The Governor of Illinois designated the Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission as the areawide water quality planning agency for the six-county metropolitan area. The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency has assigned to the Commission the responsibility for reviewing wastewater permits and wastewater facility plans for consistency with the Illinois Water Quality Management Plan. These reviews and recommendations are advisory to the IEPA, which maintains authority for amendments to the state water quality plan.

To ensure consistency with these plans and to identify situations requiring a plan amendment, the Commission under contract with the IEPA and as outlined in the Illinois Compiled Statues (70 ILCS 1705), through its Water Resources Committee performs water quality consistency reviews of National Pollution Discharge Effluent Standard permits, facility plans and specified construction and operating permits for treatment plants, sewers, lift stations, land treatment systems and appurtenances. These reviews are conducted for covered activities proposed for Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry and Will Counties.

The Water Quality Management Plan Amendment Process and Procedures Manual and Water Quality Management Plan Amendment Applicationhave been prepared to:

• provide applicants with necessary information on the Commission's water quality review procedures and review criteria.
• provide applicants with the necessary forms for initiating a water quality amendment request.

The Process and Procedures Manual provides:

• information on the legislative and regulatory authority under which the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency and the Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission conduct water quality reviews.
• a description of the process and amendment levels utilized by the Commission's Water Resources Committee.
• an overview of the review criteria utilized by the Commission.

Completion and submission of three copies of the Water Quality Amendment Application, along with payment for the required fee, is required to initiate the Commission's processing and review of a water quality amendment request.  A pre-application meeting with staff is highly recommended.  Please contact NIPC at 312-454-0401, x503 to set up an appointment.

Assistance in completing the amendment application package can be obtained by contacting the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency or the Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission.

Both the Water Quality Amendment Application and the Water Quality Management Plan Amendment Process and Procedures Manual are available in the Portable Document Format (PDF). In order to view or download these two files, you will need the Adobe(R) Acrobat(R) Reader that is available for free from the Adobe web site.

Right click here to either view, download or print the Water Quality Amendment Application.

Right click here to either view, download or print the Water Quality Management Plan Amendment Process and Procedures Manual.

The Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission is the comprehensive planning agency for the six-county metropolitan area. In addition to planning, the agency provides technical and research assistance and reviews state and federal grant requests for local governments.