After Nearly 8 Years Of Planning, Cook, DuPage County Leaders Thank Village For Leadership
By TOM ROBB Journal & Topics Reporter
Elk Grove Village Mayor Craig Johnson stood on a bridge over the Busse Reservoir Dam spillway Wednesday, Aug. 12 surrounded by a host of senior state and county officials, mayors and engineers, cutting the ribbon on a major Salt Creek flood mitigation project, benefiting Elk Grove Village and DuPage County communities along Salt Creek.
On Monday, Aug. 17, construction equipment will come in to begin installing two massive 14,000-pound, 37-foot wide hinged curved stainless steel floodgates across spillways in the Busse Dam. The huge metal gates will be able to completely open or close in just 10 minutes and withstand a force of 1,500 pounds. per lineal foot. The project is expected to be completed by Thanksgiving, Johnson said.
“Nearly eight years ago, we began work on the Busse Dam Modification project with the lofty goal of bringing flood relief to the residents and businesses of this region.” Johnson said. “And now, thanks to the partnership, cooperation and support of numerous federal, state and local agencies, we are mere months away from achieving this goal.”
Of 40 measurable Salt Creek flood events, Johnson said 20 would not have happened had this project been in place and an additional 17 flood events would have had would just minimal impact in Elk Grove and along Salt Creek, leaving only three of the last 40 flood events having a major impact.
Johnson said the dam project is the first in Illinois to include major participation by two counties, Cook and DuPage and the largest single project the village has ever undertaken.
Dignitaries at the event joining Johnson atop the dam bridge included Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, DuPage County President Dan Cronin, Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MWRD) of Greater Chicago Board President Mariyana Spyropoulos, Illinois Dept. of Natural Resources Director Daniel Injerd, Cook County Forest Preserve Supt. Arnold Randall, Friends of the Cook County Forest Preserve Executive Director Benjamin Cox, mayors from Wood Dale, Itasca and Hanover Park, Elk Grove Village trustees and staffers and representatives from U.S. Rep. Tammy Duckworth (D-8th) and State Rep. Michelle Mussman (D-56th) offices.
Johnson was quick to thank the many political leaders and entities helping make the project possible since he first announced plans to modify the dam in the wake of the September 2008 storm and flood that left six northern Illinois counties, including Cook and DuPage federal disaster areas. Preckwinkle and Cronin also praised Johnson for his leadership on the project. The project has an expected total price tag of about $4.6 million with the village picking up $3.3 million of that cost, MWRD picking up $1.125 million and DuPage picking up $100,000 of those costs.
Johnson said a key moment in the process occurred last April in a meeting with Preckwinkle in her downtown Chicago office. Johnson said he was nervous, but said when he saw Cronin hug Preckwinkle, “I knew it was going to be OK.”
When Johnson first announced plans to install flood controls in the dam in 2008, before any engineering studies, influential environmental activists from the Friends of the Cook County expressed concern about rising water levels impact on the flora and fauna along the banks of Lake Busse.
Cox met with Johnson in late 2008 and early 2009. Through those meetings, Friends of the Forest Preserve brought in Northwestern University engineering students to come up with a plan to detain water using spillway controls in the dam that would regulate water levels in Lake Busse before and during a storm event to control flooding along Salt Creek.
At the ribbon cutting, Cox said the dam modifications would actually help the flora and fauna along the lake’s banks more than the current situation as the lake’s level fluctuates now with storm events bringing sediment into the lake. Once complete, the lake levels would remain much more constant.
That sentiment was echoed by Randall who said many come to the forest preserve district with plans for flood detention that are often rejected because their mandate is to do no harm to the forest preserve. This project actually helps it.