(615 ILCS 50/3) (from Ch. 19, par. 120.1)
Sec. 3.
The Department on behalf of the State of Illinois shall devise and develop
a continuing program for the apportionment of water to be diverted from
Lake Michigan among regional organizations, municipalities, political subdivisions,
agencies or instrumentalities for domestic purposes
or for direct diversion into the Sanitary and Ship Canal to maintain such
canal in a reasonably satisfactory sanitary condition; provided, however,
that in developing the continuing program and in making allocations, the
amount used for discretionary dilution for water quality purposes in the
Sanitary and Ship Canal shall not exceed an annual average of 320 cubic
feet per second and the Department shall not allocate less than 320 cubic
feet per second for discretionary dilution before October 1, 2000, without
conducting a hearing initiated after notification from the Illinois Environmental
Protection Agency of the completion or improvement of waste water treatment
facilities or change in standards that affect water quality. In addition
to the other requirements of this Act, the Department shall give priority
to allocations for domestic purposes in making allocations to new users
of Lake Michigan water, and shall to the extent practicable make any allocations
to new users of Lake Michigan water with the goal of reducing withdrawals
from the Cambrian-Ordovician aquifer. The Department shall also follow these
provisions in developing its continuing program. The Lake Michigan water
so diverted, whether by way of pumpage for domestic purposes
from the lake the sewage effluent derived from which reaches
The Illinois Waterway, or by way of storm runoff from the Lake Michigan watershed which
is diverted into the Sanitary and Ship Canal, or by way of direct diversion
from the lake into the canal, shall not exceed a 40 year running average
of 3,200 cubic feet per second and shall not exceed 3,680 cubic feet per
second in any annual accounting
period except that in any two annual accounting periods within a 40 year
period the average annual diversion may not exceed 3,840 cubic feet per
second as a result of extreme hydrologic conditions. The program, which
shall be published, shall be
developed in cooperation with local governmental agencies and other
interests; in the development of the program and rules and regulations
the Department is authorized to hold public hearings to gather
information related thereto.
(Source: P.A. 81-1411.)
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