Do a quick Google search for the word “megadrought” right now and you’ll find dozens of media articles in the past 36 hours in the wake of a study published in the journal Science Advances. Basically, it says the United States — particularly the Southwest and the Great Plains regions — could be in for a major drought sometime in the next century.

We’re not about to get into the conversation about greenhouse gases or the science and politics that are behind those hot-button topics, but we would like to point you toward a couple of hype-free reports about our local water supply that will be presented Tuesday right here in Kane County.

Tuesday’s Kane County Development Committee agenda includes two attention-worthy reports, one by Tim Loftus, PhD, a water resource planner with the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning, the other by Jodie L. Wollnik, assistant director of Kane County’s Water Resources Division.

Loftus will talk about the Northwest Water Planning Alliance and the region’s current planning efforts. Wollnik will follow his presentation with a report on Kane County’s 2015 water supply planning goals.

“Out west, states have had a longstanding water-supply shortage and have been doing water-supply planning for a very long time for this reason,” Wollnik said Friday. “In the Great Lakes region, water supply planning is comparatively new and many are just starting to recognize the long-term challenges that are out there. As Tim will present, even defining what is ‘sustainable’ for our region has been a challenge.”

Want to learn more? The Kane County Development Committee takes place at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 17, in Building A of the Kane County Government Center, 719 S. Batavia Ave., Geneva.