Illinois

Emergency Response

Agency Illinois Environmental Protection Agency

The Office of Emergency Response of the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (Illinois EPA) works to protect people during emergencies in which oil, hazardous materials or other contaminants are released, and to stabilize, limit or undo the harm to the state's land, air and water. Its State On Scene Coordinators coordinate Illinois EPA's part in responses to oil and hazardous material emergencies and see that any contamination is cleaned up. Illinois EPA's page names the Illinois Emergency Management Agency (IEMA), with its Office of Homeland Security, as the first contact for an emergency or disaster in Illinois.

In a Phase I ESA

ASTM E1527-21 does not name state spill lists among its standard record sources. The federal counterpart of a state spill list is the emergency response record described on the ERNS page. An Illinois spill report still matters, because it can be the only state record of a release that never became a cleanup case.

Where a release is reported. Illinois EPA's Emergency Response page sends hazardous material release reports to IEMA's Office of Homeland Security at (217) 782-7860 and to the National Response Center at (800) 424-8802. Its Bureau of Land Contacts page gives (217) 782-7860 or (800) 782-7860 for emergencies.
Tank releases go the same way. Illinois EPA's introduction to leaking tanks, last updated April 2022, says a tank owner or operator must call IEMA at once when a release puts a sheen on nearby surface water and within 24 hours for any other release. IEMA then tells Illinois EPA, and the LUST Program case follows; the leaking tank database's layout has an IEMA Number column and an IEMA Date field.
Complaints are a separate route. Illinois EPA takes pollution complaints through an online form, and names open dumping of garbage or construction debris, odors from industrial or farm operations, and illegal discharges to streams among the subjects it receives. A complaint about a property can lead to an inspection; see Compliance and Enforcement.

The pages read link no list of reported releases and do not say whether IEMA or Illinois EPA keeps one. The Emergency Response page links an Emergency Release Notification Fact Sheet on IEMA's site, which this handbook did not open.

Where to look a site up

The pages read give no search of release reports.
For a tank release that became a LUST incident, see the Leaking Underground Storage Tanks database, whose list has an IEMA Number column.
Pollution complaints go through Illinois EPA's Submit a Citizen Complaint page.

Getting the file

The pages read do not say where release reports are kept or how to ask for them. Illinois EPA's own records are requested 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; see the FOIA requests page. This handbook does not read IEMA's pages.

Sources

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

Emergency Response, last modified April 2, 2026.
Bureau of Land Contacts, last modified September 29, 2025.
An Introduction to Leaking Underground Storage Tanks, last updated April 2022 in its text and last modified December 31, 2025.
Leaking UST, last modified April 29, 2026.
Compliance & Enforcement, last modified September 18, 2024.
Freedom of Information Act, last modified May 2, 2024.