KISHWAUKEE RIVER SMALLIES : Kilbuck Creek

EYE'M ON KILBUCK

Killbuck Creek is a 28-mile-long tributary of the Kishwaukee River in northern Illinois.The creek runs north through southeastern Ogle County, where it cuts through Galena limestone and blue limestone. The Killbuck passes through Pine Rock Township, where a stone quarry was once located. The mouth of Killbuck Creek is located about 1 mile north of Kilbuck Bluffs Forest Preserve, a Winnebago County park. In terms of square miles drained, Killbuck Creek is the third largest tributary of the Kishwaukee River behind the South Branch Kishwaukee River and Coon Creek.

(8/13/11)

On Saturday,August 13, 2011 I was in route to a 50th year birthday bash for a good friend and had to drive over Kilbuck Creek as it flowed under the Southbend Rd. bridge. As usual I slowed to a crawl as I passed over the creek. I was outraged and shocked at what I had seen. Luckily I had my camera with me....

looking upstream from Southbend bridge

Kilbuck Creek usually runs clear this time of year so you can imagine my disbelief when I saw the excessive staining that I was witnessing. We had received some light rain on the morning of 8/13/11 but not near enough rain to cause this kind of staining.

looking downstream from Southbend bridge

I drove to the HWY-251 crossing to see if this event was happening upstream. The HWY-251 crossing is about 1.5 miles upstream of the Southbend Rd. crossing. The staining was still occurring but was more of a blueish gray color....

looking upstream from the HWY-251 bridge

HWY-251 bridge pylons

These next two pictures show a little spring fed stream just upstream of the HWY-251 bridge that flows into Kilbuck Creek.

As you can see the spring fed stream is running clear into the milky blueish gray stained Kilbuck Creek.

view of stream flowing into Kilbuck Creek

view of stream as it flows into Kilbuck Creek -pic taken atop hwy 251 bridge

After returning home I downloaded the pictures I had taken. The pictures had all seemed to have turned out.

Except for this one....

What the hell is this a picture of?

I wasn't real sure what the picture above was. It just didn't look clear to me. Maybe I was just too upset to recall what exactly I took pictures of. Oh well, I'm not a professional photographer I guess.
I got on the phone and called the IEPA and reported what was happening to Kilbuck Creek. The person on the other end of the line for the IEPA said that someone would be sent out to investigate.

The picture above was still bothering me. WHAT THE HELL WAS IT?
I decided to try and clean the picture up on my photobucket account. Maybe the picture was sun stained.
I uploaded the picture to me account and clicked the "Enhance" button. After about 3 seconds....

BAM!

This picture shows exactly how the creek was flowing on this day. The other pictures show color to the water but to witness what was going on with Kilbuck on this day with your own eyes is exactly what the picture above displays. You can kind of see the separation of the staining that is occurring with the usually clear water (on top of staining) that flows the Kilbuck.

You should now understand my outrage.

Who is responsible?

Image from Google earth taken during the year 2011

A few days have passed and I am still very upset by this event. I called the
Rockford Register Star (rrstar) news paper to see if I could possibly get a reporter on this story.
A person took my name a phone number but I never did hear from anyone at the paper.
I put in a call to Frank Schier Editor & Publisher of the Rock River Times and Frank was all ears.
Frank was very concerned with what I had told him as he is a Steward of the Kishwaukee River and Kilbuck Creek is a main tributary to the Kish.
Frank listened and took the info I had given him. After some investigating and many phone conversations we both worked together and came up with an article to run in the Rock River Times.

(click) - Rock River Times - Kilbuck Creek Article

I returned to the HWY-251 bridge on my way to work a few weeks later to do a chuck up.

The creek had bounced back at the 251 crossing but was still stained at the Southbend crossing.

I again had my camera with me as I examined the creek from the 251 bridge. I snapped a picture of how the Kilbuck normally looks so I could compare it to a pic I took on that dark day in August.

8/13/11

10/28/11

(back to August 2011)

The IEPA dropped in on the company that was suspected for causing this event and found that they were in violation of many regulations. The company received a stern talking to at the site and was told to stop operations immediately and to correct the problems asap, not to wait for a notice to be delivered by mail before beginning.

I received a call from the IEPA later that week thanking me for reporting the problem.

They also told me that the pics I took were a big help.

October 2013

I was contacted by the Rock River Times and asked if I knew anything about a new staining event on Kilbuck Creek. I had not been to Kilbuck in the last few weeks but dropped the phone and immediately jump in the car and raced off to see my favorite little smallmouth creek.

The creek seemed to look fine to me. Now, when I say fine, I mean fine to date after the 2011 event.

Kilbuck IS making a recovery. I love that little creek so in my mind it's not recovering as fast as I would like it too, but that could just be me.

I don't doubt that some kind of staining happened. I didn't find out about it until a few days afterwards. I talked with the person who reported the problem, and I can tell you that he is an avid outdoorsman and knows our area creeks and rivers very well.

It's nice to know that others have jumped the Kilbuck Creek wagon and are ready and willing to take what steps necessary to protect this great little creek.

(click) - Oct. 2013 Article

3/16/14

The charges from the IEPA on the company involved are still to this date in court.

MY EYE WILL ALWAYS REMAIN ON THE 'BUCK