Strategy: Protect natural resources and ecological
systems by promoting and supporting stewardship and
enhancement, green infrastructure development and
maintenance, and avoiding adverse environmental
impacts.
Action A: Monitor and establish baseline conditions for natural
resources through completion and implementation of watershed
plans to protect against degradation.
Action B: Implement IEPA water quality protection standards to
reduce the level of pollutants released into streams, groundwater,
sanitary sewers and storm drains.
Action C: Develop and implement environmental practices that
encourage habitat protection and restoration.
Action D: Evaluate and promote green building code and site
design incentives for both new and development building
projects.
Action E: Research and evaluate existing and new alternative land
use policies and practices to enhance the County’s natural
resources and ecological systems.
Action F: Promote the use of green infrastructure (GI) including:
site-specific, best management practices that absorb and infiltrate
precipitation where it falls; an interconnected network of open
spaces, habitat enhancement, and natural areas; water
conservation and other recognized GI practices.
Action G: Improve air quality by establishing a schedule for
building energy audits, fleet management, and by researching, and
implementing, where feasible, practices to reduce pollutants and
exploring methods to measure the County’s carbon footprint.
Action H: Review and update the Lake County Regional
Framework Plan adding a Sustainability Chapter to identify goals
and policies to encourage sustainable development practices that
will have the most beneficial impact on natural resources.
Action I: Promote sustainable agriculture and locally grown food
initiatives.
Strategy: Provide a reliable and sustainable supply of
quality drinking water to County residents.
Action A: Participate in and support regional and local water
supply planning groups and seek to adopt short- and long-range
plans for reliable water resources and conservation techniques.
Action B: Protect the quality of the water in the aquifers by
providing information to the public on ways to reduce water
pollution from high impact pollutants.
Action C: Protect surface waters by providing information to the
public on ways to reduce water pollution from high impact
pollutants such as phosphorous from fertilizers, chloride from
ice-melting products, and fecal coliform from failing septic systems
and other sources.
Action D: Develop water policies and ordinances that support the
total cost of water system maintenance and management and that
encourage water conservation.
Approximately one half mile of Dead Dog Creek in Winthrop Harbor
has been stabilized and restored after decades of bluff and stream
erosion that dumped sediment into the creek degrading water
quality. Dead Dog Creek flows eastward from Fossland Park to Spring
Bluff Forest Preserve and Illinois Beach State Park, one of the most
biologically diverse landscapes in Illinois, and enters Lake Michigan.
Restoring the stream and stabilizing the eroding bluffs will keep
sediment and pollutants out of this high quality natural area and the
near shore of Lak e Michigan.