Best Management Practice (BMP) Implementation &

Planning

Randy Vogel (AES Ecologist/IL Branch Manager)

Nature is the Best BMP• During presettlement times nature was the

best BMP. Nature’s natural “Treatment Train” processes improved water quality, reducing flooding, and provided open space for diverse fauna and flora.

1840 Public Land Survey Map of Algonquin Area

Nature’s Stormwater Treatment Train

How do BMPs Address Watershed Issues?• Today, our landscape is highly altered requiring our innovative BMP approaches to

mimic nature’s treatment train process and address watershed issues. General Watershed Issues1) Improve Water Quality2) Reduce Flooding3) Preserve and Enhance Open Space for Natural & Designated Infiltration

What types of BMPs Best Address Watershed Goals?

• Detention Basin Retrofits• Rain Gardens• Streambank Restoration• Wetland Restoration• Native Plant Buffers Along Streams and

Open Space • Greenways Protection and Enhancement

Precipitation

Naturalized Detention

Basin

Bio-SwaleRain

Garden

Buffers Treatment Wetland

The Urban Stormwater Treatment Train

Benefits:

• First Stage of filtering and flood protection

• Deep rooted native plantings enhance infiltration

Rain Gardens

Benefits:

• Collects water from hard surfaces such as roads and driveways

• Filters and moves water to ponds and treatment wetlands

Bio-Swales

Benefits:

• Deep rooted grasses and forbs absorb and infiltrate water

• Wildlife habitat

Algonquin Water Treatment Plant Buffer

Buffers

Benefits:

• Provide breakdown of nutrients and pollutants in the water

• Control flooding

• Creates habitat

Award winning Arquilla Detention Basin Naturalization in Algonquin

Naturalized Detention Basins

Benefits:

• Provide additional breakdown of nutrients and pollutants in the water

• Control flooding

• Creates habitat

Treatment Wetlands

Existing Open Space in Algonquin

Kingsbrook Crossing

Village BMP Projects

Arquilla Detentio

n

Water Treatment Plant

Village BMP Projects

Countryside Detention Naturalization

Yellowstone Detention Naturalization

Management along Woods Creek Corridor

Native Plant Buffers at Treatment Plant

Village BMP Projects

Management at Arbor Hills-Stonegate Wetland

Management at Arbor Hills-Oak leaf Wetland

Ratt Creek

Restoration