‘Not just a river’: How the Fox River community can affect the health of the watershed

For three decades, Gary Swick has been trying to change minds by shifting how community members see the Fox River. Instead of seeing it as just a river, he describes the watershed as veins and arteries collectively feeding the life source at the heart of the ecosystem. Swick believes once community members recognize how their actions affect the watershed underfoot, they will take responsibility.

Swick serves as president of Friends of the Fox River, a nonprofit consisting of volunteers who protect and promote the watershed’s health through cleanup events, water quality monitoring programs, habitat improvement projects, and education workshops.

Recently, Swick presented on the state of the river heading into the new year.

He said part of changing minds, is showing people how pollution and degraded water quality in streams like Fearson Creek in St. Charles or Rob Roy Creek in Yorkville contributes to the health of the larger Fox River ecosystem.

“The Fox is not just a river, it’s more than 30 tributaries running into it and all the land that drains to those tributaries,” Swick said. “If we appreciate this, we will take ownership and responsibility of the watershed and realize it’s the most valuable resource we have. Having that kind of caretaking mindset on the individual level impacts the decisions made at the top. It helps us as a community sort our priorities.”

Swick takes heart from the resurgence of bald eagle nesting sites along the Fox River after the pesticide DDT was banned. He said their conservation success story serves as a beacon that the changes we make in consumption habits and water usage can truly make a difference.

He said it was exciting to finally see some dam removals after more than 30 years advocating to return the Fox to a free-flowing river.

Swick said dams create unnatural lake ecosystems with slow moving, warm water above the structures. This environment helps harmful algae flourish and native fish populations to decrease from the water’s lower oxygen levels. The dams also create sediment buildup, which feeds the algae excess nutrients further causing their overgrowth.

Swick said similar responsible management consideration should be taken with projects like the Lake Michigan water sourcing project in Yorkville, Oswego and Montgomery. He said the problems caused by unsustainably harvesting groundwater, which takes hundred of thousands of years to recharge, are compounding by just shifting to another water source.

“Every community cannot be drawing from Lake Michigan,” Swick said. “If you take water from Lake Michigan, it has to be returned at the quality you received it. That kind of wastewater treatment is very expensive. Conserving water is a much better investment. We can be reusing a lot of water we send to the wastewater treatment plants.”

Swick said some of the biggest changes people can make is in their own backyards.

“The number one thing community members can do is let water soak into the ground where it falls, which prevents the water from running off the land,” Swick said. “Wherever you have development, you create surfaces that water cannot infiltrate and get into the ground. This includes roofs, sidewalks, the road, parking lots, even people’s yards with turf grass that’s too dense for water to permeate.”

Swick said pollution consists of anything degrading the quality of the watershed. He said anything in our roads or applied to our yards is destined to be washed into a storm drain. This includes everything from litter, to salts on the roads and sidewalks, to fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides that negatively impact water quality.

“Change begins with individual people and the choices we’re making with our lifestyles and wanting manicured yards,” Swick said. “If we turn them into habitat with native vegetation, water can better reach the soil and we help rebuild the natural ecosystem.”

He said while over-development of residential and industrial has created water runoff, pollution, and soil erosion along the watershed, he’s encouraged by many businesses implementing smarter land management techniques. He said large campuses that used to have fields of mowed grass are now planted with native vegetation that protects the ecosystem and saves the business overhead costs in managing the property.

He said transformative steps like better land management is a product of education about the watershed’s health and benefits to the community.

Swick said progress has been made in towns investing in upgrading their wastewater treatment plants to better treat the large amounts of phosphorous polluting the watershed. Excess phosphorous, which is both a product of soil erosion from over-development, and poorly treated human urine at wastewater treatment plants, contributes to the degradation of the water’s oxygen levels and suitability for biodiversity.

He said towns like St. Charles, after investing more than $150 million to upgrade their wastewater treatment plants, are due to meet the EPA’s phosphorous standards ahead of their 2030 goal.

Swick said abiding to the EPA’s standards is crucial as climate change alters the game plan.

“Because storms are different now due to climate change, you are seeing outdated retention ponds preventing water from reaching into the ground,” Swick said. “The large amounts of precipitation are causing flooding events which further creates runoff pollution and soil erosion. Every community should be revisioning their stormwater ordinances and how it impacts water quality”