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Illinois

Leaking Underground Storage Tank (LUST) Program

Agency Illinois Environmental Protection Agency
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Illinois's leaking tank cases belong to the Leaking Underground Storage Tank (LUST) Program of the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (Illinois EPA). Once the Illinois Emergency Management Agency (IEMA) has been told of a release from an underground storage tank (UST), the Bureau of Land's Leaking UST Section takes over oversight. It checks the owner's plans, reports and budgets for technical soundness, along with the remediation objectives set for the site, and when the site has met them and the program's requirements, Illinois EPA issues a No Further Remediation (NFR) Letter for the incident. Incidents are tracked in the Leaking Underground Storage Tank Incident Tracking (LIT) database.

In a Phase I ESA

LUST incidents are the Illinois form of the state leaking storage tank records that ASTM E1527-21 lists as a standard source. The general reading of a leaking tank listing is on the LUST page. Four Illinois details shape how to read one.

  • The rule depends on the report date. Illinois EPA's technical forms page assigns a release reported before September 13, 1993 to 35 Ill. Adm. Code Part 731, one reported from that date until June 24, 2002 to Part 732, and one reported on or after June 24, 2002 to Part 734. Read an old incident's letters against the Part that governed it.
  • Pre-1974 tanks can opt out. The forms include a Pre-1974 UST Notification Election, and a Heating Oil UST Election that the pages read do not explain. Illinois EPA says its 2022 revision of the pre-1974 form lets the owner or operator either clean up under the program to receive an NFR Letter or opt out under 35 Ill. Adm. Code 734.100(c). The record layout also has Heating Oil, Pre-74 and Non-LUST date fields, which the pages read do not explain.
  • Before April 5, 2022 a tank site could close through the Site Remediation Program. Illinois EPA says a process commonly called Elect to Proceed once let the Site Remediation Program (SRP) oversee the closure of LUST incidents, and that since that date a site subject to state or federal tank laws may not transfer to it. For an older incident, look in both programs' records.
  • The closure is recorded with the county. Illinois EPA's introduction to leaking tanks, last updated April 2022, says the owner or operator must record the NFR Letter with the recorder of the site's county within 45 days, so later users learn of any engineered barrier or institutional control relied on. See No Further Remediation (NFR) letters.

Who runs the cleanup

The introduction says the daily running of tank systems is regulated by the Office of the State Fire Marshal (OSFM), which issues permits to install, upgrade, close and remove tanks and decides whether an owner is eligible for the UST Fund and at what deductible. Illinois EPA reviews the cleanup and its costs and issues the NFR Letter. Its LUST page says the Fund helps owners and operators who reported a petroleum release, and whose tanks are registered with OSFM, pay for investigation and cleanup, up to $1,500,000 per occurrence less a deductible OSFM sets between $5,000 and $100,000, which turns on the dates of the tank registration and of the release report. Its list of updates carries, under October 22, 2025, a document titled Upcoming Changes to LUST Deductibles and Reimbursement, which this handbook did not open; the page does not say whether the deductibles above have changed since.

What the record shows

The saved copy of the LIT page shows a list with columns for LPC number, IEMA number, site name, street, city, ZIP code and county; how it is searched is set by a script the saved copy does not hold. Its record layout has a Regulated By field and fields for the incident number, the IEMA date, products, the 20-day and 45-day reports, the heating oil, pre-74 and non-LUST dates, and the NFR date with its recorded, voided and rescission dates. A TACO section lists barriers, institutional controls, Environmental Land Use Controls and highway authority agreements. The page fills in its data by script, so the saved copy shows the layout only. Read the voided and rescission fields beside the NFR date.

Where to look a site up

  • The Leaking Underground Storage Tanks database (LIT), which Illinois EPA describes as giving the status of all Illinois LUST incidents reported to IEMA and to Illinois EPA.
  • The IEPA Document Explorer, which holds LUST technical documents.
  • The Leaking UST Section is at 2520 W Iles Ave, P.O. Box 19276, Springfield, Illinois 62794-9276, and 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 incident number or LPC number with the site name and address. 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:

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