"Department" is the Department of Natural Resources.
"Domestic purposes" includes all public water supply pumpage and water supplied to commercial and industrial establishments.
"Consumptive use" means that amount of water withdrawn or withheld from the Lake Michigan watershed and assumed to be lost or otherwise not returned to Lake Michigan or to any other waterway due to evaporation, incorporation into products, or other processes.
"New users" refers to any regional organization, municipality, political sub-division, agency, instrumentality, organization, association, or individual that did not have an allocation of Lake Michigan water from the Department on July 1, 1980.
"Discretionary dilution for water quality purposes" is Lake Michigan water directly diverted into the Sanitary and Ship Canal for the purpose of water quality, and does not include Lake Michigan water directly diverted for other purposes such as lockage, leakage of lakefront controlling structures, or navigational make-up water.
"Other Great Lakes States" includes the states of Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York and Wisconsin.
"International Joint Commission" is the permanent unitary body established under the Boundary Waters Treaty of 1909 between the United States and Canada to help prevent and settle disputes regarding the use of boundary waters.
615 ILCS 50/1.1