Public Act 098-0652
 
HB3912 EnrolledLRB098 15469 JLK 50499 b

    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 7h and 9.6c as follows:
 
    (70 ILCS 2605/7h)
    Sec. 7h. Stormwater management.
    (a) Stormwater management in Cook County shall be under the
general supervision of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation
District of Greater Chicago. The District has the authority to
plan, manage, implement, and finance activities relating to
stormwater management in Cook County. The authority of the
District with respect to stormwater management extends
throughout Cook County and is not limited to the area otherwise
within the territory and jurisdiction of the District under
this Act.
    For the purposes of this Section, the term "stormwater
management" includes, without limitation, the management of
floods and floodwaters.
    (b) The District may utilize the resources of cooperating
local watershed councils (including the stormwater management
planning councils created under Section 5-1062.1 of the
Counties Code), councils of local governments, the
Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission, and similar
organizations and agencies. The District may provide those
organizations and agencies with funding, on a contractual
basis, for providing information to the District, providing
information to the public, or performing other activities
related to stormwater management.
    The District, in addition to other powers vested in it, may
negotiate and enter into agreements with any county for the
management of stormwater runoff in accordance with subsection
(c) of Section 5-1062 of the Counties Code.
    The District may enter into intergovernmental agreements
with Cook County or other units of local government that are
located in whole or in part outside the District for the
purpose of implementing the stormwater management plan and
providing stormwater management services in areas not included
within the territory of the District.
    (c) The District shall prepare and adopt by ordinance a
countywide stormwater management plan for Cook County. The
countywide plan may incorporate one or more separate watershed
plans.
    Prior to adopting the countywide stormwater management
plan, the District shall hold at least one public hearing
thereon and shall afford interested persons an opportunity to
be heard.
    (d) The District may prescribe by ordinance reasonable
rules and regulations for floodplain and stormwater management
and for governing the location, width, course, and release rate
of all stormwater runoff channels, streams, and basins in Cook
County, in accordance with the adopted stormwater management
plan. These rules and regulations shall, at a minimum, meet the
standards for floodplain management established by the Office
of Water Resources of the Department of Natural Resources and
the requirements of the Federal Emergency Management Agency for
participation in the National Flood Insurance Program.
    (e) The District may impose fees on areas outside the
District but within Cook County for performance of stormwater
management services, including but not limited to, maintenance
of streams and the development, design, planning,
construction, operation and maintenance of stormwater
facilities. The total amount of the fees collected from areas
outside of the District but within Cook County shall not exceed
the District's annual tax rate for stormwater management within
the District multiplied by the aggregate equalized assessed
valuation of areas outside of the District but within Cook
County. The District may require the unit of local government
in which the stormwater services are performed to collect the
fee and remit the collected fee to the District. The District
is authorized to pay a reasonable administrative fee to the
unit of local government for the collection of these fees. All
such fees collected by the District shall be held in a separate
fund and used for implementation of this Section.
    (f) Amounts realized from the tax levy for stormwater
management purposes authorized in Section 12 may be used by the
District for implementing this Section and for the development,
design, planning, construction, operation, and maintenance of
regional and local stormwater facilities provided for in the
stormwater management plan.
    The proceeds of any tax imposed under Section 12 for
stormwater management purposes and any revenues generated as a
result of the ownership or operation of facilities or land
acquired with the proceeds of taxes imposed under Section 12
for stormwater management purposes shall be held in a separate
fund and used either for implementing this Section or to abate
those taxes.
    (g) The District may plan, implement, finance, and operate
regional and local stormwater management projects in
accordance with the adopted countywide stormwater management
plan.
    The District shall provide for public review and comment on
proposed stormwater management projects. The District shall
conform to State and federal requirements concerning public
information, environmental assessments, and environmental
impacts for projects receiving State or federal funds.
    The District may issue bonds under Section 9.6a of this Act
for the purpose of funding stormwater management projects.
    The District shall not use Cook County Forest Preserve
District land for stormwater or flood control projects without
the consent of the Forest Preserve District.
    The District may acquire, by purchase from a willing seller
in a voluntary transaction, real property in furtherance of its
regional and local stormwater management activities. Nothing
in this Section shall affect the District's powers of
condemnation or eminent domain as otherwise set forth in this
Act.
    (h) Upon the creation and implementation of a county
stormwater management plan, the District may petition the
circuit court to dissolve any or all drainage districts created
pursuant to the Illinois Drainage Code or predecessor Acts that
are located entirely within the District.
    However, any active drainage district implementing a plan
that is consistent with and at least as stringent as the county
stormwater management plan may petition the District for
exception from dissolution. Upon filing of the petition, the
District shall set a date for hearing not less than 2 weeks,
nor more than 4 weeks, from the filing thereof, and the
District shall give at least one week's notice of the hearing
in one or more newspapers of general circulation within the
drainage district, and in addition shall cause a copy of the
notice to be personally served upon each of the trustees of the
drainage district. At the hearing, the District shall hear the
drainage district's petition and allow the drainage district
trustees and any interested parties an opportunity to present
oral and written evidence. The District shall render its
decision upon the petition for exception from dissolution based
upon the best interests of the residents of the drainage
district. In the event that the exception is not allowed, the
drainage district may file a petition with the circuit court
within 30 days of the decision. In that case, the notice and
hearing requirements for the court shall be the same as
provided in this subsection for the petition to the District.
The court shall render its decision of whether to dissolve the
district based upon the best interests of the residents of the
drainage district.
    The dissolution of a drainage district shall not affect the
obligation of any bonds issued or contracts entered into by the
drainage district nor invalidate the levy, extension, or
collection of any taxes or special assessments upon the
property in the former drainage district. All property and
obligations of the former drainage district shall be assumed
and managed by the District, and the debts of the former
drainage district shall be discharged as soon as practicable.
    If a drainage district lies only partly within the
District, the District may petition the circuit court to
disconnect from the drainage district that portion of the
drainage district that lies within the District. The property
of the drainage district within the disconnected area shall be
assumed and managed by the District. The District shall also
assume a portion of the drainage district's debt at the time of
disconnection, based on the portion of the value of the taxable
property of the drainage district which is located within the
area being disconnected.
    A drainage district that continues to exist within Cook
County shall conform its operations to the countywide
stormwater management plan.
    (i) The District may assume responsibility for maintaining
any stream within Cook County.
    (j) The District may, after 10 days written notice to the
owner or occupant, enter upon any lands or waters within the
county for the purpose of inspecting stormwater facilities or
causing the removal of any obstruction to an affected
watercourse. The District shall be responsible for any damages
occasioned thereby.
    (k) The District shall report to the public annually on its
activities and expenditures under this Section and the adopted
countywide stormwater management plan.
    (l) The powers granted to the District under this Section
are in addition to the other powers granted under this Act.
This Section does not limit the powers of the District under
any other provision of this Act or any other law.
    (m) This Section does not affect the power or duty of any
unit of local government to take actions relating to flooding
or stormwater, so long as those actions conform with this
Section and the plans, rules, and ordinances adopted by the
District under this Section.
    A home rule unit located in whole or in part in Cook County
(other than a municipality with a population over 1,000,000)
may not regulate stormwater management or planning in Cook
County in a manner inconsistent with this Section or the plans,
rules, and ordinances adopted by the District under this
Section; provided, within a municipality with a population over
1,000,000, the stormwater management planning program of Cook
County shall be conducted by that municipality or, to the
extent provided in an intergovernmental agreement between the
municipality and the District, by the District pursuant to this
Section; provided further that the power granted to such
municipality shall not be inconsistent with existing powers of
the District. Pursuant to paragraph (i) of Section 6 of Article
VII of the Illinois Constitution, this Section specifically
denies and limits the exercise of any power that is
inconsistent with this Section by a home rule unit that is a
county with a population of 1,500,000 or more or is located, in
whole or in part, within such a county, other than a
municipality with a population over 1,000,000.
(Source: P.A. 95-669, eff. 10-10-07.)
 
    (70 ILCS 2605/9.6c)
    Sec. 9.6c. Local Government Assistance Program; bonds.
    (a) The General Assembly finds that governmental units
located within the boundaries of the district require
assistance in financing the cost of repair, replacement,
reconstruction, and rehabilitation of local sewer collection
systems to reduce certain excessive sanitary sewer groundwater
inflows; that such inflows ultimately result in increased need
for treatment and storage facilities of the district; and that
the district, in the discretion of its commissioners,
advantageously may provide loan funds for such purposes.
    (b) For purposes of this Section, the following terms shall
have the meanings set forth, as follows:
        The following terms shall have the meanings given to
    them in the Local Government Debt Reform Act: (A)
    "alternate bonds"; (B) "applicable law"; (C) "bonds"; (D)
    "general obligation bonds"; (E) "governmental unit"; (F)
    "ordinance"; and (G) "revenue source".
        "Assistance bonds" means the bonds to be issued by the
    district to provide funds for the program as authorized in
    subsection (f) of this Section.
        "Assistance program" means the program authorized in
    this Section by which the district may make loans to local
    governmental units for any one or more of the following
    undertaken with respect to the repair, replacement,
    reconstruction, and rehabilitation of local sewer
    collection systems: preliminary planning, engineering,
    architectural, legal, fiscal or economic investigations or
    studies, surveys, designs, plans, working drawings,
    specifications, procedures or other necessary actions,
    erection, building acquisition, alteration, remodeling, or
    improvement of such collection systems, or the inspection
    or supervision of any of the foregoing.
        "Loan" means a loan made by the district to a local
    governmental unit under the assistance program.
        "Local governmental unit" means a governmental unit
    within the boundaries of the district.
        "Reconstruction" shall include the construction of
    totally new lines or systems if reasonably designed to
    replace obsolete lines or systems.
    (c) The commissioners may establish an assistance program.
    (d) The commissioners are authorized to do any one or more
of the following with respect to the assistance program:
        (1) Establish the assistance program as a use or
    appropriation within the corporate fund of the district.
        (2) Accept grants, borrow funds, and appropriate
    lawfully available funds for the purpose of funding the
    assistance program.
        (3) Make the loans as provided in subsection (e).
        (4) Enforce loans with all available remedies as any
    governmental unit or private person might have with respect
    to such loans.
    (e) The district shall have the power to make loans and
local governmental units shall have the power to obtain loans
from the district, but only if authorized to borrow under such
powers as may be granted to such local governmental units under
other applicable law. This Section does not grant local
governmental units separate borrowing power. If authorized to
issue bonds under such applicable law, however, the form of the
borrowing may be such as the district and the local
governmental unit may agree, including, without limitation, a
loan agreement made between the district and local governmental
unit to evidence the bond. Any such loan agreement shall state
the statutory authority under applicable law for the bond it
represents but otherwise need not be in any specific form. The
district shall have all rights and remedies available to the
holder of a bond otherwise issued in the form provided for same
under applicable law and also such rights and remedies as may
be additionally available under subsection (d)(4) of this
Section. The loans may be made upon such terms and at such
rates, including expressly below market rates, representing a
subsidy of funds from the district to the local governmental
units, as the district may specify in the loan agreements.
    (f) The district may borrow money and issue its assistance
bonds under this Section 9.6c for the purpose of funding the
assistance program, which bonds shall be alternate revenue
bonds payable from any lawfully available revenue source,
including without limitation receipts from the loans.
Assistance bonds shall not be subject to any referendum
requirement and shall not be treated as indebtedness under any
applicable provision of law setting forth a limitation upon or
requirement with respect to the legal indebtedness of the
district.
(Source: P.A. 90-690, eff. 7-31-98.)
 
    Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon
becoming law.