(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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