Salt Creek meanders through more than a dozen communities and has presented a plethora of problems through the years for the people living along its 48-mile course.
Residents in Cook and DuPage Counties never will forget the creek’s severe 1987 flooding, which caused $150 million in damage. And communities have long complained about erosion and a peculiar stench that emanates from murkier portions of the creek on warm, humid days.
But lately, the stream’s strong points, not shortcomings, have caused a stir as creekside communities struggle to preserve the waterway that binds them.
As green space and other natural resources become threatened by industrial and residential growth in the suburbs, Salt Creek, with its aquatic birds, beaver habitats and varieties of fish and plant life, is increasingly being recognized as an environmental treasure.
But while conservation-minded residents and municipal officials realize Salt Creek’s value, there’s little consensus about how to preserve it.
“It’s such a fantastic creek, and many communities are starting to realize that,” said Nick Nikola, co-founder of the Salt Creek Watershed Network and Friends of the Critters of Salt Creek. “But there needs to be better communication and a better system of working together on ways to improve the creek.”
For the past six months, Rolling Meadows officials have been considering a plan that would use strong-rooted plants to shore up creek banks and slow erosion near Central and Barker Roads. And for the past three years, Elk Grove Village volunteers have held regular creek-cleaning sessions to remove shopping carts, car parts and nearly enough litter and debris to fill two garages, organizers said.
In DuPage County, portions of Salt Creek near Wood Dale are being tested by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency to locate and ultimately eliminate pollution. Elmhurst public works officials recently replaced old water pipes that had leaked into the creek, causing minor contamination.
But a lack of coordination between these projects and the decision by some communities not to get involved have left gaps in efforts to improve the overall condition of the creek. As a result, restoration efforts have been spotty at best.
The piecemeal approach provides only short-term solutions, environmentalists said.
“If you fix the bank erosion along one stretch of the creek and don’t address a problem of flooding upstream, you’ve spent money to make a Band-Aid solution,” said Jeff Swano, who helped found the Salt Creek network with Nikola.
“You can spend several thousand dollars shoring banks or dealing with pollution problems in one portion of the creek,” he added. “But without understanding the nature of the creek and other problems upstream, those measures will not work.”
The network, organized in February, tries to provide a forum in which communities can work together to develop a creek-management system and improve problem areas. Similar watershed groups have been formed to address problems plaguing the DuPage, Des Plaines, Fox and Chicago Rivers.
But with fewer than 50 people and local governments belonging to the watershed network so far, overall planning is impossible, Swano said.
Similarly, residents who live along the creek suggest that there is little participation in local creek-maintenance efforts because, even at the block level, residents can’t agree on what should be done.
“There are factions, and they all want different things,” said Rolling Meadows resident Joe Abate, who lives about 100 feet from the creek near Central Road.
He said some neighbors want erosion addressed because parts of their back-yard gardens have disappeared downstream. Others want trees along the creek removed, while those opposed to tree removal want a cleanup plan. Still others want the creek widened, Abate said.
Swano said widespread participation along the creek’s watershed is particularly necessary because characteristics of the creek change about every five miles and each stretch presents different dilemmas. For example, in Inverness, the creek is little more than a drainage ditch. But downstream, through Brookfield, it widens to more than 50 feet and ranges from 2- to 10-feet deep.
“You need citizens, municipalities and local agencies,” said Anne Marie Smith, director of conservation programs for the year-old DuPage River Watershed Plan, which recently completed a conservation plan for the east and west branches of that river. “Each element of the partnership is uniquely able to do certain things to benefit the overall project.”
