The Bull Creek Stakeholders Association, a group of homeowners who united because they were concerned about erosion in their back yards, has begun reaching out to others along the creek to examine the erosion problem and its impact along the watershed.
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The association, which assembled in 1999, has received three grants to help ameliorate the effects of large amounts of water that are discharged into the creek in Beach Park and parts of Zion and Waukegan.
The River Network has given the association a grant of $20,500 to educate landowners and officials in communities that discharge floodwaters into the creek. The grant also asks the association to provide a bus tour of the area and a workshop on stream management for property owners along Bull Creek.
The Lake County Stormwater Management Commission has given the association a $15,790 grant to complete a survey and cost estimate of work that will stabilize the creek just upstream from Illinois Beach State Park, where muddy runoff threatens marshes with endangered plants, said Patty Werner, a watershed planner for the county commission.
And this year, the association will receive an additional $23,716 to share costs of the installation and stabilization plans an engineer suggested for the stream. The plans include the use of natural, deep-rooted plants along the shores and the installation of rocky riffles and pools of deeper water to stabilize the grade of the stream water, Werner said.
Werner said this “relatively long-term project” is expected to take five to six years to complete. “Things happen over time, and sometimes we have to fix them over time,” she said.