ORDER
WHEREAS, public safety and general welfare in the City of Chicago are served by ensuring that safe water-based leisure activities are available to residents and children; and
WHEREAS, the heat waves during the summer in Chicago create a strong demand for outdoor water recreational activities; and
WHEREAS, public amenities that provide water-based recreational activities enhance the quality of life in communities by providing a safe environment to seek relief from the heat; and
WHEREAS, water-based recreation facilities, including splash pads, spray pools and water playgrounds, provide a haven to the public to cool themselves coupled with recreation without the hazards of free standing water and the associated risks of drowning; and
WHEREAS, in neighborhoods that do not have water-based recreational facilities readily available, the residents, in order to escape the excess heat, often resort to opening fire hydrants to cool themselves; and
WHEREAS, open fire hydrants spray water onto residential streets which entice children to play in a hazardous and unsafe environment; and
WHEREAS, the unauthorized opening results in a myriad of problems for the City from the depletion of the local municipal water supply endangering the availability and source of pressurized water for use by the Chicago Fire Department, hospitals, senior homes, schools and other vital facilities, to traffic hazards and street flooding; and
WHEREAS, the Department of Water Management has reported that open fire hydrants account for a waste of water resources at the rate of 564 gallons per minute, nearly 34,000 gallons per hour; and
WHEREAS, 18,095 fire hydrants were illegally opened in 2010, costing hundreds of thousands of tax dollars in manpower to close the hydrants and loss of water revenue; and
WHEREAS, the following wards had the five highest number of illegally opened hydrants: the 26th Ward had 1591; the 22nd Ward had 1550; the 12th Ward had 1399; the 25th Ward had 1270; and the 14th W...
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