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Nippersink Creek Watershed Plan Update
A watershed project facilitated by Nippersink Creek Watershed
Collaboration Group |
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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. |
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| Stream / Water Quality
Ratings |
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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. |
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Nippersink
Creek Watershed Planning Committee
c/o McHenry County Soil and Water Conservation District
1648 S. Eastwood Drive, Woodstock, IL 60098
815-338-0099
All rights reserved
©
2008 |
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