Land and Water Law and Environmental Regulations (continued)

In addition to common law, Illinois has several acts that affect stream pollution and the contamination of water supply. Under the “nuisance” provision, it is unlawful to “corrupt or render unwholesome or injure the water of any stream or lake to the injury of others” (Sherman 1911). To address the pollution that is occurring in the early 1900s, laws are passed to allow the formation of sanitary districts.

In 1911, the state legislature creates the Illinois Rivers and Lakes Commission with the following duties:

1. Protect public waters and state submerged lands from encroachment;
2. Investigate and develop plans for flood control and to assist in drainage work;
3. Prevent the unlawful pollution of streams (Sherman 1911).

Changes that take place in the early 1900s attempt to address water pollution to protect human health. Impacts to fish, aquatic plants, mussels, and non-human impacts are not addressed by the state or federal government.

The issue of public versus private property along the Illinois River also evolves from the late 1800s to the early 1900s. During most of the 1800s, residents view the floodplain as public property. However, in the late 1880s, with increased interest in hunting and fishing as recreational activities for urban residents, and changes to laws to encourage drainage, landowners become interested in restricting access to their properties. Consequently, there is the establishment of private hunting and fishing clubs or drainage and levee districts (Schneider 2000).

This privatization of the floodplain threatens the livelihood of commercial fishermen, who protest the fencing of the riverfront lands by hunt clubs and work to block the formation of levee districts. Independent fishermen unite to fight. They form the “Fishermen’s Union” to provide money for fishermen arrested for trespassing and for legal challenges to the levee districts. On March 19, 1909, the Mason County Democrat newspaper summarizes the attitudes with the following:

[A] state of armed siege exi[s]ts in some sections, with blood shed almost sure to ensue at once unless quick and drastic action is taken by the state authorities. Feeling runs high all along the river for a hundred miles and more. Power boats are bristling arsenals hidden in caves, lagoons, sloughs, and bayous. Skulking forms creep over the embankment to watch the movement of armed guards, employed by private hunting and fishing clubs and the land exploiting companies. On these men’s faces is the grim determination to protect their public fishing grounds against the encroachments of Indiana and Cincinnati millionaires and do it with powder and ball if it becomes necessary (Schneider 2000).

Despite the strong opposition, almost 200,000 acres of floodplain are drained in the first two decades of the 20th century.