Description

The benefits of roadways are paired with environmental consequences. Adjacent wetlands and riverine environments are exposed to contamination from associated roadway pollutants. Where snowy winters occur, roadway pollution is intensified by de-icing measures. In Illinois, state agencies and legislative authorities are obligated by both federal and state regulations (NEPA, Federal CWA 401/404, IWPA) to mitigate roadway impacts to surrounding environments. The Illinois State Geological Survey Wetlands Geology Section is funded to monitor and report on hydrology and water quality in wetlands and other related environments, including assessing the water-quality benefits of Best Management Practices (BMPs) such as roadside bioswales. This presentation will examine our work through a unique lens, the I-90 Chloride Migration Project, which ultimately aims to improve BMP design by assessing the influence of a coarse-grained glacial outwash setting on the migration of chloride from road-salt application as it enters groundwater and surface water from the roadway. The insights from this research are applicable across the Great Lakes Region and into colder climes where similar regulations apply.

Speaker: Jessica Monson

Jessica Monson is an Assistant Research Scientist at the Illinois State Geological Survey (ISGS) with the Prairie Research Institute (PRI) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). After graduating from the University of Iowa in geoscience (B.S.) and soil science and Quaternary geology (M.S.), her career has focused on collecting, processing, uploading, and analyzing field and file data, preparing and contributing to contract reports, and managing select projects across all funded programs at the ISGS Wetlands Geology section for nearly 12 years. Regulatory monitoring and Jessica’s educational background fuel her primary interest in anthropogenic impacts on natural processes.