimes an inch to a few feet a year. There are other deposits of water even farther down, but for now they largely remain untouched. The water is too salty or contains too many chemicals to be drinkable.

In southern Illinois, most deep aquifer water is too salty to use for drinking, which is why many communities outside of northern Illinois rely primarily on rivers or man-made lakes called reservoirs for water. Elgin and Aurora also use water from the Fox River.

Going deep
In this area, deep bedrock aquifers are far more favored than their shallow counterparts. That’s because in deep aquifers, the water is plentiful, easy to find and, normally with a little treatment, fine to drink. “You can drill just about anywhere and hit water,” said Dave Kublank, Algonquin’s chief water operator. That’s predominately thanks to the terrain.

Shallow aquifers are more like pockets of sand and gravel filled with water hidden among clay and other dry sediment. Deep aquifers meanwhile, are flat, thick and long. Many can stretch over large swaths of the country.

The Ogallala aquifer, for example, stretches from southern South Dakota through Texas. Therefore, there isn’t a problem locating them, like there is with their shallow counterparts. Although it’s more expensive — drilling a deep well can cost $1 million, versus $650,000 for a shallow well — it’s worth it, local water operators say.

Even when you do want to use them, shallow wells can prove elusive, or dry, as Campton Township residents have discovered in western Kane County. “It’s really limited around northern Illinois where you can get shallow water,” says John Dillon, Batavia’s water superintendent. “You have to go out and really look for it.” While water from deep aquifers in this area often must be treated for radium, the water they yield is typically better and more protected from chemicals than shallow aquifers, because they are farther from the surface. And they typically can be depended upon to provide a steady flow of water for residents. The average house in the United States uses 350 gallons per day. To provide that, a typical well around here will pump between 1,000 and 2,000 gallons a minute.

Because of the popularity of deep aquifers, the wells are pulling water out faster than rain water is replacing it. And that’s where the worry lies. “We’re going to find the deep bedrock system is not going to be able to sustain the deep withdrawals it is presently sustaining,” says Scott Meyer, associate hydro-geologist with the Illinois State Water Survey in Champaign.

Part One of the Daily Herald Article on Water

There was an excellent article in the Daily Herald a few weeks agao on water and the issues facing Chicagoland and Lake county in general. While my shoulder recovers from its flare-up of bursitis I will let you enjoy them.

The oil of the 21st century
BY PATRICK GARMOE
Daily Herald Staff Writer

Suburban sprawl spurs traffic jams, but new roads eventually relieve bottlenecks.

New homes bring more kids to crowd classrooms, but new schools ease the squeeze.

As bulldozers continue to stretch the suburbs, however, another predicament grows, unseen yet inevitable.

By the time today's toddlers graduate from college, among their top concerns will be a scarcity of a simple yet almost irreplaceable commodity.

Water.

Globally, the United Nations says more than half the world will be living with water shortages within 50 years.

Nationally, the issue is so serious a congressional panel issued a 2003 report on scarcity entitled, "Water: Is it the 'Oil' of the 21st Century?"

Locally, the suburbs will not be immune.

Experts in environment, planning and geology all say swaths of suburbs in Kane, Lake and McHenry counties could face serious water shortages in the next 20 years.

The number of people will rise, but the water available will remain the same - putting a squeeze on supplies.

Outlying towns will feel the brunt of the problem first. Unable to draw water from Lake Michigan, they instead must tap into underground pools called aquifers.

Sand and gravel make up some aquifers and lie no more than 100 feet below ground. Some aquifers form in layers of bedrock, up to 1,200 feet down.

Nature alone refills these aquifers. Rain falls and the ground absorbs the water, which trickles down into sand or rock.

Towns sink wells into these pools and pump the water up.

A century ago, when the first wells poked area aquifers, no pump was needed. When first tapped, aquifers would spew water 30 feet into the air.

"Now after a century of use, that water level is 600 to 700 feet below land's surface," says Allen Wehrmann, director of the center for groundwater science at the Illinois State Water Survey.

With water use increasing as the population swells, water levels will continue to fall -from a few inches a year to a few feet depending on location.

"They're pulling it out faster than they can recharge," says Harry Hendrickson, former head of groundwater education for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.

Think last summer was bad, when the drought sparked water restrictions?

"The water demands we're seeing now because of the dry weather could be a normal demand we see in a wet year in 30 years," Wehrmann said. "And then what do you do when you have a dry year?"

Only when drought reaches out and touches homeowners, or when water bills go up, do water discussions dot government meetings.

Either those discussions continue to flow, or the water in long-term won't, warn experts who've been studying water availability in Chicago's collar counties.

Supply and demand

The math is simple.

Today, 7 million people live in the six-county northeastern Illinois region.

They use 630 million gallons of water per day, or 90 gallons of water per person per day -average use of all Americans, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

In 2020, population forecasts show the six-county region hitting 9æmillion people.

If the average holds, they'll use 810 million gallons of water each and every day.

Statistically, there will be enough water overall to accommodate that demand.

Realistically, however, the distribution of growth and existing water sources won't match up. Many towns, because of money, geography or federal limits, can't tap into Lake Michigan.

That means they must rely on the water down below - which will be in short supply as soon as 2020, according to a Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission study.

Kane and McHenry counties sit in the bull's-eye of water worries because they're chiefly reliant on well Among the townships at risk are Batavia, Dundee, Geneva, Rutland and St. Charles in Kane County, and Algonquin and Grafton in McHenry County.

Some spots in DuPage, Lake and Will counties could run into some of the same shortages, experts say.

Naperville Township in DuPage County, Hanover and Rich townships in Cook County, and DuPage and Joliet townships in Will County could be in jeopardy.

The communities in Cook and Lake counties now drinking Lake Michigan water, however, shouldn't think they have no worries.

The rate at which outlying areas tap into aquifers ultimately affects how fast Lake Michigan gets replenished.

"It's like a ripple effect," warns state Sen. Susan Garrett, a Democrat from Lake Forest who has been sounding the alarm in Springfield about long-term water shortages for several years.

The bull's-eye

McHenry County's Groundwater Resources Management Plan predicts the county's population growth, and corresponding surge in water demand, will rise 73æpercent, to about 63 million gallons per day, by 2030.

While there's enough groundwater in the county as a whole to yield 120 million gallons per day, the report warns certain townships may be in trouble given that the distribution of water usage won't correspond to the water supply.

Algonquin, Grafton and McHenry townships were named in the report as in need of monitoring for water shortages by 2030, and Dorr, Nunda and Burton townships were considered to be areas of growing concern.

The future of Kane County's water supply also has been cast in a stark light, though a comprehensive account of its situation still is under way.

Kane County commissioned a five-year study to map the availability of water underground and calculate the future demands of the region. The report by the Illinois State Water and Geological Surveys is due out next year.

"The geological study will enable us to literally take slices of the county in any direction - north, south, east, west," said Paul Schuch, Kane County's director of water resources. That, in turn, can help guide future growth in the county.

Lake not immune

Because so much of Lake County sips water from Lake Michigan, many residents there may feel like water shortages can't affect them.

Philip J. Rovang, Lake County's director of planning, building and development doesn't sound so certain.

About 40 percent of the county draws water from Lake Michigan, but whether enough water exists below ground for the other 60 percent is unclear.

"We project that by the year 2020, there's going to be 280,000 residents living in western Lake County who will have to rely on non-Lake Michigan water," Rovang says.

That doesn't bode well for the county, since some officials are concerned certain aquifers are already being overtaxed.

A study of water availability is due out in a few years. It will provide a much clearer picture of what to expect.

"As soon as the results of the studies start coming in, then we can start reacting," Rovang says.

The water supply could also impact future job growth.

The county estimates 71,000 jobs will come to the county by 2020, a 20 percent increase, but that won't happen if there isn't an ample supply of "This is really a critical issue facing Lake County from an economic development standpoint," Rovang warns. "If we cannot guarantee a water supply to a future business, they're not going to come here."

Outlook dismal

While projecting future water problems is an imperfect science, the decline in well levels is more measurable proof that groundwater aquifers are under stress.

DuPage County suffered a steady drop in well levels before most of its towns switched to Lake Michigan water in the 1990s. Over 80 years, the water table in the county dropped 700 to 800 feet.

Since Lake Michigan saved the day by largely relieving DuPage of its dependence on groundwater, the well levels have climbed, but "it's not coming up as quickly as anticipated," Hendrickson said.

That could be because so much of the land is paved over, making it more difficult for rain and snow to soak into the ground and recharge aquifers.

According to Hendrickson, about 24 percent of DuPage County has been paved over, and "eastern Kane County is headed that way."

People who manage wells see it, too.

Former Huntley Utilities Superintendent Will Smith said some wells don't pump as much water as they used to, and the water levels are slipping.

"Every year they drop down 10 to 15 feet," Smith said.

Experts mean to sound the alarm, but not raise a panic. The future is manageable, they say, as long as communities start planning now.

"Our populations are getting to the point where we are reaching the (the end of) easy availability to draw water," said Larry Thomas of the Crystal Lake engineering firm Baxter and Woodman. "Now we have to start thinking about how we're going to allocate the water, how we're going to fairly distribute the water."

water 3

A mirage called Lake Michigan
BY PATRICK GARMOE
Daily Herald Staff Writer

How can this be?

How can experts warn of impending water shortages, yet the Great Lakes, the world's largest single source of fresh water, flourish nearby? Forget aquifers and wells - why can't everyone just tap into Lake Michigan? Because history, geology, law and, of course, money all stand in the way.

Lake Michigan supplies water to Indiana, Wisconsin and Michigan as well as Illinois. We, however, live alone under legal limits on how much water we can draw from the lake because we're the only state that takes much more water than we return. Illinois once reciprocated more evenly, but a 1900 cholera epidemic changed things. Sewage flowing down the Chicago River into Lake Michigan was contaminating the water supply, fueling the epidemic. Engineers reversed the flow of the river and built the Sanitary and Ship Canal - removing 673 square miles from the Great Lakes Basin.

The rain and wastewater that seep into that land no longer returned to the lake, flowing westward instead. This redirection of what is called recharge away from Lake Michigan drastically cut into Illinois' contribution to restocking lake water levels.

Decades later, after years of interstate legal wrangling over the inequity of use and return, the U.S. Supreme Court in 1967 set the limits that stand today. While many in Lake County and almost all Cook and DuPage residents rely exclusively on the lake, for those living in the rest of Lake County and all of Kane and McHenry counties, lake water remains little more than a mirage. They're not forbidden from tapping into Lake Michigan, but the hurdles are high.

Gaining access

Lake Michigan feeds 200 water systems in Illinois, filling fish tanks in Chicago's Shedd Aquarium to hot tubs in Hoffman Estates. A complex system of pipes and pumping stations delivers lake water to 7æmillion Illinoisans - more than half the state's population.

That's why the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, the lake's state-appointed guardian, is picky about allowing access. To be eligible, a town has to prove that tapping into the lake would be more cost-effective and practical than tapping into the ground.

"Obviously, as you get farther and farther away from the lake itself and from regional water systems, that test gets more difficult," said Dan Injerd, director of Lake Michigan programs for the natural resources office of water resources.

Among the agency's top priorities is making sure towns already getting lake water have enough to sustain them as their populations grow in the future. Illinois today isn't using all the lake water it's entitled to, in part because we're paying back a water debt racked up in the 1980s, when we exceeded the court-imposed limit.

The state is making good progress paying down the debt, Injerd said, in part because infrastructure upgrades in Chicago are preventing the waste of water through leaky pipes and hydrants. Once the debt is repaid, the state will have more flexibility to meet the water demands of the northeastern Illinois communities.

Counting the costs

Still, outlying towns can convince state officials that lake water is the ideal option. High radium levels in the groundwater made deep wells an undesirable water source for Plainfield, 30 miles away from the lake on the outer edge of Will County.

The fast-growing village has spent almost $8 million to run two miles of a 20-inch pipeline to Bolingbrook and build water storage and pumping stations, said Derek Wold of the engineering firm Baxter and Woodman, which consulted on the project.

Luckily for Plainfield, the Illinois American Water Co. had built a $40 million, 42-inch pipe to run from Bedford Park to Bolingbrook for the specific purpose of selling water to interested communities. Plainfield got its permit in 2001. The new infrastructure remains under construction.

The group approach

Six communities in suburban Cook County took a different route. Twenty years ago, Hoffman Estates, Mount Prospect, Elk Grove Village, Streamwood, Hanover Park, Rolling Meadows and Schaumburg banded together to create the Northwest Suburban Municipal Joint Action Water Agency.

Together the towns built a $120 million system to connect to Chicago's water supply and distribute the water to the participating communities, said Joe Fennell, the agency's executive director.

The project included 54 miles of transmission mains, a large pumping station near O'Hare International Airport and several smaller pumping stations along the route to maintain the pressure to move the water along.

With the luxury of lake water, however, came a responsibility not to waste it. Each community had to adopt strict conservation practices to ensure they weren't wasting water through leaky pipes and hydrants or through evaporation by watering lawns in the middle of the day.

"In return, there's no worry about wells drying up or the water table dropping," said Kenneth Hari, Hoffman Estates' director of public works. "Plus, there's low hardness, and it's a more high-quality product."

Watching the limit

Even if a town has the wherewithal to access the lake, the state must ensure new allocations won't one day harm compliance with federal law.

That means figuring out if bringing one town online will prompt several more to follow suit and factoring in how weather patterns affect the state's removal of lake water, so its level doesn't dip excessively.

Lake experts also carefully watch the water level underground, as the two sources are interdependent. Lake Michigan is partly fed by groundwater that seeps into the lake, so when communities in the outlying suburbs overuse the aquifers, they leave less to replenish the lake.

The relationship also can be beneficial, however, as towns that switch to lake water are required to stop using their deep wells. This relieves the stress on groundwater, said Jeff Wickenkamp, a member of the Southern Lake Michigan Water Supply Consortium.

A finite source

Such was the case in 1980, when an amendment to the Supreme Court decree allowed Illinois to grant Lake Michigan water to 86 more municipalities in DuPage and Cook counties. The deep well levels in the areas had been declining as a result of rapid growth and the water quality was suffering. The mass switch from groundwater to lake water allowed water levels in the deep aquifer to rise.

Unfortunately, Wickenkamp said, recent growth in places like Kane County are causing the aquifers to again approach the low levels of the late 1970s. Geologists until now have had trouble seeing anything but a fuzzy picture of how much water is truly hidden in the rocks. Therefore, ultimatums demanding change can't be issued. "The science is not there to definitively go to a town and say, 'You're not doing what you need to be doing,'æ" said Wickencamp. And in the end, Injerd says, Lake Michigan itself is a finite resource and can't be the only answer. "Obviously, we don't have an endless supply," Injerd said. "And at some point it's possible we'll have to say, we're really tapped out."

The View from the Water Tower on Wilson Road

The view from the water tower 170 feet up courtesy of one of Public Works "stars" Davis Clark. At the top of the picture you can see the Baxter complex, then some of the south side of Valley Lakes. This picture looks down into one of the Neumann Homes parts of Valley Lakes