Brownfields

The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (Illinois EPA) treats as brownfields the industrial and commercial properties that sit abandoned or underused, carry real or suspected contamination, and could be redeveloped. Its Remedial Project Management Section runs the agency's brownfields loan programs, and its Brownfields Representatives work with communities: explaining cleanup options, program rules and liability status, helping find public and private money, and guiding loan recipients through cleanup and redevelopment.

In a Phase I ESA

Illinois EPA's brownfield sites are the Illinois form of the state brownfields records that ASTM E1527-21 lists as a standard source. The general reading of a brownfields listing is on the Brownfields page. Illinois EPA's Brownfields page does not say what puts a site on its Brownfield Sites Map. Its brownfields work takes three forms.

• Assessments at no charge to the community. The agency's Office of Site Evaluation carries out Targeted Brownfield Assessments at the request of communities, at no charge to them, under a cooperative agreement with U.S. EPA. Its page says such an assessment reviews the site's historic land use and samples soil and groundwater to find the level and likely extent of contamination, and that the results go into a report for the community. The Brownfields page says the agency has done over 140 of them since the program began. Where a property had one, ask for the report: it can hold both a land use history and sampling data.
• Loans for cleanup. The Illinois Brownfields Redevelopment Loan Program lends at low interest to local governments and private parties cleaning up brownfields that have already been assessed. The loans cover limited investigation, remediation and demolition costs.
• The cleanup itself is usually in the SRP. The Brownfields page says these cleanups typically run under the voluntary Site Remediation Program (SRP), and the Office of Site Evaluation's page says local governments typically enroll an assessed site there. The SRP record, and any No Further Remediation (NFR) letter, show how the site ended.

The Brownfields page lists Title 35 Parts 731 and 734 (underground storage tanks) and Part 740 (the Site Remediation Program) among the program's regulations.

Where to look a site up

• Illinois EPA's Brownfield Sites Map. The Brownfields page explains how to export from it a list of brownfields sites: open the map layers, find the Brownfields Sites layer, and export it to a CSV file. This handbook did not open the map.
• The Brownfields page links a page it labels Targeted Brownfield Assessments, which this handbook did not open.
• Illinois EPA's address on the Brownfields page is 2520 W Iles Ave, P.O. Box 19276, Springfield, IL 62794-9276; the Bureau of Land's switchboard is (217) 524-3300.

Getting the file

Illinois EPA takes requests under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act through its online FOIA Request Web Form, which needs an account, or by fax, U.S. mail or special carrier. Give the site name, address and any Agency or Bureau ID number. Fees, reply times and the options for large files are on the FOIA requests page.

Sources

Illinois Environmental Protection Agency pages, read October 13, 2026:

• Brownfields, last modified July 28, 2026.
• Office of Site Evaluation, last modified January 19, 2023.
• Bureau of Land Contacts, last modified September 29, 2025.
• Freedom of Information Act, last modified May 2, 2024.