Water supply
Valuing Regional Water Supply Planning and Conservation Alternatives
Economic Value of Regional Water Supply Planning
On July 9, 2008, Governor Blagojevich revoked $2.1 million in regional water supply planning funding for Illinois. Yet water use in the 11-county area in Northeastern Illinois is expected to increase up to 57 percent in the next 40 years, so funding is necessary to enable development of regional plans and protect against shortages. Margaret Schneeman, IISG water resource economist, examined the value of regional water supply planning to understand the potential economic value of long-range water planning in Illinois.
She examined five metropolitan regions of the country, including: Atlanta, Boston, Seattle, Phoenix, and Houston. Results show that water supply planning and conservation strategies generate positive benefit-cost ratios over the planning periods and across the regions examined. The results suggest that water supply planning and conservation measures would likewise generate positive benefits for the Northeast Illinois planning region.
Best Management Practices
Best Management Practices (BMPs) include water conservation programs that have generally proven to be effective in meeting water needs. There are fourteen water conservation BMPs under consideration by the Northeastern Regional Water Supply Planning group. These strategies may be voluntarily adopted and used either alone or in combination to enable water providers and users to meet future water needs.
