Current through Public Act 103-1052
Section 70 ILCS 2605/88 - Drainage; navigation; special assessments(a) The board of trustees of said sanitary district shall have the right to provide for the drainage of the additional territory added to said sanitary district by Section 86 by laying out, establishing, constructing and maintaining one or more channels, drains, ditches and outlets for carrying off and disposing of the drainage (including the sewage) of such district, together with such adjuncts and additions thereto as may be necessary or proper to cause such channels or outlets to accomplish the end for which they are designed in a satisfactory manner and shall have the right to use what is known as the "Calumet feeder" of the Illinois and Michigan Canal and lands adjacent to such feeder belonging to the State of Illinois for the site of any such channel, within the limits of the county in which such district is situated, in such manner as said district may elect, and shall also have the right to construct a channel across said Illinois and Michigan Canal, without being required to restore said Illinois and Michigan Canal or said feeder to its former usefulness. If, by reason of said abandonment, a stagnant stream or pool of water shall remain upon the deposits of Chicago sewage, accumulated in said Illinois and Michigan Canal by reason of its years of usefulness by the City of Chicago as a sewage outlet, said sanitary district shall fill up said canal to a depth sufficient to remove said condition and prevent the spread of pestilence and disease throughout the territory in which said Illinois and Michigan Canal is abandoned; and the other powers and jurisdictions of said sanitary district of Chicago over and in connection with such added territory shall be the same as that vested in it over the territory included within the limits of said sanitary district as originally organized. Before said Calumet channel is connected with the present main sanitary channel, gates of suitable pattern for shutting off the flow of water into said Calumet channel shall be installed at or near the connection of said Calumet channel with the Calumet river and forever maintained for use in case of an emergency, and for the protection of the property and lives of residents of the Illinois valley, and shall maintain the same proportion of dilution of sewage through such auxiliary channels as it may construct and join to its main channel as is now required by the act creating said sanitary district: Provided, however, that before any such channel is constructed across said Illinois and Michigan Canal, or the navigation of said canal in any manner interfered with, said sanitary district of Chicago shall connect its present main channel from the controlling works at Lockport with the upper basin of the Illinois and Michigan Canal at Joliet by a channel of a depth of not less than ten (10) feet and a width of not less than one hundred and sixty (160) feet through its entire length, in which channel so to be constructed, said sanitary district shall provide and construct a lock or locks of the size of at least twenty-two (22) feet in width by one hundred and thirty (130) feet in length between mitre sills, connecting upper and lower levels, and provide suitable protection for water craft in using said locks and channel. Said locks shall be constructed of the most approved pattern of their size, and be perfectly safe for use and be equipped with machinery to operate the same; and if only one lock is constructed it shall be provided with double gates to prevent accident, and said sanitary district shall forever maintain and operate the same: Provided, further, that said sanitary district shall furnish and provide at said lock a site of the dimensions of at least twenty by thirty feet upon which the state through the Canal Commissioners shall have the right to erect a suitable office building and keep an agent therein, and the Canal Commissioners shall have such authority in and about said lock as is necessary to enforce the rules and regulations prescribed by them pertaining to and governing navigation on the Illinois and Michigan Canal: Provided, further, that said sanitary district shall furnish, free of all expense, for the perpetual use of the Canal Commissioners, at some point in the Township of Lockport to be agreed upon by the Canal Commissioners and the sanitary district trustees, a strip or parcel of land bordering upon said sanitary channel, eight hundred (800) feet in length and one hundred and thirty (130) feet in width, filling the same to a suitable depth to provide suitable roadways for approaches, whereon may be located, constructed and operated, docks, shops, barns and other buildings controlled by the Canal Commissioners and used in connection with the operation of the Illinois and Michigan Canal.(b) Said sanitary district shall permit all water craft navigating or proposing to navigate said Illinois and Michigan Canal to navigate the water of all said channels of said sanitary district promptly, without delay and without payment of any tolls or lockage charges for so navigating in said channels. The rules of the United States government now in force, regulating navigation on the Chicago river shall govern navigation on the channels of said sanitary district of Chicago: Provided, however, that the speed of all vessels while passing through the earth sections shall not exceed eight (8) miles per hour.(c) Said sanitary district of Chicago shall have no power to levy and collect any special assessment or special tax upon any part of said added territory to defray or pay any part of the cost, either of the work heretofore done by said sanitary district or any main channel hereafter to be constructed in said added territory.(d) That the said sanitary district of Chicago is hereby authorized to construct all such dams, waterwheels and other works north of the upper basin of the Illinois and Michigan Canal as may be necessary or appropriate to develop and render available the power arising from the water passing through its main channel and any auxiliary channels now or hereafter constructed by said district.(e) That the power made available by the works constructed under the provisions of this act shall be converted into electrical energy and shall be transmitted to the various cities, villages and towns within said sanitary district or adjacent to the main channel of said sanitary district and may be used in the lighting of said cities, villages and towns, or parts thereof, or for the operation of pumping plants or machinery used for municipal purposes or for public service, or may be disposed of to any other person or corporation, upon such terms and conditions as may be agreed to by the said sanitary district: Provided, however, that it shall be the duty of said sanitary district to utilize so much of said power as may be required for that purpose to operate the pumping stations, bridges and other machinery of said sanitary district.(f) For the purpose of meeting the expenditures arising from the exercise of the powers conferred by sections five and six of this act upon the said sanitary district, the said sanitary district of Chicago is hereby authorized to levy and collect in each year, for a period of three years (in addition to the taxes which said district is now by law authorized to levy and collect) a tax of not exceeding .0625 per cent of the full, fair cash value, as equalized or assessed by the Department of Revenue, of the taxable property within the corporate limits of said district for the year in which the levy is made. The county clerk, in extending said .0625 per cent tax upon the taxable property within said sanitary district, shall not in any event reduce the same, but in that respect said .0625 per cent shall not be subject to the provisions of the Property Tax Code.(g) The said sanitary district shall, at the expense of said district, in all respects comply with the provisions of the acts of Congress of March 22, 1822, and March 2, 1827, as construed by the courts of last resort of the State of Illinois and of the United States, in relation to the Illinois and Michigan Canal, so far as it affects that portion of the Illinois and Michigan Canal vacated or abandoned by the terms of this Act.P.A. 87-834; 88-670, eff. 12/2/1994.