Welcome to Mission Monday! Mission Monday is the Illinois Section’s new webinar series designed with our mission in mind:  providing resources for the advocacy of safe and sustainable water through enriching membership, mentoring, and increasing public awareness. The education that you receive from this series is focused on the topics that you need to continue to supply safe and sustainable water to all of Illinois.  Once a month we’re bringing education to you on the topics you need the most. This series is free for our members and $25 for non-members. Not a member? Join today at AWWA –  www.awwa.org/join.

SUMMARY: You cannot see, smell or taste lead in drinking water. To protect children from potential exposure, the State of Illinois passed a law in 2017 requiring certain child care facilities and schools to test their water for lead. To support compliance with this requirement, the LeadCare Illinois program will relaunch in 2026, offering free lead-in-water testing, training, and mitigation support services. In this session, the program team will walk participants through the services offered through the program, as well as best practices for engaging with high-risk facilities in testing and lead service line replacement efforts. The session will also provide a refresher on state requirements to test and mitigate lead at child cares and schools, along with an overview of testing requirements under the Lead and Copper Rule Improvements.   

PRESENTER: 

Brian Cox, P.E. Plumbing and Water Quality Program Manager, Division of Environmental Health, Illinois Department of Public Health
Elizabeth Ornelas, Project Manager, Elevate (administrator of the LeadCare Illinois program)
Caroline Pakenham, Director, Water Programs, Elevate

COST:

Welcome to Mission Monday! Mission Monday is the Illinois Section’s new webinar series designed with our mission in mind:  providing resources for the advocacy of safe and sustainable water through enriching membership, mentoring, and increasing public awareness. The education that you receive from this series is focused on the topics that you need to continue to supply safe and sustainable water to all of Illinois.  Once a month we’re bringing education to you on the topics you need the most. This series is free for our members and $25 for non-members. Not a member? Join today at AWWA –  www.awwa.org/join.

SUMMARY: This Mission Monday webinar highlights how Cook County’s leadership is being translated into real‑world impact for households and municipalities and explores how this work can inform, strengthen, and scale future regional and statewide progress. Staff from the Cook County Bureau of Economic Development and the nonprofit Elevate will showcase their innovative programmatic partnerships to address water affordability and lead in drinking water. Speakers will share early, data‑driven lessons from implementing direct household assistance, municipal capacity‑building, and public‑health protections. 
Goals:
• Highlight Cook County’s role in advancing innovative programs and initiatives
• Share early, data‑driven lessons to underscore the need for—and potential impact of—local capacity‑building
• Promote replicability and adaptation beyond Cook County, and invite partnerships to support scaling and long-term sustainability
• Inform and shape policy discussions among governments, researchers, advocates, practitioners, and funders on water affordability and lead in water

PRESENTER:

Justin Keller, Strategist, Water Programs, Elevate
Dominic Tocci, Deputy Bureau Chief, Bureau of Economic Development, Cook County
Caroline Pakenham, Director, Water Programs, Elevate
Rachael Burchett, Program Manager, Water Affordability, Elevate
Bethany Olson, Program Manager, LeadCare Cook County, Elevate
Ruth Kerzee, Senior Project Manager, Cook County TAP, Elevate

COST:

Welcome to Mission Monday! Mission Monday is the Illinois Section’s new webinar series designed with our mission in mind:  providing resources for the advocacy of safe and sustainable water through enriching membership, mentoring, and increasing public awareness. The education that you receive from this series is focused on the topics that you need to continue to supply safe and sustainable water to all of Illinois.  Once a month we’re bringing education to you on the topics you need the most. This series is free for our members and $25 for non-members. Not a member? Join today at AWWA –  www.awwa.org/join.

SUMMARY: This presentation will cover current PFAS drinking water regulations, funding options, evaluation of different treatment technologies, and emerging research, with an emphasis on making strategic decisions to support continued compliance. Case studies will provide practical real-world applications of different PFAS treatment technologies and their associated advantages and disadvantages. As the regulatory landscape evolves, additional PFAS compounds are evaluated and new treatment technologies are introduced, compliance planning becomes more complex.

Attendees will gain practical insights into funding PFAS treatment projects, designing pilot studies to identify appropriate treatment technologies, different types of PFAS treatment technologies with their pros and cons, and understanding compliance monitoring requirements. The presentation is intended to support informed, defensible decision-making in a rapidly changing regulatory environment.

PRESENTER: Diane Moeller, PE - Geosyntec Consultants, Inc.

COST:

9/30 From Tile to Tap: Collaboration with the Agricultural Community to Achieve Source Water Protection Goals (Webinar) 

SUMMARY: Join Us for Source Water Protection Week! This webinar highlights how water utilities and agricultural producers can collaborate to protect source water while supporting on-farm resource management. Learn practical approaches like tapping into pre-existing resources and building partnerships that reduce risk and deliver shared benefits at the watershed scale.

PRESENTER: Ted Kratschmer, Illinois American Water

COST: