It’s easy to think that living near a Great Lake means means we’ll never feel the pinch for freshwater that we’re seeing in the West. But experts say we’ve got water problems of our own here in the Chicago metropolitan area. And they say we need to do a better job of managing our water resources now if we want to avert a future crisis. Tim Loftus is the Water Resource Planner at the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning. He oversaw the creation of Water 2050—a plan for managing the region’s water resources. He explains what lies ahead here. Photo: Flickr/JournoJen