Let’s go on a little journey.
Tuesday’s “It’s Just A Bill” post on CapitolFax.com included a nugget on House Bill 5317, which the House passed 104-0 on April 9. The sponsor, state Rep. Dagmara Avelar, D-Romeoville, said the plan allows the state Environmental Protection Agency to reimburse cities and towns that remediate abandoned underground tanks once used to hold fuel or chemicals.
I first learned about leaking underground storage tanks nearly 25 years ago. The context was long-shuttered gas stations on the U.S. 30/67 corridor in Iowa, a business that became much less profitable following the development of Interstate 80 through the Quad Cities. There’s no surprise Illinois has a similar problem. But the journey here is one of uncovering information and what it sometimes takes to stay on top of issues.
The CapitolFax digest said IEPA could fund up to five cleanups a year. That got me wondering about cost. There was no link to Avelar’s press release. Her website also doesn’t have a recent announcement, but her Facebook page mentioned the bill in an April 10 recap post, so off to the General Assembly website (ilga.gov) for further research, which happily includes a fiscal note.
That allows revisiting a March 21 column about Senate Bill 2094, which would eliminate a rule allowing a majority vote to disregard a lawmaker’s request for a fiscal note. That bill seems destined to die in the Assignments Committee, but it at least served to spotlight how Illinois is one of the worst states at presenting useful information about proposals’ potential effects on state spending.
So it was indeed surprising to see a note on HB 5317. IEPA estimates the remediations have an average cost of $150,000 per site and said its Underground Storage Tank Fund holds more than $80 million as of April 7. Ignoring inflation, five projects per year means it would take 106 years to burn through the entire fund.
At epa.illinois.gov, there’s a list of LUST sites to search, sort and download. At 31,340 entries, that could mean this is a $4.7 billion problem (again, ignoring inflation). My ZIP code alone has 120, many within a mile of home.
All of which to say the issue is much larger than HB 5317. Still, it’s a useful attempt to promote cleanup efforts by allowing municipalities or counties to participate in an ongoing program to the same extent as actual tank property owners or operators. Governments obviously have different incentives from private businesses, but up-front costs often impede remediation that is otherwise popular and beneficial.
Furthermore, the topic generally reminds us of the size and scope of state government and the resources available to help understand how public money is working.
• Scott T. Holland writes about state government issues for Shaw Local News Network. He can be reached at sholland@shawmedia.com.
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April 23, 2026 at 10:03AM
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