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Kane County to Install 15 ARPA-Funded Monitoring Wells; shallow groundwater down about 4 feet
Summary
County staff reported progress on an ARPA-funded groundwater monitoring network that will place telemetry on 15 wells across Kane County by December 2026 to track shallow aquifer levels; staff said recent data show shallow groundwater is down roughly four feet amid a year-long moderate drought.
Kane County staff reported the county’s ARPA-funded groundwater monitoring network is under way and will include 15 telemetry-equipped monitoring wells by December 2026 to help track shallow aquifer levels.
The update given to the Kane County Energy & Environmental Committee emphasized why the wells are being installed and how the data will be used. Jody Volnick, who presented the item, said the system will provide near real-time water-level readings to improve drought monitoring and feed a county shallow-groundwater model being developed with the Illinois State Water Survey and local communities.
"We are down about, 4 feet in our, shallow groundwater," Volnick said, summarizing the trend seen across the newly instrumented wells after a year of moderate drought. Volnick said some existing wells (including Sugar Grove Township water authority wells) were reused and fitted with telemetry; many monitoring locations are in Kane County Forest Preserves.
Committee members asked how the data will be used. Committee member James Grama pressed for practical next steps beyond monitoring: "What do we do with this other than know that it's going down and maybe there's a drought?" Volnick said the project has an education component: once the full well network and model calibration are complete, county staff will work to show landowners how to use the data in planning and water-use decisions.
The monitoring telemetry captures distance from ground surface to water level only; Volnick said it does not measure salinity or other chemistry (though some Sugar Grove wells separately monitor chlorides). She also said the data are already being used to calibrate the model and to fill gaps where historical data were sparse.
Committee members also asked about how the county’s shallow-aquifer model is calibrated and how community members might interpret the data for individual wells. Volnick said where sufficient publicly owned wells exist, the model tracks historic trends and can be validated out to mid-century projections in some areas; in other areas the new telemetry will improve calibration.
Volnick said the website link for the monitoring portal did not come through in the packet and that she would circulate the link to committee members after the meeting so they and the public can view locations and recent level trends.
