This proposed project is an undertaking by The Nippersink Creek Watershed Collaboration Group (NCWCG) with full support from the Nippersink Creek Watershed Planning Committee, who was responsible for preparing the 1998 Nippersink Creek Watershed Plan.  The NCWCG is a working group of local and regional agencies and organizations in the Nippersink Creek watershed.

As an advocate for Nippersink Creek, members of the NCWCG work together to foster and develop the Nippersink Creek watershed community to protect and enhance the high quality natural resources of the watershed. 

Overview of the Nippersink Creek Watershed

Nippersink Creek watershed is the largest tributary to the Fox River, draining 137 square miles in Illinois, as well as additional 50 square miles located in Walworth County, Wisconsin.  In the Algonquian language, Nippersink means "place of the small waters" due to the profusion of small springs feeding the creek.  It is among the finest streams in Illinois with the mainstem rating a “B” Biological Stream Characterization score and the North Branch receiving an “A” rating.  The watershed contains 46 McHenry County Natural Area Sites.  However, the stream is included on the 2000 Illinois 303(d) list for its swimming use impairment caused by pathogens, and its receiving stream, the Fox River, is listed for numerous water quality impairments. 

The Nippersink Creek watershed was listed as a Year 2000 high priority area identified through the Illinois EPA’s Targeted Watershed Approach.  The wellhead protection zones of the Village of Richmond lie entirely in the watershed and the watershed is part of the Northern Regional Groundwater Protection Region.

Upstream of Wonder Lake, Nippersink Creek was listed in the IEPA’s 305(b) Report as being in Full Support of its Designated Uses, which are listed as Aquatic Life and Fish Consumption.  Downstream of Wonder Lake, Nippersink Creek is listed as impaired by the IEPA due to excessive total fecal coliform bacteria.  The stream is considered full support for its designated uses of aquatic life and fish consumption, but due to the fecal coliform, it is listed as non-support for a designated use of primary contact.  The source of this fecal coliform is listed by the IEPA as “unknown”.  Wonder Lake itself is also listed as non-support for primary and secondary contact with the cause listed as “unknown”.

In 2004, the United States Geological Survey released a report Water Quality of Nippersink Creek and Wonder Lake, McHenry County, Illinois, 1994-2001. This report discussed the water quality impacts being experienced within Wonder Lake, an 830 acre on-line impoundment, due to the amount of nutrient and sediment entering the lake from its upstream watershed. The sediment and nutrients can cause adverse water quality impacts within the stream, as well as in Wonder Lake, and the Fox River / Chain O’Lakes into which Nippersink Creek flows.