City of Springfield v. North Fork Outlet Drainage District

249 Ill. App. 133, 1928 Ill. App. LEXIS 37
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedJanuary 25, 1928
DocketGen. No. 8,127
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 249 Ill. App. 133 (City of Springfield v. North Fork Outlet Drainage District) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
City of Springfield v. North Fork Outlet Drainage District, 249 Ill. App. 133, 1928 Ill. App. LEXIS 37 (Ill. Ct. App. 1928).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Eldredge

delivered the opinion of the court.

This is an appeal from an order entered in the circuit court of Sangamon county granting an interlocutory or temporary injunction pendente lite, restraining appellant from further proceeding in the work of straightening the course of the North Fork of the Sangamon Biver. The averments in the original bill, in so far as they are material to be considered on this appeal, are in substance as follows: that the complainant, City of Springfield, has a population of about 70,000 inhabitants, embraces an area of 11 square miles and is situated about 2 miles south of the Sangamon Biver, which flows in a general westerly direction; that it owns and operates a system of municipal waterworks which includes pumping and filtration plants located on the south bank of said river; that for more than 40 years said city, as an adjunct to its waterworks system, has maintained a dam therein so as to impound the water in the channel thereof and maintain the water level above the natural summer stage thereof at a height of 10 feet at the site of said waterworks and at a height of 6 feet at the bridge over the same on highway No. 10, near the village of Biverton; that by means of said waterworks system the water supply of said city is obtained by filtration from said river and the underlying strata in the basin thereof.

That complainant, the Springfield Sanitary District, embraces within its boundaries 36 square miles of territory, including all of that within said City of Springfield, and was organized for the purpose of constructing and maintaining a system of intercepting sewers and treatment plant to collect, purify and dispose of the sewage of said district and to save and preserve from contamination the water supply thereof with regulatory powers to that end for a distance of 15 miles from the source of such water supply; that said district is now engaged in and within six months will have constructed a system of intercepting sewers and other public works for the purpose of disposing of the sewage of said city and territory so as to prevent contamination of said river into which all the streams in the vicinity of said City and said Sanitary District naturally discharge and to prevent any sewage from said Sanitary District from entering the water of said river above said dam.

That the Sanitary District of Decatur, defendant, includes within its territory the corporate limits of the city of Decatur, which has a population of about 55,000 inhabitants, and also outlying farm lands adjacent thereto in the town of Decatur; that the city of Decatur is situated about 40 miles east of the City of Springfield near to and upon said Sangamon Diver, which flows thence in a general westerly direction towards and north of the City of Springfield; that the Sanitary District of Decatur was organized for the purpose of constructing and maintaining plants for the purification of the sewage of said district and protect from contamination the water supply of the inhabitants thereof; that although said Sanitary District of Decatur has constructed a system of intercepting sewers and other works for the collection, treatment and disposal of the sewage of said district, yet said system and works are greatly inadequate to properly treat and purify said sewage; that the sewage of said city and Sanitary District of Decatur, including much offensive industrial waste, is now being carried and discharged, in its unpurified state, into the Sangamon River to such an extent that the stench therefrom in summer can be smelled for a distance of more than a mile from the point of discharge.

That the course of said Sangamon River between the cities of Decatur and Springfield is very winding and tortuous, 'with a channel of irregular width and depth, having a total length following the sinuosities of the channel between said Riverton bridge and the west line of the Sanitary District of Decatur, of about 50 miles, said channel, in many places, being more than 10 feet deeper than further down stream, and having therein many pools and natural dams as well as drifts of logs and other obstructions tending to retard and accumulate the waters and make the flowage thereof more nearly uniform throughout the seasons of the year, so that the flow of the waters is very much retarded, thereby affording such time and opportunity for dilution, settling, oxidation, evaporation and other natural purification of the sewage and other impurities contained therein before the waters of said stream reach the impounding dam and waterworks system of the City of Springfield, as to not injuriously affect its water supply.

That the defendant, North Fork Outlet Drainage District, as originally organized, included the alluvial lands along the Sangamon River extending from the Avest boundary line of the Sanitary District of Decatur westerly for a distance of about 24 miles to a point one mile below the Roby bridge and by subsequent proceedings the western boundary was extended doAvn said river a further distance of about 11 miles to said bridge over said highway No. 10 near Riverton, which point is approximately 5 miles by channel from said waterworks of the City of Springfield; that said Outlet Drainage District has completed the construction of a ditch extending from a point in said river known as the Niantic bridge westerly to a point about one mile below said Eoby bridge and that by means thereof the course of the water in said river between said points was reduced from 22.2 miles to a distance of 15.80 miles and the fall greatly increased to a uniform fall of 2 feet to the mile and the water in said stream, including all sewage and impurities therein, was thereby caused to flow at a greatly increased rate down a well-defined and straightened channel at a speed of from 6 to 8 miles per hour; that said Outlet Drainage District is now engaged iii constructing a further ditch to connect with and to extend the aforesaid ditch upstream from the said Niantic bridge to the western boundary of said Sanitary District of Decatur and to the point of the outlet of the Sanitary District of Decatur into the Sangamon Eiver, which said channel, when completed, will shorten the course of the waters of said river from 10 miles to 8.55 miles between said points; that said channel will have a bottom width of 40 feet, a uniform grade of 2 feet to the mile and will accelerate the speed of the current, including the sewage and impurities therein, to a speed of from 6 to 8 miles per hour and thereby prevent the purification of said sewage by oxidation, etc., and will cause said sewage and impurities to enter into and pollute the impounding dam and waterworks of the City of Springfield ; that said Outlet Drainage District has made and filed plans for and is now further intending to construct a new channel along said Sangamon Eiver from a point near the Eoby bridge thence downstream to said Eiverton bridge of a bottom width of 60 feet, an average depth of between 11 and 12 feet, and a uniform grade of 2 feet to the mile and shorten the distance between said points from 16.1 to 10.95 miles and has ordered an assessment to be spread against the adjacent lands supposed to be benefited thereby; that if such last-mentioned ditch should be so constructed and the course of the waters of said river between the two points last named so reduced and shortened and the flow thereof so increased and accelerated, the sewage and impurities contained in such stream will be carried with greatly increased velocity and with little or no natural purification to said impounding dam and waterworks system of the City of Springfield.

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249 Ill. App. 133, 1928 Ill. App. LEXIS 37, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/city-of-springfield-v-north-fork-outlet-drainage-district-illappct-1928.