Water Resources Update

USGS Illinois Water Science Center Newsletter

Spring/Summer 2008 

U.S. Department of Interior

U.S. Geological Survey

Illinois Water Science Center

1201 W University Ave Ste 100

Urbana IL 61801-2347

http://il.water.usgs.gov/

Compiled by D.M. Ayers and J.B. Sharpe

Message from the Former Director

Robert R. Holmes, Jr., PhD, P.E.

Table of Contents

Message from the Former Director..........................................................................................................................1

Stream and Wetland Monitoring at The Grove Residential Development near Bloomington, Illinois.....................2

USGS Illinois Water Science Center Named NHD Steward for Illinois..................................................................3

Assessment of Flood Remediation Impact with Minimal Historic Hydrologic Data: Boneyard Creek ...................4

Illinois Streamflow Conditions for April 2007 through March 2008.......................................................................7

Employee Spotlight ..................................................................................................................................................8

USGS Illinois Water Science Center Publications....................................................................................................8

If you were paying attention to the title, you will note I am now the “former Director”. I was trying to come

up with some witty introduction to this message, but given that I already used Shakespeare once in this space (May

2005), I figured that to be my limit. As of January 4, 2008, I began work for the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)

Office of Surface Water (OSW) as the National Flood Specialist. The new position involves a number of things,

but one of the high priority duties includes serving as senior advisor to the OSW Chief and the USGS Associate Director for Water on flood science. In addition, I will spend some time coordinating USGS activities during

major floods. Normally, positions for our headquarters (OSW is part of our headquarters operation) would be

located in our Reston, Virginia offices. However, this position is allowed to be located at a USGS field office. For

the present, I will remain in Urbana, but will soon be relocating to the USGS office in Rolla, Missouri.

Gary Johnson, the Chief of the Hydrologic Data Collection and Analysis Section, has been ably filling the

role of Acting Director, while the USGS undergoes a nationwide search for my replacement. A new Director will

hopefully be on board by early summer.

It was not easy to lay down the reins of this Center, but after nine years as the Director, I felt something different was in order and the new position was just the right challenge that suited my technical background and interests. The staff here is dedicated, capable, and motivated and will continue to carry on outstanding water science

data collection, investigations, and research. I will miss working with them and many of you who have been our

partners as we endeavor to help monitor and understand the distribution and quality of water resources in Illinois.

It has truly been a great run for me—I have had a lot of fun participating in some really interesting and challenging

water science issues. I want to thank many of you for the friendship and collaboration during my nearly 14 years

in the USGS Illinois Water Science Center. It has been my pleasure.


Stream and Wetland Monitoring 

at The Grove Residential Development near Bloomington, Illinois

by

Tim Straub and Don Roseboom, Hydrologists

With funding from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA) 319 Program and the Illinois Department

of Natural Resources (IDNR), the City of Bloomington is developing wetland detention within a natural stream design

for The Grove residential development in central Illinois (figure below). Runoff from the 480 acre Grove is designed

to be captured in large shallow wetland basins so that peak flows are reduced. Stream naturalization will convert two

miles of agricultural drainages ditches in the East and West Branches of Kickapoo Creek into meandering stream channels within an 80 acre linear park. The park landscape will maximize the enhancement of native wetland, riparian, and

aquatic species for the park’s trail system.

To meet the design criteria for the Grove development, the naturalized stream reaches need to transport the available water and sediment supplied from the drainage ditches in the upper 8,000 acres of agricultural row crops. Also,

sediment from the development process must be minimized by erosion and control practices. After development is

completed, runoff, sediment, and nutrient loads from the new residential areas must be decreased by routing flow

through wetlands. Lastly, throughout and after development, the dissolved oxygen in the stream must remain high

enough to support aquatic life. Additional monitoring by field staff from the IEPA and IDNR will independently evaluate the response of aquatic habitat and stream fisheries to implementation of the restoration design.

The following are the four objectives of this study:

Assess sediment transport disposition through the naturalized stream reaches utilizing repeated cross-sectional

survey data, and sediment and flow data from two gages upstream of the development and one gage downstream of the development.

Document construction and erosion control activities throughout the development process.

Evaluate the effectiveness of reducing runoff, and nutrient and sediment loads from the residential areas by

routing flow through constructed wetlands. Data will be collected at the intakes and outlets of two wetlands.

Determine the annual minimum dissolved oxygen levels by collecting continuous dissolved oxygen data at the

downstream extent of the study area.

1.

2.

3.

4.

Proposed development naturalized stream reaches and wetlands. Initial USGS streamgaging stations are shown, but wetland gages are not 

shown. The wetland gages will be established in the development area at the inlet and outlet of the two wetland areas shown.


USGS Illinois Water Science Center Named NHD Steward for Illinois

by

Jennifer Sharpe, Geographer; Terri Arnold, Cartographer; Shelley Silch, Physical Scientist

	 In a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the USGS National

Geospatial Technical Operations Center (NGTOC), the USGS Illinois Water

Science Center (IL WSC) has agreed to become the principal steward for the

National Hydrography Dataset (NHD) for Illinois.

	 The NHD was designed and substantially build by three Federal partners:

USGS, USEPA, and the USDA Forest Service. It was designed to be a reliable

source of data that would grow both through system-wide revisions and the

contributions of its users. While the Federal agencies generally represent a

National perspective, thousands of other users have used the NHD to record and

analyze waterways in their local areas. The data they have developed as users are

then fed back to develop and refine the NHD as a whole.

	 Because the data comes increasingly from local sources, there is a greater

need for management and oversight by an intermediary. Those intermediaries

are referred to as “data stewards.” The NHD will be maintained through data

stewardship, a program in which users assume more responsibility for the success

of the NHD. Stewardship will be distributed across the Nation, typically on

a State-by-State basis, and the principal stewards will coordinate and assume

responsibility for the NHD at this level. Other organizations, which could have

specific local or topical interests, may then assume further stewardship, referred

to as secondary stewards, under the auspices of the principal stewards. This

distributes stewardship down to the organizations that have the best available information on the hydrography in their area.

These users can perform the actual enhancements with oversight and support from the principal stewards. These edits will

become transactions provided to the NHD database that the USGS will maintain on behalf of the entire user community.

	 As Illinois’ NHD steward, the USGS IL WSC responsibilities include:

	 •	 Guarantee that updated NHD data pass all validation tests.

	 •	 Assure that the core content (features, attributes and relationships identified in the NHD standards) is included.

	 •	 Keep the data current.

	 •	 Consider any change submitted and decide authoritatively if it will be accepted or not. (Some changes can have 

significant impacts, and it is essential that any changes made to the NHD are valid.)

	 •	 Report the decision publicly through the NHD Website (http://nhd.usgs.gov/).

	 •	 Respond to proposed changes within some agreed upon reasonable time.

	 •	 Provide publicly available information on status of data development and updating through the NHD Website.

	 •	 Maintain awareness of activities by other agencies and groups.

	 Currently, several State agencies have expressed interest in participating as secondary stewards. If your agency would

like to participate, please contact Jennifer Sharpe by e-mail at il.nhd@usgs.gov or phone 217.344.0037, extension 3048.

Learn more about the National Hydrography Dataset at http://nhd.usgs.gov/.


Assessment of Flood Remediation Impact with Minimal Historic Hydrologic Data:

Boneyard Creek

by

Robert R. Holmes, Jr., PhD, P.E., Hydrologist

Boneyard Creek (figure below) drains a highly urbanized watershed of approximately 19.3 km2 to its confluence with the Saline Branch and flows, in upstreamto-downstream order, through the City of Champaign,

Illinois, the University of Illinois, and the City of Urbana,

Illinois. The Creek has had recurrent over bank and drainage system backwater flooding for decades. A storm

sewer system drains much of the Boneyard Creek watershed. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the Boneyard

Creek channel was deepened by up to 1.5 m and lined

with sheet piling walls and a concrete floor in Urbana

from near Race Street to the upstream side of Lincoln

Avenue. These improvements resulted in a hydraulic drop

in the channel bottom of approximately 1.2 m at Lincoln

Avenue. The Northwest Diversion Structure was completed in August 1960, resulting in the upper 2.90 km2 of

watershed being diverted directly into the Saline Branch.

This diversion decreased the contributing watershed area

at the mouth of the Boneyard to approximately 16.4 km2.

In the 1980s, three stormwater detention facilities were

constructed in the Boneyard watershed, with two of them

totaling 9.07 ha-m of detention storage in Champaign and

one having 1.48 ha-m of storage in the University campus

(Berns, Clancy, and Associates, 1998).

Even with the flood-control improvements described

above, recurrent flooding problems remained along

Boneyard Creek and resulted in the two entities, Champaign and the University, proposing and implementing a

series of remediation projects (remediation) to limit flood

damages. The remediation projects, consisting of channel improvements, expansion and construction of detention facilities, and various storm-sewer improvements,

Boneyard Creek watershed, Champaign-Urbana, Illinois.


were designed by the engineering firms Camp, Dresser,

and McKee and Berns, Clancy, and Associates to have

no detrimental downstream hydrologic impact (Camp,

Dresser and McKee, 1997). The engineering analysis and

design was conducted by the consultants using the Stormwater Management Model (SWMM) (U. S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1997). The remediation, when

originally proposed, met with public controversy downstream in Urbana. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is

sometimes called upon to provide data or results that are

useful to multiple parties in potentially contentious interjurisdictional conflicts in water resources. A study by the

USGS in cooperation with Champaign, the University, and

Urbana, was undertaken to determine the effects of the

remediation on the downstream reaches of the Boneyard

Creek.

All three political entities recognized the likelihood

of continued controversy after construction of these

remediation improvements. Therefore an agreement was

developed among Champaign, the University, and Urbana

to collect data at additional sites and have a study plan in

place to analyze the effects scientifically, rather than to

allow the controversy to grow and possibly result in litigation. As part of that agreement, it was established that

the study would assist the political entities in assessing

the hydrology/hydraulics of the watershed in the postremediation configuration, specifically to ascertain if the

Boneyard SWMM model, used for design of the remediation improvements, is a reliable method for predicting

flows and stages at Lincoln Avenue. 

The ultimate objective is to to answer

the question—“Have the remediation improvements resulted in a higher 

water surface elevation profile downstream in Urbana than existed prior to 

the remediation improvements?”

Ideally, determination of effects of

hydrologic changes from flood-remediation projects in a watershed would

be conducted with adequate data from

both before and after remediation time

periods. In addition, precipitation,

soil moisture, and streamflow data at

strategic locations would be available. 

Ideally, one could either select various

similar storm events from the before

and after time periods for comparison

(similar storm flows would be defined

as having similar precipitation amounts

and antecedent soil moisture conditions) or determine the streamflow

frequency statistics from both periods

and compare the streamflow peaks for

selected frequencies, such as the 2-year, 25-year, and 100-

year flood.

There are sparse data to do a rigorous comparison of

before and after hydrologic effects for Boneyard Creek. 

This data gap is a paucity of spatially-distributed incremental rainfall gages and the result of the cumulative

effect of numerous hydrologic alterations of the Boneyard

watershed through time, eliminating homogeneity of the

controls on streamflow at the USGS Boneyard Creek campus gage, which has been operated since 1948.

An alternative approach to determine any adverse

effects of the remediation downstream in Urbana (downstream of Lincoln Avenue) is being undertaken. The

entire design (and permitting) of the Boneyard post-remediation flood control was based on the assumption that the

consultants SWMM model results are either a correct or

conservative estimate of peak streamflow for a given rainfall input. The present approach is based on the determination of the accuracy of the SWMM model in simulating

post-remediation storm flows. This approach necessitates

the collection of additional rainfall data to properly characterize the spatial and temporal distribution of rainfall

on the Boneyard watershed and accurately monitor the

streamflow as it enters Urbana at Lincoln Avenue, where

an additional USGS streamflow gage was established.

The assessment method calls for the observed rainfall

data to be entered into the SWMM model in the “as-built”

state and run it to predict the streamflow at Lincoln Avenue. If the model predicts flow equal to or larger than the

University of Illinois channel improvements (photo courtesy of Aerial Mapping Services, Inc. and 

Berns, Clancy and Associates).


observed flow, this prediction provides

evidence that the design model is accurate or conservative, and thus much

more likely that there has been no

adverse impact downstream in Urbana

from the remediation project.

The floods selected for simulation as part of the assessment will

have peak streamflows at the Lincoln

Avenue gage of at least 19.7 m3/s, and

flood peaks at or exceeding this value

will be selected as “qualifying” storm

events. Streamflow of 19.7 m3/s, estimated to be the five-year recurrence

[likelihood] flood at Lincoln Avenue,

was selected because it was expected

that at least three such floods of this

magnitude would occur in the five to

ten years slated for the data collection,

and it was thought to be of sufficient

magnitude to be in the range of flows

for which the SWMM model was

calibrated.

Data collection began in late 2001. The first “qualifying” storm event occurred on July 9, 2003, with a peak

observed streamflow of 22.6 m3/s. Preliminary modeling

of the July 9, 2003 storm event was conducted by distributing the observed rainfall for each sub-watershed within

the SWMM model using the Thiessen polygon method. 

The SWMM model estimated a peak streamflow of 33

m3/s (figure above), which is a significant over prediction

of the observed peak streamflow. With the preliminary

model estimate of an over prediction of the observed peak

flow, for this event, a preliminary finding would be that

the remediation had no adverse impact on Urbana for

this event. Final determination of the impacts will not be

made until a more thorough analysis of this event along

with analysis of additional events. Another qualifying

storm event has occurred but no analysis has been completed.

References

Berns, Clancy, and Associates, 1998, Joint Agency Permit Application Boneyard Creek Flood Control, Permit

Application Package Phase 1C.

Camp, Dresser, and McKee Inc., 1997, Permit Application Package Phase I Improvements Boneyard Creek

Improvement Plan, City of Champaign, Illinois.

Observed and simulated streamflow for the Boneyard Creek at the Lincoln Avenue gage, July 8-10, 

2003.

Boneyard Creek looking east towards Lincoln Avenue on the University of 

Illinois campus in Urbana.

U. S. Environmental Protection Agency, Environmental

Research Laboratory, 1997, Storm Water Management

Model, Version 4.4 beta, Users Manual.


Daily mean discharge from April 1, 2007 through March 31, 2008 compared with percentile distribution of

mean daily discharged for the 30-year period, 1961-90, for 3 representative streamgaging stations. A daily

mean discharge is in the deficient-flow if its value is less than or equal to the 25th percentile, in the normal-flow

range if its value is between 25th and 75th percentiles, and in the excessive-flow range if its value is equal to or

greater than the 75th percentile.

Illinois Streamflow Conditions for April 2007 through March 2008


EMPLOYEE SPOTLIGHT

P. Ryan Jackson

(Hydrologist)

USGS Illinois Water Science Center 

Publications

Listed below are publications that were published

recently. Federal Fiscal Year (FY) covers October 1

through September 30. Our policy is to provide copies

of our publications to requestors at no cost as long as the

publication is in stock in the USGS Illinois Water Science

Center. To obtain copies of the following, or any other

USGS Illinois Water Science Center publication, you may

contact Donna Ayers at (217) 344-0037, extension 3053 or

by e-mail at dmayers@usgs.gov.

Reports also can be found at the USGS Publications

Warehouse at: http://infotrek.er.usgs.gov/pubs/

FY 2007

SIR 2007-5141, Hydrologic, Hydraulic, and Flood

Analyses of the Blackberry Creek Watershed,

Kendall County, Illinois, by E.A. Murphy, T.D.

Straub, D.T. Soong, and C.S. Hamblen (http://pubs.

usgs.gov/sir/2007/5141)

SIR 2007-5184, Ground-Water Quality in the Vicinity of

Coal-Refuse Areas Reclaimed with Biosolids in

Fulton County, Illinois, by W.S. Morrow (http://

pubs.usgs.gov/sir/2007/5184)

Ryan Jackson joined the staff

of the USGS Illinois Water Science

Center in Urbana as a hydrologist in late February 2008. Ryan

is currently dividing his time

between the Office of Surface Water (hydroacoustics),

the Hydrologic Data Collection and Analysis Section,

and the Surface Water Investigations Section. Ryan

became interested in working for the USGS after

successful collaborations with Illinois Water Science

Center and OSW personnel beginning in 2005. 

Ryan holds M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Civil

Engineering from the University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign and a B.S. in Civil Engineering from the

University of New Mexico. During his undergraduate studies, Ryan worked at Sandia National Laboratories as a research assistant in the Microelectronics

Development Laboratory completing routine testing

of microelectronic devices and helping to maintain a

300-user computer network. Ryan also spent a year

studying abroad at the Royal Melbourne Institute of

Technology in Melbourne, Australia. As a graduate

student, Ryan studied environmental fluid mechanics,

specializing in mixing in stratified turbulence. His

research included theoretical and laboratory analyses

of small-scale turbulent mixing, dye experiments on

the Hudson River to investigate the dispersion of Zebra

Mussel larvae, dye experiments on the Kissimmee and

Loxahatchee Rivers to estimate dispersion coefficients

for comparison with estimates from acoustic Doppler

current profiler (ADCP) transects, tracking intrusions

generated by boundary mixing in lakes, and characterization of density currents in the Chicago River using

both a physical model and field measurements. While

at UIUC, Ryan received the National Defense Science

and Engineering Graduate Fellowship and the National

Science Foundation GK-12 Teaching Fellowship. The

latter fellowship allowed Ryan to spend two years

teaching science part time at Danville High School and

Urbana Middle School.

Prior to joining the USGS, Ryan was a postdoctoral fellow at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

where he studied mixing in the deep sea. As a part

of a larger project, Ryan and his colleagues used the

submarine ALVIN to inject tracer (sulfur hexaflouride)

along the East Pacific Rise (8500 ft deep) near high

temperature (400°C) hydrothermal vents. By measuring local currents and the dispersion of the tracer over

approximately 50 days using R/V Atlantis and ALVIN,

Ryan and his colleagues were able to build a data set

that allows vent biologists to predict dispersal of larvae

from hydrothermal vent fauna. Ryan’s experiences

at WHOI and his time at sea taught him a great deal

about the planning, preparation, and resources required

to execute large-scale field experiments. Ryan has

published his research in several peer-reviewed journals including the Journal of Physical Oceanography,

Geophysical Research Letters, Experiments in Fluids,

and Science of the Total Environment and he currently

has articles submitted to the Journal of Fluid Mechanics and Deep Sea Research. 

Ryan was raised in New Mexico and Colorado. 

He spent several years on the Cibola Search and

Rescue team in Albuquerque before trading the Rocky

Mountains for the corn fields of Illinois. Ryan enjoys

woodworking, hiking, kayaking, fishing, and working

in the yard. Ryan spends most of his free time with his

wife, Heather, and his children, Kylie (3) and Colin (5

months).