Site Remediation Program (SRP)

The Site Remediation Program (SRP) is the voluntary cleanup program of the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (Illinois EPA). Anyone who wants to investigate or clean up a site can apply as a Remediation Applicant and get Illinois EPA's review, technical help and, at the end, a No Further Remediation (NFR) letter. The applicant usually sets the goals and scope of the work, and pays for the oversight it asks for. Illinois EPA issues the letter once the applicant shows, by investigation and any remedial action needed, that the site poses no significant risk to human health or the environment.

In a Phase I ESA

SRP sites are the Illinois form of the state voluntary cleanup records that ASTM E1527-21 lists as a standard source. The general reading of a voluntary cleanup listing is on the VCP page. Four Illinois details shape how to read one.

• Check the kind of letter. Illinois EPA's fact sheet on NFR letters says an SRP letter is either comprehensive, meaning the site is protective of health and the environment, or focused. A focused letter covers only part of a larger parcel, or only the contaminants the owner chose to investigate and address, or both. Compare the letter's area and contaminant list with the property and its history.
• The letter can carry conditions. It can restrict the land to industrial or commercial use, bar use of the groundwater as drinking water, or require that a barrier be kept up. It takes effect only when recorded with the recorder of the county where the site lies, and Illinois EPA can seek to void it, for instance when a restriction is broken or SRP fees go unpaid. See No Further Remediation (NFR) letters.
• A cleanup can happen outside the program. The fact sheet says that in a property sale, the buyer and seller can agree to manage a site under TACO without SRP oversight or approval. Ask the owner whether any cleanup was done that way.
• The groundwater standards changed in 2025. Illinois EPA's SRP page says amendments to the Part 620 groundwater quality standards took effect on March 28, 2025. It says they added standards for new chemicals, PFAS among them, revised others, and widened Class I groundwater to take in wellhead protection areas and designated maximum setback zones of community water supply wells. For the chemicals whose standards changed, it says the cleanup objective is now the lower of the Part 620 standard and the TACO groundwater objective.

Tank sites are separate. Illinois EPA says that since April 5, 2022, sites subject to state or federal tank laws may not enroll in the SRP; before that date, a process commonly known as Elect to Proceed let the SRP oversee the closure of LUST incidents (see the LUST Program). Claimants of the Drycleaner Environmental Response Trust Fund (DERT Fund) must enroll in the SRP.

What the record shows

Illinois EPA's page on cleaning up dry cleaning sites lays out the SRP's steps, each with a report: a Site Investigation Report, a Remediation Objectives Report, a Remedial Action Plan and a Remedial Action Completion Report. Ask whether the file holds each one. Objectives are set under the Tiered Approach to Corrective Action Objectives (TACO).

Where to look a site up

• The SRP Database Search Page, which Illinois EPA describes as giving the status of all voluntary remediation projects in the SRP since 1996 and in the Pre-Notice Site Cleanup Program, which ran from 1989 to 1995. This handbook did not open it.
• The IEPA Document Explorer, which holds SRP technical documents.
• The program's contact address is the Remedial Project Management Section, Bureau of Land, Illinois EPA, 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:

• Site Remediation Program, last modified May 19, 2026.
• Fact Sheet 3: No Further Remediation Letters - Fact Sheets, last modified February 1, 2023.
• Cleaning up Contaminated Soil and Groundwater at Dry Cleaning Facilities - Site Remediation Program, last modified July 3, 2024.
• Bureau of Land Databases, last modified December 13, 2023.
• Bureau of Land Contacts, last modified September 29, 2025.
• Freedom of Information Act, last modified May 2, 2024.