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Goal 2: Research and Address Threats to Your Water Resources

  1. Map and graph places where water quantity and quality are at risk to identify where to focus efforts — all based on research and community sentiment about severity and impending loss;
  2. Assess water uses and negative impacts to water quality and quantity, including water theft, political indifference, and uses by special interests that appear to the public as non-beneficial to the bigger picture;
  3. Assess the water resources carrying capacity of the Illinois Valley and expand that model statewide to inform long-term planning for development, agriculture, and in-stream needs;
  4. Assess groundwater levels, groundwater – surface water hydrology, and water-use impacts statewide, with particular emphasis in Critical Groundwater Areas, Serious Water Management Problem Areas, and regions encompassing state-designated Scenic Waterways;
  5. Assess long-term drought impacts to water quality and access for water users (residential/ commercial, in-stream, and agricultural) for climate adaption and resilience planning;
  6. Assist with water right transfers to permanent in-stream uses and from agricultural to domestic — all made possible by sales of the rights among willing and interested parties;
  7. Map groundwater quality for biological and chemical pollutants;
  8. Assess the impacts by special interests that do not broadly serve the public benefit and promote alternatives beneficial to all parties.