Determining Cost Effective Pollution Reduction BMP Scenarios for Low Impact Redevelopment and a Watershed Plan Using WinSLAMM

A watershed plan had been prepared by The Conservation Foundation, a non profit environmental group, for the approximately 53,500 hectares (206 square miles) DuPage River suburban watershed near Chicago. The plan needed to be updated to meet USEPA's newer watershed plan guidelines to include information on expected pollutant load reduction, proposed BMPs necessary to meet that load reduction and the estimated cost to implement the selected BMPs. Due to the limited analysis budget, the WinSLAMM program was used to approximate existing and proposed total solids and phosphorus load reductions for two sub-watersheds and the results were then scaled up to the entire watershed. The costs of various BMP combinations were compared to the expected removal efficiencies to help local officials to choose the most cost effective BMPs. Local municipal officials assisted in the selection of BMPs that would be socially and technically acceptable.