(70 ILCS 2605/23) (from Ch. 42, par. 344)
Sec. 23. If any channel is constructed under the provisions hereof by means of which any of the waters of Lake Michigan shall be caused to pass into the Des Plaines or Illinois River, such channel shall be constructed of sufficient size and capacity to produce and maintain at all times a continuous flow of not less than 300,000 cubic feet of water per minute, and to be of a depth of not less than fourteen feet, and a current not exceeding three miles per hour, and if any portion of any such channel shall be cut through a territory with a rocky stratum where such rocky stratum is above a grade sufficient to produce a depth of water from Lake Michigan of not less than eighteen feet, such portion of said channel shall have double the flowing capacity above provided for, and a width of not less than one hundred and sixty feet at the bottom capable of producing a depth of not less than eighteen feet of water. If the population of the district draining into such channel shall at any time exceed 1,500,000, such channel shall be made and kept of such size and in such condition that it will produce and maintain at all times a continuous flow of not less than 20,000 cubic feet of water per minute for each 100,000 of the population of such district, at a current of not more than three miles per hour, and if at any time the general government shall improve the Des Plaines or Illinois Rivers, so that the same shall be capable of receiving a flow of 600,000 cubic feet of water per minute, or more, from said channel, and shall provide for the payment of all damages which any extra flow above 300,000 cubic feet of water per minute from such channel may cause to private property so as to save harmless the said district from all liability therefrom, then such sanitary district shall within one year thereafter, enlarge the entire channel leading into said Des Plaines or Illinois Rivers from said district to a sufficient size and capacity to produce and maintain a continuous flow throughout the same of not less than 600,000 cubic feet of water per minute, with a current of not more than three miles per hour, and such channel shall be constructed upon such grade as to be capable of producing a depth of water not less than eighteen feet throughout said channel, and shall have a width of not less than one hundred and sixty feet at the bottom. In case a channel is constructed in the Des Plaines River as contemplated in this section it shall be carried down the slope between Lockport and Joliet to the pool commonly known as the upper basin of sufficient width and depth to carry off the water the channel shall bring down from above. The district constructing a channel to carry water from Lake Michigan of any amount authorized by this act, may correct, modify and remove obstructions in the Des Plaines and Illinois Rivers wherever it shall be necessary so to do to prevent overflow or damage along said river, and shall remove the dams at Henry and Copperas Creek in the Illinois River, before any water shall be turned into the said channel. And the canal commissioners, if they shall find at any time that an additional supply of water has been added to either of said rivers, by any drainage district or districts, to maintain a depth of not less than six feet from any dam owned by the state, to and into the first lock of the Illinois and Michigan Canal at La Salle, without the aid of any such dam, at low water, then it shall be the duty of said canal commissioners to cause such dam or dams to be removed. This act shall not be construed to authorize the injury or destruction of existing water power rights.
(Source: Laws 1889, p. 125.)
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Last modified: February 18, 2015