(70 ILCS 2605/7) (from Ch. 42, par. 326)

Sec. 7. The board of trustees of any sanitary district organized under this Act shall have power to provide for the drainage of such district of both surface water and sewage, by laying out, establishing, constructing and maintaining one or more main channels, drains, ditches and outlets for carrying off and disposing of the drainage (including the sewage) of such district, together with such adjuncts and additions thereto as may be necessary or proper to cause such channels or outlets to accomplish the end for which they are designed in a satisfactory manner; and may lay out, establish, construct and maintain, or provide for the laying out, establishing, constructing and maintaining of sewage disposal and treatment plants and works, within or without the territorial boundaries of such sanitary district, that may be advantageous or necessary in preventing the water in any channel, ditch, drain, outlet or other improvement of the sanitary district discharged into or through any river or stream of water beyond or without the limits of the district constructing the same from becoming offensive or injurious to the health of any of the people of the State, and, in the case of the Sanitary District of Chicago, beginning with the year 1925, some efficient method of treating sewage other than by water dilution shall be annually provided to create an effluent thereof which shall not be offensive or injurious to the health of any of the people of the State, and which shall be adequate to care for a population of not less than 300,000, until at least 60 per centum of the present population of the Sanitary District of Chicago has been provided for; also to make and establish docks adjacent to any navigable channel made under the provisions hereof for drainage purposes, and to lease, manage, and control such docks, and any land adjoining, or adjacent thereto, owned or controlled by such sanitary district and also to control and dispose of any water power which may be incidentally created in the construction and use of said channels or outlets, but in no case shall said board have any power to control water after it passes beyond its channel, waterways, races or structures into a river or natural waterway or channel, or water power, or docks, situated on such river or natural waterway or channel; Provided, however, nothing in this Act shall be construed to abridge or prevent the State from hereafter requiring a portion of the funds derived from such water power, dockage or wharfage to be paid into the State treasury to be used for State purposes, nor, from supervising for purposes of navigation any channel which has been heretofore or may be hereafter constructed by any such district. Such channels or outlets may extend outside the territory included within such sanitary district, and the rights and powers of said board of trustees over the portion of such channel or outlet lying outside of such district shall be the same as those vested in said board over that portion of such channels or outlets within the said district, but in the case of the Sanitary District of Chicago, such rights and powers of the board of trustees, shall not extend beyond the terminus of its main channel at Lockport in the township of Lockport, in the County of Will, Illinois.

The Board of trustees shall have the right, power and authority by ordinance, to establish, revise and maintain rates or charges for drainage of surface water and the disposal of sewage.

Any user charge, industrial waste surcharge or industrial cost recovery charge imposed by a sanitary district, together with all penalties, interest and costs imposed in connection therewith, shall be liens against the real estate which receives the service or benefit for which the charges are being imposed; provided, however, such liens shall not attach to such real estate until such charges or rates have become delinquent as provided by the ordinance of the sanitary district and provided further, that nothing in this Section shall be construed to give the sanitary district a preference over the rights of any purchaser, mortgagee, judgment creditor or other lien holder arising prior to the filing in the office of the recorder of the county in which real estate is located, or in the office of the Registrar of Titles of such county if the property affected is registered under "An Act concerning land titles", approved May 1, 1897, as amended, of notice of said lien, which notice shall consist of a sworn statement setting out (1) a description of the real estate sufficient for the identification thereof, upon or for which the service or the benefit was rendered, (2) the amount or the amounts of money due for such service or benefit, and (3) the date or dates when such amount or amounts became delinquent. The Sanitary District shall have the power to foreclose such lien in like manner and with like effect as in the foreclosure of mortgages on real estate.

The foregoing provisions for asserting liens against real estate by the sanitary district to secure payment of user charges, industrial waste surcharges or industrial cost recovery charges imposed by the sanitary district shall be in addition to and not in derogation of any other remedy or right of recovery, in law or equity, which the sanitary district may have, with respect to the collection or recovery of such charges imposed by such sanitary district. Judgment in a civil action brought by the sanitary district to recover or collect such charges shall not operate as a release and waiver of the lien upon the real estate for the amount of the judgment. Only satisfaction of the judgment or the filing of a release or satisfaction of lien shall release said lien. The lien for charges on account of services or benefits provided for in this Section and the rights created hereunder shall be in addition to and not in derogation of the lien upon real estate created by and imposed for general real estate taxes.

(Source: P.A. 83-358.)