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Leaking Underground Storage Tanks

Leaking underground storage tanks (USTs) are a significant source of environmental contamination and may pose the following threats to human health and safety: fire and explosion; inhalation of dangerous vapors; contamination of soil and groundwater; contamination of drinking water; and contamination of streams, rivers, and lakes. These threats are minimized when responsible parties respond quickly and efficiently after a tank release. For more information, see An Introduction to Leaking Underground Storage Tanks.

The Leaking UST Section oversees the remedial activities after a release from an UST has been reported to the Illinois Emergency Management Agency. Leaking UST Section staff review the technical adequacy of plans, reports, and budgets. This includes the development and evaluation of the appropriate remediation objectives for each site. Once the site has met its remediation objectives and program requirements, the Illinois EPA issues a No Further Remediation Letter for the leaking UST incident. The manager of the Leaking UST Section is Mohammed Rahman.

UST Fund

Purpose: Helps tank owners and operators pay for cleaning up leaks from petroleum USTs under the LUST program.
Who is eligible? UST owners and operators who have reported a petroleum release and have registered their tanks with the Office of the Illinois State Fire Marshal (OSFM).
How can funds be used? The UST Fund will pay for site investigation, site cleanup, laboratory services, and engineering oversight. However, it will not pay for planned tank removal, legal fees, tank upgrade costs, or work performed prior to reporting the petroleum release.
How much money is available? $1,500,000 maximum per occurrence, minus a deductible determined by the OSFM. Deductibles range from $5,000 to $100,000, depending on when the tanks were registered and when the release was reported.
Other terms and conditions: Must be deemed eligible by the OSFM.

Updates

  • The Office of the Illinois State Fire Marshal (OSFM) updated their Underground Storage Tank rules at 41 Illinois Administrative Code (IAC) Part 175 to require the replacement of any existing single-wall piping with double-wall piping during any tank installation or replacement completed on or after May 2, 2023. Illinois EPA is beginning to see a number of releases reported from the piping upgrades due to the OSFM rule changes. Illinois EPA reminds tank owners, operators, and environmental consultants of the regulations at 35 IAC Part 734.210(h) requiring the investigation of the entire underground storage tank system, not just the area where piping was removed/replaced. If you have any questions, please reach out to the Leaking UST project manager on-call at 217-524-3300.
  • July 1, 2023 New Subpart H Maximum payment amounts posted for July 1, 2023 through June 30, 2024.
  • December 5, 2022: The City of Chicago Polynuclear Aromatic Hydrocarbon concentrations in Background Soil memo is posted on the TACO page. 

  • July 15, 2022:  The Leaking UST Section has revised the Pre-1974 UST Notification/Election Form. The revised Form is posted on the LUST Technical Forms page and is ready for use. The revised form incorporates the option for the owner/operator to conduct remediation activiteis under the LUST Program to receive a No Further Remediation (NFR) Letter or to opt-out of the Program in accordance with 35 Illinois Administrative Code (Ill. Adm. Code) Section 734.100(c). 

  • May 25, 2022:  Effective immediately, Illinois EPA will permit the use of a first order degradation constant (λ) of 9.63E-04 d-1 for Methyl Tertiary Butyl Ether (MTBE) as a Tier 3 parameter modification, pursuant to 35 Illinois Administrative Code 742.905. Part 742 does not currently list an MTBE degradation constant, requiring the parameter to be set to zero (“0”). The Illinois EPA Office of Toxicity Assessment (OTA) reviewed and approved this degradation constant for use when conducting groundwater fate and transport modeling using equations R15 and R26 in Part 742, Appendix C, Table C. This degradation constant will be included as a proposed update to 35 Illinois Administrative Code 742, Tiered Approach to Corrective Action Objectives (TACO).

  • Effective May 1, 2022, the Illinois EPA Leaking UST Section is reinstituting the notarized submittal of all forms that have the notary requirement provision. The Leaking UST Section relaxed the notarized requirement during the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. However, in regard to COVID-19, as Illinois has introduced a Bridge Phase to the Restore Illinois Plan, the Leaking UST Section is reinstituting the critical requirement of notarized submittal of forms.  

  • Effective April 5, 2022, a site subject to State or federal Underground Storage Tank laws is not authorized to transfer to the Site Remediation Program (SRP), in compliance with Section 58.1(a)(2)(iii) of the Illinois Environmental Protection Act and 35 Ill. Adm. Code Section 740.105(a)(3). 

  • Illinois EPA has published a new Technical Bulletin addressing Soil Saturation Limit (Csat) on the Tiered Approach to Corrective Action (TACO) Page. This document explains Csat, how to address exceedances, and how to adequately  demonstrate Csat in the saturated zone. 

  • The Bureau of Land has created a new avenue for disseminating information about changes in the Leaking UST Program. To be included when program changes warrant notification, please fill out and submit the Leaking UST Program Contact Information Form.

  • Illinois EPA is actively processing payment of claims for work completed under the Illinois Leaking Underground Storage Tank Program. Currently, Illinois EPA is not able to update the Payment Priority List. However, to view the status of your claim, please visit the Office of the Comptroller at https://illinoiscomptroller.gov/vendors/ and follow the directions on the screen. Please note, you will need the Vendor TIN (FEIN or Social Security Number) and name of the Vendor to complete the request. If you have additional questions, after reviewing the status on the Comptroller’s website, please feel free to contact our fiscal office at 217-782-3250.

  • In accordance with 35 Ill. Adm. Code 734.605(b), a complete application for payment must include an affidavit signed by each subcontractor that performed an activity for which costs are sought for payment from the UST Fund. The completed affidavit must be signed by an authorized agent of the subcontractor, subscribed and sworn before a notary public. The affidavit is included in the application for payment forms.

  • In accordance with 35 Ill. Adm. Code 734.605(b), a complete application for payment must include a quarterly report of workforce participation.

  • July 1, 2021 New Subpart H Maximum Payment amounts posted for July 1, 2021 through June 30, 2022.

  • Illinois EPA has developed a checklist (and an accompanying flowchart) that may be used to exclude the indoor inhalation exposure route in accordance with 35 Illinois Administrative Code (Ill. Adm. Code) Section 742.312. This checklist shall be applied during the development of site investigation completion report (SICR) and corrective action plan (CAP), if applicable, and may be reapplied after completion of a corrective action plan proposing active remediation.

  • Pursuant to 35 Illinois Administrative Code (35 Ill. Adm. Code) Section 734.135(a), Illinois EPA is requiring the submittal in electronic format of all Leaking Underground Storage Tank (LUST) plans, budgets and reports in addition to hard copies. Once the site is assigned to a Project Manager (PM), the PM will reach out to request electronic copies.

Illinois Environmental Protection Agency
Leaking Underground Storage Tank Section
1021 North Grand Avenue East
P.O. Box 19276
Springfield, Illinois 62794-9276
Phone: 217-524-3300
Fax # 217-782-9308