Environmental Progress - Summer 2000

General Assembly Approves VIM, Used Tire Funding

Fuel with more than 1 percent MTBE will have to carry notice of content

The Illinois General Assembly introduced a variety of bills concerning environmental issues this year. New laws affecting vehicle emissions testing, used tires and methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) all passed, while bills regarding contaminated sites and burning landscape waste are still waiting for approval.

Senate Bill 1648 amends the Motor Fuel Tax Law by extending from January 1, 2001, to June 30, 2006, the period for depositing $25,000,000 per year into the Vehicle Inspection Emission fund to assist in paying for the Enhanced Vehicle Inspection and Maintenance (Enhanced VIM) program. Without the legislation, the Illinois EPA anticipated being unable to pay for the Enhanced VIM program beginning in April 2001.

The Illinois legislature has approved increased funding for enhanced vehicle emissions testing and extended funding through June 30, 2006.

The Enhanced VIM program received another boost when HB 4374, the FY 2001 Budget Implementation Act, passed. The Budget Implementation Act provides for the $25 million appropriation to the Vehicle Inspection Emission fund to increase to $30 million per year.

In the Illinois House, HB 4481 provides for indefinite continuation of a $2,000,000 per fiscal year allocation to the Used Tire Management Fund. The allocations were scheduled to end on July 1, 2000. The IEPA receives $760,000 of the fund to support the operations of the Used Tire Program.

Also in the House, HB 2909 requires that fuel pumps dispensing fuel containing at least 1 percent MTBE have a label identifying the maximum percentage of MTBE in the fuel. MTBE, added to gasoline to reduce atmospheric concentrations of carbon monoxide and ozone, is the most commonly used fuel additive, but it is a potentially important groundwater contaminant because of its mobility and persistence. The U.S. EPA has tentatively classified MTBE as a possible human carcinogen on the basis of studies showing that it caused cancer in rats and mice.

HB 3457, awaiting action by Gov. George Ryan, would change the definition of "clean construction or demolition debris" in the Environmental Protection Act. Material from certain construction and demolition sites outside the city of Chicago would not be considered waste if it were used on the same site as an above-grade mound less than 20 feet high. The bill would also provide for the creation of the Environmental Land Use Control (ELUC), through which the Pollution Control Board could establish land use limitations or obligation on the use of real property when necessary to manage risk to human health or the environment. Currently, the IEPA denies nearly every request for approval to use a deed restriction because of the extreme difficulty of meeting the requirements of common law.

Open burning was the subject of HB 3009, which would require the IEPA to regulate the open burning of landscape waste in the Chicago and Metro-East ozone non-attainment areas and areas covered by the Vehicle Emissions Inspection Law of 1995. HB 3009 received House approval, but it has been referred to the Rules Committee in the Senate.