(225 ILCS 725/19.6) (from Ch. 96 1/2, par. 5430.1)

Sec. 19.6.

The Department has the following specific powers and duties
in administering the Oil and Gas Well Site Plugging and Restoration Program,
Landowner Grant Program, and
the Plugging and Restoration Fund:

(a) To adopt rules in conformity with this Act, including rules
establishing priorities for well site plugging, repair, and restoration
consistent with this Act.

(b) To adopt rules necessary to implement
the Oil and Gas Well Site Plugging and Restoration Program and Landowner
Grant Program.

(c) To collect the fees assessed by the Department under this Act
and to make deposits into the Plugging and Restoration Fund.

(d) To deposit the amount of any forfeited surety bond or other security
in the Plugging and Restoration Fund.

(e) To recover well site plugging, repair, and restoration costs from
permittees who fail to reimburse the Plugging and Restoration Fund for
expenses attributable to those permittees and to deposit any amounts
reimbursed or collected into the Plugging and Restoration Fund.

(f) To accept, receive, and deposit into the Plugging and Restoration
Fund any grants, gifts, or other funds that may be made available from
public or private sources.

(g) To make expenditures of amounts appropriated from the Plugging and
Restoration Fund, as it may deem appropriate in its sole discretion, for
the sole purposes of plugging, replugging, or repairing any well,
restoring the site of any well, including but not limited to removal of well
site equipment or
production facilities, and for reimbursement to landowners for plugging a well
and restoring the site of a well, including but not limited to removal of well
site equipment
located on the landowner's property, for which the landowner has no legal
obligation to plug the wells or remove the well site equipment, if the well
is determined by the
Department to be
abandoned or ordered by the Department to be plugged, replugged, repaired,
or restored under Section 8a, 19, 19.1, or 19.8 of this Act including the
costs of administering the Oil and Gas Well Site Plugging and Restoration
Program, the Plugging and Restoration Fund, and the Landowner
Grant
Program.

(h) To sell or assign any lien arising under Section 19.5 of this Act to
the highest and best bidder who may agree to perform the necessary plugging or corrective work as
prescribed by the Department and to deposit the proceeds of such sale in
the Plugging and Restoration Fund or to offset Department plugging costs.

(i) To enter into contracts in accordance with the Illinois Purchasing
Act and to administer the Landowner Grant Program. In contracts or
grants
for the plugging, replugging, repairing or restoration
of a well, well site, or an associated tank battery or production facility,
the consideration paid by the Department may include the sale
and assignment of any lien arising under Section 19.5 of this Act.

(j) To dispose in a commercially reasonable manner, at generally
recognized market value, well site equipment, including an associated tank
battery and production facility equipment, and any amount of hydrocarbons from
the well that is stored on the lease, by either or both of the following
methods after it has been determined to be abandoned by the Department through
inclusion of the well in the Oil and Gas Well Site Plugging and Restoration
Program:

(1) a plugging contract may provide that the person plugging the well or remediating oil