IDEM cooperates with Illinois in joint testing venture

Roughly 30 percent of Indiana streams are known to be affected by pollution or contaminants, and Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) staff members Corky Prast and Matt Prater are working to find out why.

Prast, who has 35 years of water assessment experience, and Prater, a senior at Ball State University, are working with other teams in the Kankakee-Iroquois watershed in a cooperative effort between Indiana and Illinois to test for E. coli. The watershed covers 3000 square miles of northwestern Indiana and extends into Illinois.

Visiting ninety-two sites in Indiana weekly throughout June, IDEM staff are gathering data to assist with writing a Total Maximum Daily Load report (TMDL).

A TMDL describes the maximum amount of a pollutant a body of water can receive while still meeting water quality standards.  This information helps individuals, groups, and government agencies find what needs to be done to improve water quality.

“Our hope is that local action groups will take this information and use it to make changes that will clean up the Kankakee and other streams,” said Andrew Pelloso, a section chief of IDEM’s Office of Water Quality. “This report will allow our watershed specialists to work better with citizens and help groups obtain the grant funding they need to help make a measurable difference in the area’s water quality.”

IDEM staff members also request the public’s help in the creation of the TMDL report. “Residents know their areas and know information that might have an impact in the report,” said Staci Goodwin, a senior environmental manager for IDEM.  “It’s important that we know both the good and the bad such as where the old landfill was, or who is already working to improve water quality. That information makes a difference, and it’s not the type of thing you can test or look up – it has to come from the people who live in an area.”

Indiana residents interested in finding out more or hosting a public information meeting about the TMDL should contact Staci Goodwin at sgoodwin@idem.in.gov.  Additional information about IDEM programs can be found at www.idem.IN.gov.

In the photo (left to right): Indiana Department of Environmental Management staff Corky Prast, environmental manager, and Matt Prater, intern, take water quality readings in the Kankakee-Iroquois watershed.  Testing is currently being done to create a comprehensive report about the area’s water quality.

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