La
Moine River at Colmar, Illinois
The La Moine basin is 655 square miles and is in the Galesburg
physiographic
subsection. The land use is mostly corn and soybean row crop agriculture,
and 12% of the basin is forested. The forested areas are mostly within
the riparian zone. There is little urban land use.
Panther Creek near El
Paso,
Illinois
This basin (94 square miles) lies in the
Bloomington Ridged Plain physiographic province. It is approximately
90% corn and soybean row crop agriculture with almost no urban land use.
Historical discharge and water-quality data are available.
Mackinaw
River at Green Valley, Illinois
This large basin (1,073 square miles) is downstream from the Panther
Creek near El Paso indicator site. The basin lies entirely within
the Bloomington Ridged Plain subsection of the Till Plains section of the
Central Lowlands Physiographic Province. The land use in the basin is over
90% corn and soybean agriculture. The Mackinaw Basin is the
model for a Illinois Nature Conservancy Project to enhance cooperation
among land owners to maximize the best management practices by farmers
and other land owners. Woodford County, in the Mackinaw Basin, has
the highest rate of no-till farm management in Illinois.
Sangamon River at
Monticello, Illinois
The Sangamon basin is 550 square miles.
This basin lies entirely within the Bloomington Ridged Plain physiographic
subsection. The land use in the basin is roughly 90% corn and soybean row
crop agriculture with insignificant urban area. Historical discharge and
water-quality data are available as well as historical intensive pesticide
data from the Mid-Continent Herbicide Initiative.
Sangamon
River near Oakford, Illinois
The Sangamon River is the largest tributary (5,093 square miles)
to the Illinois River within the Lower Illinois River Basin (LIRB). The
Sangamon River Basin is roughly one-third of the LIRB area and is the
largest
tributary integrator. The basin contains all of the LIRB major urban
areas outside of the Peoria area (Springfield, Decatur, and
Bloomington-Normal).
The basin is roughly 90% corn and soybean agriculture, and it includes
the drainage for the intensive indicator basin - Monticello.
Illinois River at Ottawa
(Starved Rock), Illinois
This is the major input of water and
sediment to the LIRB. The watershed above the LIRB covers 11,000 square
miles. Land use above this site is urban (Chicago Metropolitan area) and
agricultural (Wisconsin, Indiana, and Illinois). A former National Stream Quality Accounting
Network (NASQAN) site that operated through 1995 is located about 10
miles upstream.
Illinois
River at Valley City, Illinois
The basin covers 27,000 square miles and is the only surface-water
outlet from the LIRB. This site was used by the Mid-Continent Herbicide
initiative for extensive and intensive herbicide data collection.
Indian Creek near Wyoming,
Illinois
This basin (63 square miles), a part of the Spoon
River Basin, lies in the Galesburg Plain physiographic province
subsection. It is roughly 90% corn and soybean row crop agriculture, and
has no significant urban area. Historical discharge and water-quality data
are available.
Personnel to contact about a specific subject are listed
on the staff page.
U.S. Department of the Interior
U.S. Geological Survey
221 North Broadway, Urbana, IL 61801, USA
URL: http://il.water.usgs.gov/proj/lirb/eco/site_descrip/index.html
Maintainer: djfazio@usgs.gov
Last modified: 15:36 CST Thurs 11 May 2000
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