Bill Text: IL SR0451 | 2019-2020 | 101st General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Urges all four caucuses and the Governor to consider the Kaskaskia Watershed Comprehensive Plan when creating the upcoming fiscal year budget.

Sponsorship: Partisan Bill (Republican 1)

Status: (Passed) 2019-11-14 - Resolution Adopted [SR0451 Detail]

Download: Illinois-2019-SR0451-Introduced.html

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SR0451 LRB101 12640 ALS 61139 r
SENATE RESOLUTION
WHEREAS, Kaskaskia Watershed encompasses 10.2 percent of
the State and includes all or parts of 22 counties; and
WHEREAS, Kaskaskia Watershed starts in Champaign County
and ends at the Mississippi River in Randolph County; and
WHEREAS, Kaskaskia Watershed includes 13 House Districts
and eight Senate Districts of the Illinois General Assembly;
and
WHEREAS, Kaskaskia Watershed has three authorized Corps
projects, Lake Shelbyville, Carlyle Lake, and the Kaskaskia
Navigation Project; and
WHEREAS, The Corps projects generate 7.4 million visitors
and over $167.2 million in visitor spending; and
WHEREAS, An estimated 557,837 people are served by public
water from the Corps project in the watershed; and
WHEREAS, The Kaskaskia River provides water for cooling
purposes to three power plants, one being in the top five power
producing-plants in the world; and

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WHEREAS, The Kaskaskia River is degrading by a headcut that
travels at a rate of one mile per year; and
WHEREAS, Damages induced by headcutting result in
increased dredging, loss of private property, and significant
ecosystem degradation to the riverine environment; the largest
contiguous stand of bottomland hardwood forest in the State of
Illinois is also affected; and
WHEREAS, The United States Congress established the
Kaskaskia Watershed Restoration Act in 2007 and authorized
$20,000,000 for critical projects after a Comprehensive Plan is
developed; and
WHEREAS, In 2014, the Army Corps of Engineers funded the
Watershed Comprehensive Plan with $1.5 million in federal funds
with a requirement of a 50 percent match of non-federal funds;
and
WHEREAS, The Comprehensive Plan is stalled due to the lack
of financial support from the State of Illinois; the remaining
$300,000 in non-federal funds is needed to complete the plan
and to leverage $20,000,000 in federal funds; and
WHEREAS, Time is of the essence in that the federal funds
will be reprogrammed to other states; failure to move forward

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will eliminate the Kaskaskia Watershed from consideration in
the future; therefore, be it
RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE ONE HUNDRED FIRST GENERAL
ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we urge all four
caucuses and the Governor to consider the Kaskaskia Watershed
Comprehensive Plan when creating the upcoming fiscal year
budget.