From Tensions to Momentum: The 2026 Water Policy Forum
On March 12, leaders from government, business, and the water sector came together for Metropolitan Planning Council’s inaugural Water Policy Forum, co-hosted with Argonne National Laboratory and Current.
Three Tensions Shaping the Path Ahead
Three themes cut across the discussions:
- Fragmentation is the dominant condition. Leadership is strong, but systems are not aligned.
- Water is misvalued. Despite rising climate risk and emerging demands, it is still treated as a constraints, not a strategic asset.
- Trust is the binding constraint. At the moment when decisions are becoming more complex, trust across institutions and stakeholders remains fragile, and without it, progress stalls.
Creating the Conditions for Better Policy
The forum builds on prior Vision for Water convenings(Planning for Abundance and Scarcity in Illinois, Expanding the Water Workforce) and on decades of work shaping water policy in Illinois, from MPC’s Changing Course: Recommendations for Balancing Regional Growth and Water Resources in Northern Illinois report, produced with the Campaign for Sensible Growth and Openlands Project, to Current’s Upstream Illinois: Strategies to Bookst Illinois Blue Economy report.
The goal was simple: create a space to engage the real questions shaping Illinois’ water future.
Tensions, Trade-offs, & Risks
Instead of prescribing solutions, the forum focused on the conditions shaping them, surfacing tensions, tradeoffs, and risks that must be navigated.
Participant with question, such as:
- What water challenges can technology help us solve?
- What does the water community underestimate about economic development?
- What would it take for water-intensive industries to become partners in water planning rather than variables to be managed?
- What innovative water policy ideas would you like to see advanced in the next 5-10 years?
Voices from Water Leadership
To ground the discussion in real-world experiences, the forum featured leaders working across, policy, practice, and innovation.
Lakeside Chat: What Illinois Can Learn From Texas
First, we engaged in a lakeside chat with Emily Simonson, Senior Director of Water Leadership and Innovation at the US Water Alliance and Sarah Rountree Schlessinger, CEO of the Texas Water Foundation, to share experiences driving water policy in Texas.
Water Experts: Unfiltered
National leaders offered perspectives from across sectors, surfacing opportunities, risks, and open questions for Illinois and the Great Lakes.
Beyond Yes or No: Data Centers and Large Water Users
Michelle Stockness, the Executive Director of Freshwater Society teased apart the black and white thinking that often precludes opportunities for unique solutions for Data Center challenges and addressed the tension between economic development and sustainable water supply.
Economies of Scale and Community-led Regionalization
Olga Morales Pate, the CEO Rural Community Assistance Partnership, addressed the urgency of the issue for rural communities and regionalization as a potential solution for the economies of scale issue.
The Role of Innovation for Sustainable Water Futures
Dr. Yuepeng Zhang, Senior Principal Materials Scientist and Group Leader at Argonne National Laboratory addressed the role and potential of technology innovation in addressing issues at the intersection of data centers, water treatment, sustainability and critical mineral recovery.
Intentional Exclusion: Tribes, Water, and the Cost of Structural Inequity
Heather Tanana Assistant Professor of Law at the University of Denver’s Sturm College of Law and associate faculty at the Johns Hopkins Center for Indigenous Health, invited attendees to consider how the intentional exclusion of tribes in these conversations exacerbates existing structural inequities.
To be Continued…
While these challenges run deep, the energy and openness in the room made one thing clear: collaboration is our greatest resource. MPC wants to thank Current and Argonne National Laboratory for their partnership in this work!
We’ll also continue the conversation at our Chicago Water Week event on the morning of May 7th! Details coming soon!
See you soon,
Ryan & Nicole
MPC team
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