Calumet Stormwater Collaborative
Established to deliver on the vision of the Millennium Reserve Initiative, the Calumet Stormwater Collaborative (CSC) has evolved over 10 years as a dynamic convener of people and organizations aligned around the goal of improving stormwater management in the Calumet Region. In 2024, we marked a natural transition in our leadership by partnering with Friends of the Chicago River to host a series of field trips to see stormwater management in action in Gary, IN, Calumet City, and Riverdale.
At the start of 2025, the CSC transitioned into a working group under the Greater Chicago Watershed Alliance (GCWA), now facilitated by our valued collaborators at Friends of the Chicago River. Formed in 2020, GCWA serves as a collaborative forum for advancing green infrastructure and nature-based solutions in the Chicago-Calumet River watershed. We’re excited to support this next stage in the evolution of the CSC’s. If you’ve lost touch with CSC, we invite you to be part of this next chapter. To get involved, please contact Tessa Murray at tmurray@chicagoriver.org.
We’re excited to carry CSC’s mission forward under the GCWA umbrella and invite you to be part of this next chapter.
Background
Managing stormwater effectively across any geography—whether a natural watershed or a manmade sewershed—requires significant coordination between governments and other stakeholders. However, government units often face differing regulatory, political, financial, and technical pressures. Without coordination, inconsistent goals, processes, and investments persist. Additionally, non-governmental actors, such as landowners and financing agencies, play critical roles in stormwater management and must be part of the solution.
In the Millennium Reserve area—Illinois’ portion of the Calumet Region and parts of the Illinois Lake Michigan coast—a new collaborative was needed to bridge these gaps and facilitate coordination across sectors. Stakeholders across the former Millennium Reserve identified many stormwater management goals, strategies, and tactics, but one universal and consistent desire emerged: improved communication and coordination.
The Calumet Stormwater Collaborative (CSC) was launched in 2014 to address this need. Its central purpose was to promote awareness of ongoing stormwater initiatives, forge a shared understanding of key terms, establish common goals, and identify opportunities to
align existing or new projects. Importantly, the CSC did not aim to slow individual projects but to determine how their outcomes could be leveraged for mutual benefit.
CSC’s Achievements and Milestones
Over the past 10 years, the CSC’s most significant achievement has been establishing consistent, recurring meetings that effectively engaged stakeholders and built trust. This ongoing engagement fostered a strong community of practice, enabling participants to share knowledge, align efforts, and collaboratively tackle stormwater challenges.
The community of practice approach laid the foundation for achieving key milestones in several areas:
Collaborative Outcomes
The CSC delivered outcomes that improved regional understanding of stormwater challenges and solutions:
- Urban Flooding Baseline: Comprehensive documentation of urban flooding patterns across the Calumet Region, serving as a critical resource for prioritizing mitigation efforts.
- Green Infrastructure Baseline Inventory (GIBI): A detailed inventory of green infrastructure initiatives, providing a roadmap for scaling and replicating successful projects.
Capacity Building
The CSC enhanced the region’s stormwater management capacity through strategic planning and skill development:
- Capacity Baseline: An assessment documenting municipalities’ abilities to manage, plan, and invest in stormwater solutions, establishing a foundation for strategic prioritization.
- Workforce Development: Training programs and certifications focused on green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) installation and maintenance, equipping local communities with essential skills.
Pilot Projects
The CSC translated strategies into action through pilot projects:
- Green Infrastructure Templates: Development of customizable templates for green stormwater infrastructure design, promoting consistent and effective practices.
Policy Influence
The CSC played a role in shaping regional policy frameworks:
- Best Practices for GSI Design Standards: Establishment of regionally recognized guidelines for GSI design.
- White Paper on Shared Services: An assessment of opportunities for shared GSI maintenance across jurisdictions, promoting collaboration to reduce costs and improve outcomes.
CSC’s Transition and Strategic Partnerships
In its most recent phase, MPC began redefining CSC’s role and building a strategic partnership with Friends of the Chicago River and the Greater Chicago Watershed Alliance (GCWA). This transition marked a critical period of reflection and adaptation as the Steering Committee sought to ensure CSC’s long-term sustainability while continuing its mission.
During this phase, the CSC experimented with new meeting formats to balance virtual accessibility with the relationship-building benefits of in-person gatherings. Members and the Steering Committee also assessed how the CSC’s collaborative culture and expertise in green infrastructure could be leveraged to tackle emerging stormwater challenges.
Learn More
For more information, take a look at Calumet Stormwater Collaborative communications:
- Monthly meeting materials
- CSC Work Plan, 2022
- NOTE: CSC Steering Committee members met in November 2022 and agreed to extend the 2022 work plan into 2023. This group, guided by input from the broader CSC, will meet throughout 2023 to discuss goals, benchmarks, sector-specific strategies, key implementers and collaborations, and equity, among other topics germane to the work of the CSC and to future work planning.
- Three-Year Work Plan, 2018-2021
- One-page overview of CSC
- Brochure: How CSC members engage with communities
Former CSC Members (December 2024)
Government Agencies
Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning
Cook County Dept. of Environment and Sustainability
Cook County Dept. of Emergency Management and Regional Security
DuPage County
DuPage County Stormwater Management
Forest Preserves of Cook County
IDNR Coastal Management Program
Illinois Environmental Protection Agency
Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago
National Fish and Wildlife Foundation
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Research Institutions
Barcelona Lab for Urban Environmental Justice
Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant
Illinois Institute of Technology
Purdue Extension
Purdue University
University of Illinois at Chicago
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
University of Illinois Extension
University of Michigan
NGOs
Alliance for the Great Lakes
Anthropocene Alliance
Audubon Great Lakes
Calumet Collaborative
Center for Neighborhood Technology
Chicago Conservation Corps
CRTI at The Morton Arboretum
Daylight
Delta Institute
Emerald South Economic Development Collaborative
First Street Foundation
Foresight Design Initiative
Friends of the Chicago River
Greenleaf Communities
Healthy Schools Campaign
Metropolitan Planning Council
OAI
Openlands
Sierra Club Chicago
The Conservation Fund
The Nature Conservancy
The Trust for Public Land
Communities
Village of Calumet Park
Village of Midlothian
Private Companies
Antero Group
Baxter & Woodman
Brown & Caldwell
CERA Solutions
Christopher B. Burke Engineering
Environmental Design International
Farnsworth Group
Geosyntec Consultants
Grantify
Hey and Associates
Hyfi
Lewis & Associates
Metro Strategies
Mott MacDonald
Resource Environmental Solutions
Robinson Engineering
SmithGroup
SPAAN Tech
Sustainable Systems Consulting
Waterwell
Community Groups
Blacks in Green
Evanston Watershed Collective
Greenest Region Corps
Funders
Grand Victoria Foundation
