An environmental study of the Fox River in Elgin will get new life thanks to $250,000 from the federal government.
The renewed funding will allow the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to continue a feasibility study that will look at restoring the Fox River. In 1999, the Environmental Protection Agency found that the Fox River didn’t meet the agency’s Water Quality Standards.
Members of the Fox River Study Group applauded the funding. They’ve analyzed samples of the river for decades in a successful push for limiting stormwater and phosphorus that lead to algae.
Vice Chair Beth Vogt said the study will come one century after Elgin created its sanitary district.
“Today the river serves as a drinking water source for over 300,000 residents in Elgin and Aurora,” Vogt said.
Illinois Department of Natural Resources Director Colleen Callahan credited the Fox River Study Group’s work for bringing back federal funding.
“Doing the water quality studies, that’s what helped get us here today,” Callahan said.
Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi said the funds will build on local efforts to improve the waterway.
“This was an impaired river, according to the EPA, as late as 1999,” Krishnamoorthi said. “But since then, because of [local] efforts, eight species of new fish and wildlife have returned.”
The study group helped secure $210,000 in local contributions for the connectivity and habitat study.
The Army corps of engineers estimated the study will be complete in one-and-a-half to two years.
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