363.7009773 The C362 V.5 cop. 4 Changing Illinois Environhtent: Trends Critical -•-»- Technical Report of the Critical Trends Assessment Project Volume Waste Generation 5; and Management Illinois Departmentof EnergyandNaturalReaourcaa June 1994 ILENR/RE-EA-94/05(5} / ILENR/RE-EA-94/05(5) The Changing Environment: Illinois Trends Critical Technical Report of the Critical Trends Assessment Project Volume 5: Waste Generation and Management UNIVERSITY LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OFILLINOISATURBANA-CHAMPAIGN Illinois Department ofEnergy and Natural Resources The person chargingthismaterial isresponsibleforits Hazardous Waste Research and Information CenterDivision renewalorreturntothelibra,,on 1 East Hazelwood Drive Theminimumfeeforalostitemi-s'$^1^2^5^.-0'0^,^'$l3'0^0^.^0^0^^for boundjournals. Champaign, niinois 61820 TfthohreLfdtui,nsicmviueptrlisilinatatyri^yona,Pcltaeianosdneuannnodtdeer:mlisaenylifn-rgsetsoiufclkbtno,oontkedssisammraiesysrareelasusflortno,smn tornpagesandliftsomeinks. Renew via the Telephone Center at 217-333-8400, 846-262-1510 (toll-free)[email protected] Renew online by choosing the My Account option at. http://www.library.uluc.edu/catalog/ June 1994 Jim Edgar, Governor State ofIllinois John S. Moore, Director Illinois Department of Energy and Natural Resources 325 WestAdams Su-eet, Room 300 Springfield, llUnois 62704-1892 Printed by Authority ofthe State of Dlinois Printed on Recycled and Recyclable Pa[)er Illinois Etepartment ofEnergy and Natural Resources 325 WestAdams Street, Room 300 Springfield, UUnois 62704-1892 Citation: Illinois Department of Energy and Natural Resources, 1994. The Changing Illinois Environ- ment: Critical Trends. Sxunmary Report and Volumes 1 - 7 Technical Report. Illinois Department of Energy and Natural Resources, Springfield, IL, ILENR/RE-EA-94A)5. Volume 1: AirResources Volume 2: WaterResources Volimie 3: EcologicalResources Volume4: EarthResources Volume5: Waste Generation and Management Volume 6: Sources ofEnvironmental Stress Volume?: Bibliography Volume 5 Waste Generation and Management Principal Investigator John C. Marlin Project Manager Lisa A. Damon CONTRIBUTORS Hazardous Waste Research and Information Center Lisa A. Damon Gary D. Miller Alisa Ocker David J. Schaeffer Pamela Tazik David L. Thomas Illinois State Geological Survey Lisa R. Smith Office of Research and Planning Dana Curdss Will Hinsman Project Assistants Baibara T. Higgins Kathy Nojd Angela P. Simon ABOUTCTAP ABOUT THE CRiTICAL The next step in the CTAP process is to develop, TRENDS ASSESSMENT test, and implement tools to systematically monitor changes in ecological and environmental conditions PROJECT in Illinois. Given real-world constraints on budgets and human resources, this has to be done in a practi- cal and cost-effective way, using new technologies for monitoring, data collection and assessments. The Critical Trends Assessment Project (CTAP) is an As part ofthis effort, CTAPparticipants have begun on-going process established to describe changes in to use advanced geographic information systems ecological conditions in Illinois. The initial two-year (GIS) and satellite imagery to map changes in Illi- efifort involved staffofthe Illinois Department of nois' ecosystems and to develop ecological indicators Energy and Natural Resources (ENR), including the (similar in concept to economic indicators) that can Office ofResearch and Planning, the Geological, be evaluated for their use in long-term monitoring. Natural History and Water surveys and the Hazardous The intent—is to recruit, train, and organize networks Waste Research and Information Center. They ofpeople h—igh school science classes, citizen vol- worked with the assistance ofthe Illinois Environ- unteer groups to supplement scientific data collec- mental Protection Agency and the Illinois depart- tion to help gauge trends in ecological conditions. ments ofAgriculture, Conservation, Mines and Minerals, Nuclear Safety, Public Health, and Trans- Many ofthe databases developed during the project portation (Division of Water Resources), among are available to the public as either spreadsheet files other agencies. OTARC-INFO files. Individuals who wish to obtain additional information or participate in CTAP CTAP investigators adopted a "source-receptor" programs may call 217/r785-0138, TDD customers model as the basis for analysis. Sources were defined may call 217/785-0211, or persons may write: as human activities that affect environmental and ecological conditions and were split into categories Critical Trends Assessment Project as follows: manufacturing, transportation, urban Office ofResearch and Planning dynamics, resource extraction, electricity generation Illinois Department ofEnergy and Natural Resources and transmission, and waste systems. Receptors in- 325 WestAdams Street, Room 300 cluded forests, agro-ecosystems, streams and rivers, Springfield, IL 62704-1892 lakes, prairies and savannas, wetlands, and human populations. Copies ofthe summary reportand volumes 1-7 of the technical report are available from the ENR TDD The results are contained in a seven-volume technical Clearinghouse at 1/800/252-8955. customers report. The Changing Illinois Environment: Critical call 1/800/526-0844, the Illinois Relay Center. Trends, consisting of Volume 1: AirResources, CTAP information and forum discussions can also Volume 2: WaterResources, Volume 3: Ecological be accessed electronically at 1/800/528-5486. Resources, Volume 4: EarthResources, Volume 5: Waste Generation andManagement, Volume 6: Sources ofEnvironmental Stress, and Volume 7: Bibliography. Volumes 1-6 are synopsized in a summary report FOREWORD FOREWORD As a first step, CTAPinvestigators inventoried existing data to determine what is known and not known about historical ecological conditions and to identify meaningful trends. Three geno'al conclu- sions can be drawn from CTAP's initial investiga- "Ifwe could firstknow where we are tions: and whitherwe are tending, we could betterjudge what wedo Conclusion No. 1: The emission and discharge of regulated pollutants over the past20 years has and how to do it..." decUned, in some cases dramatically. Among the Abraham Lincoln findings: Between 1973 and 1989, air emissions of Imagine thatwe knew nothing about the size, particulate matter fiom manufacturing have direction, and composition ofoureconomy. We dropped 87%, those ofsulfur oxides 67%, would each know a little, i.e., what was happening to nitrogen oxides 69%, hydrocarbons 45%, and us directly, butnone ofus wouldkn—ow much about carbon monoxide 59%. thebroader trends in theeconomy the level or rate ofhousing starts, interestrates, retail sales, trade Emissions fi'om cars and lighttrucks ofboth deficits, or unemploymentrates. We might react to carbon monoxide and volatile organic com- things thathappened to u—s directly, orreact toevents pounds were down47% in 1991 bom 1973 that we had heard about events thatmay or may levels. not have actually occurred. • Lead concentrations were down substantially in Fortunately, the information base on economic trends all areas of the state over the 1978-1990 period, is extensive, is updated regularly, and is easily reflecting the phase-out of leaded gasoline. accessible. Designed to describe the condition ofthe economy and how it is changing, the information From 1987 to 1992, major municipal sewage base provides the foundation for both economic treatment facilities showed reductions in k>ading policy and personal finance decisions. Typical of biological/carbonaceous oxygen demand, economic decisions are all framed by empirical ammonia, total suspended solids and chlorine knowledge about what is happening in the general residuals that ranged from 25 to 72%. economy. Without it, we would haveno rational way oftiming these decisions and no way ofjudging • Emissions into streams ofchromium, copper, whether they were correctrelative to trends in the cyanide, and phenols from major non-municipal general economy. manufacturing and utility facilities (most of them industrial) also showed declines over the years Unfortunately, this is not the case with regard to 1987-1992 ranging from 37% to 53%. changes in environmental conditions. Environmental data has generally been collected for regulatory and Conclusion No. 2: Existing data suggest that the management purposes, using information systems condition ofnatural ecosystems in Illinois is rapidly designed to answer very site-, pollutant-, or species- declining as a result of fragmentation and continual specific questions. This effort has been essential in stress. Among the findings: achieving the many pollution control successes of the last generation. However, it does notprovide a • Forest fragmentation has reduced the ability of systematic, empirical database similar to the eco- Illinois forests to maintain biological integrity. nomic database which describes trends in the general In one Illinois forest, neotropical migrant birds environment and provides a foundation for both thatonce accounted for more than 75% of environmental policy and, perhaps more importantly, breeding birds now make up less than halfthose personal decisions. The Critical Trends Assessment numbers. Project (CTAP) is designed to begin developing such a database. 11 FOREWORD • In the past century, one in seven native fish • Much more research is needed on the ecology of species in Lake Michigan was either extirpated large rivers, in particular the effects ofhuman or suffered severe population crashes and exotics manipulation. have assumed the roles ofmajor predators and major forage species. • The length ofIllinois' longest stream gaging records is generally not sufficientto identify • Fouroffiveofthe state's prairie remnants are fluctuations that recur less firequently than every smaller than te—n acres and one in three is smaller few decades. than one acre too small to function as self- sustaining ecosystems. • The Sediment BenchmarkNetwork was set up in 1981 with some 120 instream sediment data • Long-term records ofmussel populations for four stations; by 1990 the network had shrunk to40 rivers in east central Illinois reveal large reduc- stations, the majority ofwhich have data for only tions in numb^s ofall species over the last40 one to three years. years, s^Tparently as suitable habitat was lost to siltation and other changes. CTAP is designed to begin to help address the complex problems Illinois faces in making environ- • Exotic species invasions ofIllinois forests are mental policy on a sound ecosystem basis. The next increasing in severity and scope. edition ofthe Critical Trends Assessment Project, two years hence, should have more answers about trends Conclusion No. 3: Data designed to monitorcompli- in Illinois' environmental and ecological conditions ance with environmental regulations or the status of to help determine an effective and economical individual species are not sufficient to assess ecosys- environmental policy for Illinois. tem health statewide. Among the findings: • Researchers must describe the spatial contours of air pollutant concentrations statewide using a limited number of sampling sites concentrated in Chicago and the East St. Louis metro area. iU