(765 ILCS 122/3)

Sec. 3. Nature of rights; subordination of interests.

(a) An owner or owners of real property may voluntarily enter into an environmental covenant, as a grantor of an interest in the real property, with an agency and, if appropriate, one or more holders. No owner, agency, or other person shall be required to enter into an environmental covenant as part of an environmental response project; provided, however, that (i) failure to enter into an environmental covenant may result in disapproval of the environmental response project; and (ii) once the owner, agency, or other person assumes obligations in an environmental covenant they must comply with those obligations of the environmental covenant in accordance with this Act.

(b) Any person, including a person that owns an interest in the real property, the agency, or a municipality or other unit of local government, may be a holder. An environmental covenant may identify more than one holder. The interest of a holder is an interest in real property.

(c) A right of an agency under this Act or under an environmental covenant, other than a right as a holder, is not an interest in real property.

(d) An agency is bound by any obligation it assumes in an environmental covenant, but an agency does not assume obligations merely by signing an environmental covenant. Any other person that signs an environmental covenant is bound by the obligations the person assumes in the covenant, but signing the covenant does not change obligations, rights, or protections granted or imposed under law other than this Act except as provided in the covenant.

(e) The following rules apply to interests in real property in existence at the time an environmental covenant is created or amended:

(1) An interest that has priority under other law is not affected by an environmental covenant unless the person that owns the interest subordinates that interest to the covenant.

(2) This Act does not require a person that owns a prior interest to subordinate that interest to an environmental covenant or to agree to be bound by the covenant.

(3) A subordination agreement may be contained in an environmental covenant covering real property or in a separate record. If the environmental covenant covers commonly owned property in a common interest community, the record may be signed by any person authorized by the governing board of the owners association.

(4) An agreement by a person to subordinate a prior interest to an environmental covenant affects the priority of that person's interest but does not by itself impose any affirmative obligation on the person with respect to the environmental covenant.

(f) Environmental covenants established under this Act shall be subject to eminent domain or condemnation proceedings by any agency of the State having a general grant of authority to acquire property by the exercise of the right of eminent domain under the laws of this State. No environmental covenant established under this Act shall be terminated or modified unless:

(1) The agency that signed the covenant is a party to the proceeding;

(2) All persons identified in Section 10(a) and (b) are given notice of the pendency of the proceeding; and

(3) The agency of the State exercising the right of eminent domain or condemnation determines, after hearing, that the termination or modification will not adversely affect human health or the environment.

(Source: P.A. 95-845, eff. 1-1-09.)