The underground storage tank cleanup efforts saw 340 acres at 673 sites cleaned up for sale or redevelopment by the end of October. By year's end the figure was expected to significantly surpass the 1995 totals of 360 acres at 707 sites.

These cleanups benefitted from a streamlined cleanup approach adopted by the Illinois EPA two years ago. The Tiered Approach to Corrective Action Objectives (TACO) allows site owners and operators additional options for reducing costs and speeding the return of contaminated sites to productive use while still protecting human health and the environment and meeting environmental laws and regulations.

The TACO approach and its implementing regulations were proposed this fall to the Illinois Pollution Control Board. Sometimes called "Brownfields Regulations" for their potential to stimulate redevelopment of contaminated urban sites, they are expected to become final by next June.

At this time, the TACO initiative is being applied to site remediation, response action, RCRA subtitle C, and the leaking underground storage programs in the Bureau of Land.

Voluntary Cleanups

Voluntary cleanups reflected a successful ongoing program for the Bureau of Land during 1996. Between Aug. 31, 1989, and Oct. 15, 1996, a total of 559 service agreements had been signed. Under the service agreements, companies pay all cleanup costs at their properties, and pay the Agency to oversee that the cleanup efforts meet all environmental laws and regulations. When requirements are successfully met, the Agency gives the participants letters formally releasing them from further liability.

Letters terminating liability have so far been sent to owners of 182 of the 559 sites for which service agreements have been signed; 99 of the letters were generated in 1995 and 1996. The sign-offs represent nearly 200 contaminated commercial or industrial sites that have been cleaned up without cost to Illinois taxpayers.

One Million Used Tires Removed

In another ongoing Agency program, 90 tire dumps were eliminated during the year and Agency personnel participated in 29 county-wide collections of used or waste tires, removing nearly one million used tires from the environment.

Household hazardous waste pickups marked their seventh anniversary during 1996, with a total of 165 such pickups during that period. The events usually produce about 150, 55-gallon drums of household items that require special handling for discard. This fall, a single household hazardous waste collection at Woodstock produced a record 565 drums of such waste.

Landfill Capacity

At the end of 1996, Bureau of Land figures reflect the best available disposal capacity situation in a decade. Expansions to existing facilities and approval of a new landfill collectively added 134 million cubic yards of new disposal capacity during 1995, so the state entered 1996 with a total available capacity of 462 million cubic yards. The capacity is expected to serve Illinois' disposal needs for the next 11 years, at the current disposal rates of roughly 47 million cubic yards of waste annually. Permit applications currently under review would add another 102 million cubic yards starting in 1997. A continuing Total Quality initiative being applied to first-time approvals has speeded application approvals to a point where only one in each 10 permit applications is likely to be denied.

Under the LUST Flood Grant, a contractor prepares an underground storage tank removed near Grafton, Ill. for disposal.