The Illinois River is the single most important river in the state of Illinois. Approximately 95 percent of the urban areas and half of the agricultural lands in the state are located within the Illinois River basin. The Illinois Waterway, which consists of the Illinois River and its tributary streams. is the only waterway that links the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River and thus the Gulf of Mexico. The Illinois Waterway is therefore an important commercial waterway. Because of its strategic location in the state and because it is downstream of the Chicago Metropolitan Area, the Illinois River has experienced significant human influences over the years. The most significant influences have been related to commercial navigation, municipal and industrial waste discharges, and agricultural practices in the watershed. Because of the lack of a basinwide comprehensive management plan. many of the environmental and ecological problems in the Illinois River basin have not been addressed adequately over the years. The most serious and difficult to manage problem facing the Illinois River is the problem of sedimentation in the river channel and backwater lakes. Many of the backwater lakes have lost over 70 percent of their capacities to sediment accumulation and might not last too long unless appropriate rehabilitation and management techniques are applied in the near future. Problems in the Illinois River basin are not, however, limited only to sedimentation. Issues such as water quality, nonpoint source pollution, flooding, degradation of aquatic habitats, and water based recreation need to be addressed. It is therefore important that a comprehensive management plan that treats the river, its valley, and watershed as an integrated system and that deals with all the environmental problems, is developed for the Illinois River basin.
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