96 ILLINOIS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 



SANITARY DISTRICTS IN ILLINOIS 



G. C. Habermeyer and Edward Bartow, 

 State Water Survey, Urbana 



When Illinois was first settled each individual or fam- 

 ily made provision to secure its own water supply and to 

 dispose of its own wastes. As villages and cities grew 

 in size the difficulty of securing water and disposing of 

 wastes increased. 



By natural development municipalities installed pub- 

 lic water supplies and cared for the removal of wastes. 

 With water from a public supply available the most con- 

 venient method of disposing of much of the waste was by 

 water carriage through sewers. That method of disposal 

 is now in general use in all of the larger cities. Many 

 of the earlier settlements w^ere on the banks of the larger 

 streams or on the shores of lakes and the natural point of 

 discharge for sewage or liquid wastes was in the streams 

 or lakes. Later, with the development of railroads, many 

 cities sprang up in localities where there were no large 

 water courses. Sewage from such communities was car- 

 ried to a small stream or, in many instances, to a ditch 

 which was dry for a considerable portion of the year. 



Sewage has been discharged into streams until they 

 are polluted, the degree of pollution depending upon the 

 amount of sewage and the flow of water in the stream. In 

 many places pollution has become serious and the water 

 cannot be satisfactorily used for drinking, fish life has 

 disappeared, the stream cannot be used for pleasure pur- 

 poses, and noxious odors have caused many complaints. 



Cities have grown and it has become necessary to dis- 

 pose of sewage by means other than discharge into a 

 ditch or small stream close to the city. With increase 

 in the number and size of cities the distances between 

 them have decreased and the need of better disposal of 

 sewage has increased. In order to allow better means 

 of disposal laws have been enacted by the State Legisla- 

 ture providing for the creation of sanitary districts and 

 for the disposal of sewage from territorities included in 

 the districts. In accordance w^ith the provisions of these 



