In 1994, Illinois EPA listed 50.75 miles of Silver Creek as impaired by farm pollution. 28 years later, Illinois removed the creek from its impaired list in 2022

For nearly three decades, a 50.75-mile stretch of Silver Creek in southwestern Illinois remained on the state’s list of impaired waters. Agricultural runoff, erosion, sediment and nutrient pollution had contributed to problems with nitrogen, sedimentation and dissolved oxygen. By 2022, however, monitoring showed enough improvement for Illinois to remove Silver Creek from the Clean Water Act Section 303(d) list for those impairments, as per Illinois Environmental Protection Agency.

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