ILLINOIS WATER SURVEY TO STUDY SEDIMENTATION

Silt surveys to measure the amount of sediment accumulating in Illinois reservoirs will be conducted this summer in six southern Illinois counties, according to William C. Ackermann, chief of the Illinois Water Survey.

Long-range purpose of the program, Ackermann explained, is to acquire information that will be useful to engineers in the design of new reservoirs, to municipal officials in gauging available water supply, and to agriculturists in planning improved land use.

Approximately 10 reservoirs in Montgomery, Macoupin, Madison, Bond, Clinton and Fayette counties will be measured as the first part of a three-year study of claypan soils of southern Illinois. First to be measured will be the new Mt. Olive reservoir, beginning June 9.

Head of the engineering field party, to be stationed at Hillsboro, will be Roger L. Corinth, assistant engineer of the Water Survey, a research division of the state Department of Registration and Education. Corinth will be assisted by Ronald Russell, Tinley Park; George E. Reitz, Jr., Farina; James P. Gibb and Jerry F. Parola, Hillsboro, all University of Illinois engineering students.

Measuring sediment includes taking a number of cross sections of each reservoir, determining the volume of water and the volume of sediment, mapping the shore line, and taking sediment samples to be analyzed for chemical and physical properties.

Permanent concrete survey markers will be installed at five of the reservoirs as part of the 3958 summer program. In most cases, Water Survey engineers are given assistance locally by municipal officials.

The sedimentation research program is conducted by the State Water Survey in cooperation with the Illinois Agricultural Experimental Station and the U.S. Soil Conservation Service and Agricultural Research Service. This research group recently completed an eight-year study of sedimentation of the deep-loess soils in western Illinois.

Page 141 / Illinois Municipal Review / June 1958