LITTLE VERMILION RIVER PROJECT: Group working to improve watershed area
By Pat Wagner
A local group is preparing a plan to improve the Little Vermilion watershed area by analyzing current conditions and studying the history of the river.
The Little Vermilion Watershed Project area is the total drainage area for the Little Vermilion, 80,000 acres that include Mendota, Troy Grove, Triumph, and some of the northeast portion of LaSalle along with the unincorporated areas north, east and west of the river.
The local planning committee is composed of interested landowners, representatives of government bodies and industries in the area.
Paul Youngstrum, district conservationist of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, said the goal is educational, and he called the plan a "living document."
The plan should make recommendations about how to prevent pollution of the Little Vermilion from such things as sediment washing from fields.
Youngstrum said the plan might include such things as "buffer zones along open pits to help with water quality."
THE HISTORY
Youngstrum said someone suggested that the committee also collect stories from people who had been familiar with the Little Vermilion years ago to add another dimension to the project.
Alwin Carus,who was born in 1901 and has lived much of his life near the Little Vermilion, is one who has seen the watershed change. There wasn’t much wildlife when he and his brothers explored the area.
"Fifty years ago they (deer) started to come back," he recalled. "I don’t think we had any beaver. I think they’ve only come back recently."
Carus said "people did a lot of hunting during the ‘30’s."
He remembers the area along the river well, including a time when there were squatters who lived on the east side in an area call Strassbourg.
The Vermilion "Creek," as he frequently referred to it to distinguish it from the "Big Vermilion" River north of Oglesby, passed under the old interurban and the IM Canal before it entered the Illinois River not too far south of his home.
To the north, an area that he, his three brothers and two sisters often explored, he remembered limestone rock along the north of the factory, the Illinois Central Railroad crossing, level areas near the IC, a red hill of slag from the mining, and an area where the river curved back.
In the curving area were rocks that he and his brothers pretended were mountains. He recalled that this area of the river was redirected at some time by the railroad so that the water would flow through a tunnel under the rails.
Carus also remembered cattle grazing along the creek, something that is rarely seen any more, and seam of coal that could be found without digging.
THE PROJECT
The Little Vermilion Watershed Project is being coordinated by the LaSalle County Soil and Water Conservation District under a 2001 contract with the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency.
The Little Vermilion project, and a similar project in Macoupin County, are pilot projects in Illinois for complying with the 1972 Clean Water Act.
Since 1972, point source pollutants, those coming from one particular souce, have been the primary focus. However, the Act also mandated a Total Maximum Daily Load, which establish the amount of a specific type of pollutant that a body of water can hold without going over its classification as "swimable" or "fishable."
The U.S. EPA is now telling the states that they need to begin implementing standards for non-source pollutants. Rather than have the EPA establish mandatory plans, the state of Illinois is hoping that voluntary efforts, such as with the Little Vermilion, will provide the impetus for any cleanup needed.
IVCC’S ROLE
IVCC students and staff members have been monitoring the water in the Little Vermilion and sending results to the EPA for a number of years.
The IVCC river testing is sponsored by the Chem Club and is a part of the nationwide Rivers Project. While the river testing is not directly associated with the watershed project, the test results do reveal the quality of the water and how that quality is changing. Retired chemistry instructor Robert Byrne organizes the river testing.