Federal Sites

The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (Illinois EPA) takes part in the federal Superfund program (CERCLA) in Illinois through the Federal Site Remediation Section of its Bureau of Land. The section oversees the cleanup of NPL sites and other sites subject to CERCLA in the state, which the agency says run from five acres to more than 40,000. They include federal facilities, closed and active, Formerly Used Defense Sites, sites on the National Priorities List (NPL) and Superfund alternative sites. Illinois EPA gives as examples abandoned hazardous waste disposal areas, former mines, landfills, industrial waste releases, unexploded ordnance and fuel contamination.

In a Phase I ESA

ASTM E1527-21 names the federal Superfund lists among its standard sources. Their general reading is on the NPL page and the SEMS page. This page is about Illinois EPA's part in those cleanups and where its records are.

• The count. The Federal Sites page counts 70 CERCLA regulated sites in Illinois: 46 on the NPL, three proposed for it but not yet added, and fourteen treated as NPL alternative sites, with seven deleted from the list and three more partly deleted. It dates its national figures to 2024; the Illinois count is undated, on a page last modified May 8, 2026.
• Two agencies on each site. The page says one agency leads a cleanup, usually the senior one, starting, developing and choosing the response, while the other supports it with data and document reviews. Illinois EPA works with U.S. EPA Region 5 under a Superfund Memorandum of Agreement, and at Department of Defense sites under the Defense and State Memorandum of Agreement program. Check which agency led a site's cleanup before asking for its file.
• Sites still being assessed. Illinois EPA's Office of Site Evaluation makes Superfund site assessments under a cooperative agreement with U.S. EPA. Its page says these range from a first look at whether a property should stay in the Superfund process to fuller investigations with sampling and site evaluation reports, and that the office also coordinates time-critical removal actions with U.S. EPA Region 5. Where specialized assessment may be needed, it also investigates with other programs or governments, for instance groundwater contamination and buried drums or tanks at unregulated facilities.

Where to look a site up

• The Bureau of Land Databases page links U.S. EPA's Cleanups in Illinois Under the Federal Superfund Program, which this handbook did not open.
• Illinois EPA's Site Fact Sheets explain the agency's work on particular sites, some of them Superfund sites. The page says fact sheets and other documents can be had through a FOIA request or the IEPA Document Explorer.
• The Federal Site Remediation Section is at 2520 W Iles Ave, P.O. Box 19276, Springfield, IL 62794-9276. Questions about the Office of Site Evaluation go to (217) 524-3300, the Bureau of Land's switchboard.

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 ID number you have. Fees, reply times and the options for large files are on the FOIA requests page. The pages read do not say how to ask U.S. EPA for its records.

Sources

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

• Federal Sites, last modified May 8, 2026.
• Office of Site Evaluation, last modified January 19, 2023.
• Bureau of Land Databases, last modified December 13, 2023.
• Site Fact Sheets, last modified September 16, 2026.
• Bureau of Land Contacts, last modified September 29, 2025.
• Freedom of Information Act, last modified May 2, 2024.