State Response Action

The main objective of the State Response Action Program is to clean up hazardous substances at sites that present an imminent and substantial threat to human health and the environment, but which may not be addressed by other federal or state cleanup programs. The Program provides financial and administrative resources for timely and effective responses to releases or threatened releases. Provisions for cost recovery of state-incurred expenditures and for punitive damages compel responsible party participation in cleanups and to conserve state funds. The sites handled by the State Response Action Program include abandoned landfills, old manufacturing plants, former waste oil recycling operations, contaminated agrichemical facilities and other areas where surface water, groundwater, soil and air may be contaminated with hazardous substances.

In 1984, the General Assembly appropriated $20 million from the General Revenue Fund to create the Clean Illinois Program. The program was later renamed the State Response Action Program and was funded primarily from cost recovery from past response actions and from the Hazardous Waste Fund. In 1999, the State Response Action Program developed the 33 Abandoned Landfill program which was to receive $10 million per year, from 2001 to 2005. To date, the State Response Action Program implemented final response actions at 19 of the 33 abandoned landfills funded by the State of Illinois and cleaning up approximately 800 acres.

The State Response Action Program has also implemented the Abandoned Schools Program which has been dealing with asbestos in abandoned schools. To date, the State Response Action Program has conducted response actions at 6 schools.

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Illinois Environmental Protection Agency
State Sites Unit
1021 North Grand Avenue East
Springfield, Illinois 62794-9276