[Enclosure]
Notice Issued by the Secretary of War (Weeks) of a Hearing To Be
Held on February 20, 1925
The Secretary of War will hold a hearing in his office at eleven
A.M., February 20, 1925, on an application made by the Sanitary
District of Chicago on January 31, 1925, for a permit to divert an
annual average of 10,000 cubic feet per second of water from Lake
Michigan.
He now has under consideration the question of issuing a permit,
covering a period of five years, to the Sanitary District, to divert
[Page 559] from Lake Michigan,
through its main drainage canal and auxiliary channels, an amount of
water not to exceed an annual average of 8,500 cubic feet per
second, with an instantaneous maximum not to exceed 11,000 cubic
feet per second—the permit to be made conditional upon the
following:
- (1)
- The Sanitary District of Chicago shall submit for approval
and carry out a program of sewage treatment by artificial
processes which will provide the equivalent of the complete
(100%) treatment of the sewage of a human population of
1,200,000 before the expiration of the permit, proper credit
to be given for all completed portions of projects which are
a part of its sewage treatment program.
- (2)
- The Sanitary District shall pay its share of the cost of
such regulating or compensating works to restore the levels
or compensate for the lowering of the Great Lakes, if and
when constructed, and post a guarantee in the way of a bond
or certified check in the amount of $1,000,000 as an
evidence of its good faith in this matter.
- (3)
- The execution of the sewage treatment program and the
diversion of water from Lake Michigan shall be under the
supervision of the U. S. District Engineer at Chicago, and
the diversion of water from Lake Michigan shall be under his
direct control in times of flood on the Illinois and Des
Plaines Rivers.
- (4)
- If, within six months after the issuance of this permit,
the City of Chicago does not adopt a program for metering at
least ninety percent of its water service and provide for
the execution of said program at the average rate of ten
percent per annum thereafter, this permit may be revoked
without notice.
The Secretary desires that the discussion at the hearing be limited
strictly to the matter contained in the application for the permit,
that is, the amount of water to be granted to Chicago and the
conditions upon which the issuance of a permit should be
contingent.
As the time which can be given each side for the hearing is limited,
it is desired that the number of speakers be limited to as few as
practicable, and it is hoped that the proponents and opponents of
the application will select their speakers with this object in
view.
