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1
HOUSE RESOLUTION

 
2    WHEREAS, Kaskaskia Watershed encompasses 10.2 percent of
3the State and includes all or parts of 22 counties; and
 
4    WHEREAS, Kaskaskia Watershed starts in Champaign County
5and ends at the Mississippi River in Randolph County; and
 
6    WHEREAS, Kaskaskia Watershed includes 13 House Districts
7and eight Senate Districts of the Illinois General Assembly;
8and
 
9    WHEREAS, Kaskaskia Watershed has three authorized Corps
10projects, Lake Shelbyville, Carlyle Lake, and the Kaskaskia
11Navigation Project; and
 
12    WHEREAS, The Corps projects generate 7.4 million visitors
13and over $167.2 million in visitor spending; and
 
14    WHEREAS, An estimated 557,837 people are served by public
15water from the Corps project in the watershed; and
 
16    WHEREAS, The Kaskaskia River provides water for cooling
17purposes to three power plants, one being in the top five power
18producing-plants in the world; and
 

 

 

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1    WHEREAS, The Kaskaskia River is degrading by a headcut that
2travels at a rate of one mile per year; and
 
3    WHEREAS, Damages induced by headcutting result in
4increased dredging, loss of private property, and significant
5ecosystem degradation to the riverine environment; the largest
6contiguous stand of bottomland hardwood forest in the State of
7Illinois is also affected; and
 
8    WHEREAS, The United States Congress established the
9Kaskaskia Watershed Restoration Act in 2007 and authorized
10$20,000,000 for critical projects after a Comprehensive Plan is
11developed; and
 
12    WHEREAS, In 2014, the Army Corps of Engineers funded the
13Watershed Comprehensive Plan with $1.5 million in federal funds
14with a requirement of a 50 percent match of non-federal funds;
15and
 
16    WHEREAS, The Comprehensive Plan is stalled due to the lack
17of financial support from the State of Illinois; the remaining
18$300,000 in non-federal funds is needed to complete the plan
19and to leverage $20,000,000 in federal funds; and
 
20    WHEREAS, Time is of the essence in that the federal funds
21will be reprogrammed to other states; failure to move forward

 

 

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1will eliminate the Kaskaskia Watershed from consideration in
2the future; therefore, be it
 
3    RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE
4HUNDRED FIRST GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that
5we urge all four caucuses and the Governor to consider the
6Kaskaskia Watershed Comprehensive Plan when creating the
7upcoming fiscal year budget.