Recent Task Force Meeting Details

STATE WATER PLAN TASK FORCE MEETING

July 14, 2025

Illinois Department of Natural Resources

Web-Ex Meeting Minutes

Task Force Members Present:

IDNR – OWR:  Wes Cattoor, Rick Pohlman, Steve Altman, Terra McParland, Wei Han

ISWS: Jason Zhang, Jenna Shelton, Dan Hadley

IEPA: Christine Davis, Jeff Edstrom

IDOT: Brian McCoy,  

IWRC: Yu-Feng Forrest Lin

IDNR – ORC: Brian Metzke

IEMA: William Shipley

IPCB: Essence Brown

IDOA: Brian Rennecker

IDPH:  Brian Cox 

Agencies not in attendance:

DCEO

ORC

Non-Members Present:

IDNR – Mines: Mike Tarlton

IERG:  Sheelah I.

Michael Baker International: Tatiana Papakos

Welcome

Rick opened the meeting.  He drew everyone’s attention to the agenda that was currently on the screen.  Wes then began a roll call to establish a quorum. 

Rick Pohlman for OWR,

no one representing ORC,

Brian Cox for IDPH,

Jeff Edstrom for EPA,

Brian McCoy for IDOT,

Brian Rennecker for IDOA,

William Shipley for IEMA,

Essence Brown for Pollution Control Board,

no one representing DCEO,

Jenna Shelton for State Water Survey, Jenna is the new Director for State Water Survey.  She gave a brief rundown of her resume and said she has been with USGS mostly for her career.

Yu Feng for Water Resource Center for UofI.  We have 9 out of 11 members present to establish quorum. 

Wes Cattoor called for approval of meeting minutes from last meeting.  Brian McCoy made a motion to approve, Brian Rennecker seconded.  None opposed. 

Wes Cattoor brought up the list of 13 topic leads in the State Water Plan and said according to the bylaws, these need to be approved by the membership vote.  There was no questions or comments regarding the topic leads.  Steve Altman made a motion to approve, Essence Brown seconded.  None opposed.  It was noted that official agency representations vote, but topic leads can make motions.

Per the last meeting, the Lake Michigan Beach Access subcommittee was established but they have not met yet.  There is also discussion of several other subcommittees being formed, more specifically Flood, Drought, IIWIC, Others?  Wes Cattoor opened it up to offer if there were other subcommittees that the membership thinks we should form?  Brian Rennecker from IDOA suggested a need for a flood taskforce.  He said there were several inches of rain that have fallen in the state in certain areas and from an Ag standpoint that’s pretty big and affects a lot of constituents.  Wes Cattoor asked if Brian Rennecker had a recommendation as a point of contact for that subtask force?  Brian Rennecker suggested IEMA.  Terra McParland from OWR says there is a topic under the State Water Plan that does involve several agencies already.  Ag however was not in there, and we do have a topic ground already for flood.  Those conversations are already happening in OWR with damage to structures and roads, and we had not considered the damages that Ag has with their crop damage.  Wes Cattoor suggested pulling in IDOA, IEMA, OWR, and maybe IDOT and begin discussions.  Terra McParland will schedule a separate call with Brian Rennecker from IDOA and OWR and someone from IEMA and EPA to begin those discussions. Jeff Edstrom said he would volunteer in the beginning, but he isn’t sure he is the best person for this. 

Wes Cattoor asked was there any other subcommittees or sub task forces that anyone is thinking of?  Brian McCoy from IDOT says he is interested in a drought subcommittee.  Wei Han said he would be the point of contract for OWR as he works with water sustainability. Brian Rennecker from Ag said they would like to be included.  Jenna Shelton from State Water Survey said they would also like to be added.  Jason Zhang and Trent will be the initial contacts.  Wei Han has made a motion to vote on creation of a drought task force.  Brian McCoy seconded.  Motion passes.  None opposed.  Wei Han will coordinate.

Rick Pohlman says he would like to establish a framework about how these groups will come forward. 

SWP Recommendations Status:

Wes Cattoor asked everyone to please continue to make updates. 

1.  Water Quality – Jeff Edstrom says the surface water monitoring has been going well with staff out in the field and it is going well.  There are some funding opportunities out now that are more quantitatively based.  They are hoping for more proposals on those.  Jeff Edstrom says the integrated report is also out. 

2.  Climate Section- Dave not on.  Trent is also not on. 

3.  Integrated Water Management- Wes Cattoor says they have been pushing forward on developing IWIC subtask force and the details of those.  Glenn Heistand and Wes Cattoor are heading that.  More will be provided in the next meeting.  Wes Cattoor says if anyone else wants to be on that, to let him know.

4. Long-Term Funding- Nidhan is not on.  Jeff Edstrom offered a billion dollars in loans was sent out for infrastructure upgrades. 

5.  Water Sustainability- Wei Han says his updates are during the quarter they have had a new region- American Bottoms- added to the sustainability plan.  They are located in E. St Louis.  State Water Survey is working on some calculations for water availability out of the Embrass Rivers.  They hope to have these done when the contract is up in 2 years. 

6.  Lake Michigan- Meg Kelly is not on.  Wes Cattoor says he has her update.  Water Recreation and CMP continue to work with safety at Illinois Beach SP.   Coastal resiliency study is continuing ahead.  The next steps will be to identify 20 locations and their vulnerability.  A Great Lakes Commission report for the second quarter should be released soon. 

7.  Flood Damage Mitigation- Terra McParland says they are continuing to move on developing a model database and identifying what they want to include in the database.  This just has the most recent models on hydrology, hydraulics and damages through the state.  They plan on opening it up for other agencies such as the Corps and consultants to add their data in the following years.  IEMA is developing a new flood inundation tool.  OWR is also updating some inundation modeling and some SAFR mapping.  The SAFR outreach roadshow is also continuing to show flood tools and describes grants/funding opportunities from the partner Agencies to the communities.  Other recommendations are waiting on funding.

8.  Aquatic and Riparian Habitat- Brian Metzke has no updates at this time. 

9.  Water Use Laws and Regulations- Steve Altman says there have been a lot of discussion within the agencies about water reuse especially in regarding to data centers. There is interest upstate and down. 

10.  Navigation- Brian McCoy says they have been tracking federal funding for economic development and infrastructure.  The most active thing is the open grant for infrastructure development in MRAD and it is worth $450 million dollars.  Some more funding may be coming toward waterway transportation and ship building and Illinois does have some small shipyards. 

11.  Erosion and Sedimentation- Brian Rennecker says the IDOA was notified by EPA that they would be a subrecipient to a grant for conservation.  A $435-million-dollar grant was awarded over a 5-year period, and they will use it toward carbon sequestration.  They also have their ICRP grant awarded for the early establishment of cover crops utilizing drones. 

12.   Data Management- Jason Zhang replaced Laura Keefer for State Water Supply.  Jason Zhang gave a brief background on himself.  They will be working on water supply and stream gaging.  They are also trying to outline steps for future studies.  Currently there is no funding so they will look for those opportunities.  They want to create a working group called stream gaging with data management.   Wes Cattoor volunteered to represent OWR.  Wes Cattoor says there has not been a Stream gaging Council meeting in about 4 years.  But he has a contact. 

13.   Recreation- Michael is not on.   

New Business & Public Comments

There was no new business suggested.

No new public comments.

Closing: Rick Pohlman would like time for the subcommittees to have time to give their updates similar to the way we update the 13 sections of the water plan.  There was a motion to adjourn, seconded.

Schedule:

Future Meetings:          October 20, 2025- 1:30 pm- in person (IDNR- LLA and LLB Conference rooms)

                                    January 12, 2026- 1:30 pm- virtual

April 20^th, 2026- 1:30pm- virtual

Previous meeting minutes and documents can be requested via email to wes.cattoor@illinois.gov