Public Act 0299 103RD GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HB2219 Enrolled LRB103 03428 AWJ 48434 b

Public Act 103-0299

AN ACT concerning local government.

Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly:

Section 5. The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District Act is amended by changing Sections 9.6a and 56 as follows:

(70 ILCS 2605/9.6a) (from Ch. 42, par. 328.6a)

Sec. 9.6a. Bonds for sewage treatment, and water quality, and facility improvements. The corporate authorities of a sanitary district, in order to provide funds required for the replacing, remodeling, completing, altering, constructing and enlarging of sewage treatment works, administrative buildings, water quality improvement projects, distributed renewable energy generation devices, or flood control facilities, and additions therefor, pumping stations, tunnels, conduits, intercepting sewers and outlet sewers, together with the equipment, including air pollution equipment, and appurtenances thereto, to acquire property, real, personal or mixed, necessary for said purposes, for costs and expenses for the acquisition of the sites and rights-of-way necessary thereto, and for engineering expenses for designing and supervising the construction of such works, may issue on or before December 31, 2034, in addition to all other obligations heretofore or herein authorized, bonds, notes or other evidences of indebtedness for such purposes in an aggregate amount at any one time outstanding not to exceed 3.35% of the equalized assessed valuation of all taxable property within the sanitary district, to be ascertained by the last assessment for State and local taxes previous to the issuance of any such obligations. Such obligations shall be issued without submitting the question of such issuance to the legal voters of such sanitary district for approval.

The corporate authorities may sell such obligations at private or public sale and enter into any contract or agreement necessary, appropriate or incidental to the exercise of the powers granted by this Act, including, without limitation, contracts or agreements for the sale and purchase of such obligations and the payment of costs and expenses incident thereto. The corporate authorities may pay such costs and expenses, in whole or in part, from the corporate fund.

Such obligations shall be issued from time to time only in amounts as may be required for such purposes but the amount of such obligations issued during any one budget year shall not exceed $150,000,000 plus the amount of any obligations authorized by this Act to be issued during the 3 budget years next preceding the year of issuance but which were not issued, provided, however, that this limitation shall not be applicable (i) to the issuance of obligations to refund bonds, notes or other evidences of indebtedness, (ii) to obligations issued to provide for the repayment of money received from the Water Pollution Control Revolving Fund for the construction or repair of wastewater treatment works, and (iii) to obligations issued as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, issued prior to January 1, 2011, that are commonly known as "Build America Bonds" as authorized by Section 54AA of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended. Each ordinance authorizing the issuance of the obligations shall state the general purpose or purposes for which they are to be issued, and the corporate authorities may at any time thereafter pass supplemental appropriations ordinances appropriating the proceeds from the sale of such obligations for such purposes.

Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in Section 9.6 or this Section, and in addition to any other amount of bonds authorized to be issued under this Act, the corporate authorities are authorized to issue from time to time bonds of the district in a principal amount not to exceed $600,000,000 for the purpose of making contributions to the pension fund established under Article 13 of the Illinois Pension Code without submitting the question of issuing bonds to the voters of the District. Any bond issuances under this paragraph are intended to decrease the unfunded liability of the pension fund and shall not decrease the amount of the employer contributions required in any given year under Section 13-503 of the Illinois Pension Code.

The corporate authorities may issue bonds, notes or other evidences of indebtedness in an amount necessary to provide funds to refund outstanding obligations issued pursuant to this Section, including interest accrued or to accrue thereon.

(Source: P.A. 101-302, eff. 1-1-20; 102-707, eff. 4-22-22.)

(70 ILCS 2605/56)

Sec. 56. Resource recovery.

(a) The General Assembly finds that:

(1) technological advancements in wastewater treatment have resulted in the ability to capture recovered resources and produce renewable energy resources from material previously discarded;

(2) the capture and beneficial reuse of recovered resources and the production of renewable energy resources serves a wide variety of environmental benefits including, but not limited to, improved water quality, reduction of greenhouse gases, reduction of carbon footprint, reduction of landfill usage, reduced usage of hydrocarbon-based fuels, return of nutrients to the food cycle, and reduced water consumption;

(3) the district is a leader in the field of wastewater treatment and possesses the expertise and experience necessary to capture and beneficially reuse or prepare for beneficial reuse recovered resources, including renewable energy resources; and

(4) the district has the opportunity and ability to change the approach to wastewater treatment from that of a waste material to be disposed of to one of a collection of resources to be recovered, reused, and sold, with the opportunity to provide the district with additional sources of revenue and reduce operating costs.

(b) As used in this Section:

"Distributed renewable energy generation device" has the meaning given to that term in Section 1-10 of the Illinois Power Agency Act.

"Recovered resources" means any material produced by or extracted from the operation of district facilities, including, but not limited to:

(1) solids, including solids from the digestion process, semi-solids, or liquid materials;

(2) gases, including biogas, carbon dioxide, and methane;

(3) nutrients;

(4) algae;

(5) treated effluent; and

(6) thermal energy or hydropower.

"Renewable energy facility" shall have the same meaning as a facility defined under Section 5 of the Renewable Energy Production District Act.

"Renewable energy resources" means resources as defined under Section 1-10 of the Illinois Power Agency Act.

"Resource recovery" means the recovery of material or energy from waste as defined under Section 3.435 of the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency Act.

(c) The district may sell or otherwise dispose of recovered resources or renewable energy resources resulting from the operation of district facilities, and may construct, maintain, finance, and operate such activities, facilities, distributed renewable energy generation devices, and other works as are necessary for that purpose.

(d) The district may take in materials which are used in the generation of usable products from recovered resources, or which increase the production of renewable energy resources, including, but not limited to food waste, organic fraction of solid waste, commercial or industrial organic wastes, fats, oils, and greases, and vegetable debris.

(e) The authorizations granted to the district under this Section shall not be construed as modifying or limiting any other law or regulation. Any actions taken pursuant to the authorities granted in this Section must be in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations, including, but not limited to, the Environmental Protection Act, and rules adopted under that Act.

(Source: P.A. 98-731, eff. 7-16-14.)

Effective Date: 1/1/2024