Public Act 90-0484 of the 90th General Assembly
Public Act 90-0484
SB348 Enrolled LRB9002369DPcc
AN ACT to amend the Environmental Protection Act by
changing Section 58.9.
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
represented in the General Assembly:
Section 5. The Environmental Protection Act is amended
by changing Section 58.9 as follows:
(415 ILCS 5/58.9)
Sec. 58.9. Liability.
(a) Cost assignment.
(1) Notwithstanding any other provisions of this
Act to the contrary, including subsection (f) of Section
22.2, in no event may the Agency, the State of Illinois,
or any person bring an action pursuant to this Act or the
Groundwater Protection Act to require any person to
conduct remedial action or to seek recovery of costs for
remedial activity conducted by the State of Illinois or
any person beyond the remediation of releases of
regulated substances that may be attributed to being
proximately caused by such person's act or omission or
beyond such person's proportionate degree of
responsibility for costs of the remedial action of
releases of regulated substances that were proximately
caused or contributed to by 2 or more persons.
(2) Notwithstanding any provisions in this Act to
the contrary, including subsection (f) of Section 22.2,
in no event may the State of Illinois or any person
require the performance of remedial action pursuant to
this Act against any of the following:
(A) A person who neither caused nor
contributed to in any material respect a release of
regulated substances on, in, or under the site that
was identified and addressed by the remedial action
taken pursuant to this Title.
(B) Notwithstanding a landlord's rights
against a tenant, a landlord, if the landlord did
not know, and could not have reasonably known, of
the acts or omissions of a tenant that caused or
contributed to, or were likely to have caused or
contributed to, a release of regulated substances
that resulted in the performance of remedial action
at the site.
(C) The State of Illinois or any unit of local
government if it involuntarily acquires ownership or
control of the site by virtue of its function as a
sovereign through such means as escheat, bankruptcy,
tax delinquency, or abandonment, unless the State of
Illinois or unit of local government takes
possession of the site and exercises actual, direct,
and continual or recurrent managerial control in the
operation of the site that causes a release or
substantial threat of a release of a regulated
substance resulting in removal or remedial activity.
(D) The State of Illinois or any unit of local
government if it voluntarily acquires ownership or
control of the site through purchase, appropriation,
or other means, unless the State of Illinois or the
unit of local government takes possession of the
site and exercises actual, direct, and continual or
recurrent managerial control in the operation of the
site that causes a release or substantial threat of
a release of a regulated substance resulting in
removal or remedial activity.
(E) A financial institution, as that term is
defined in Section 2 of the Illinois Banking Act and
to include the Illinois Housing Development
Authority, that has acquired the ownership,
operation, management, or control of a site through
foreclosure, a deed in lieu of foreclosure,
receivership, by exercising of an assignment of
rents, as mortgagee in possession or otherwise under
the terms of a security interest held by the
financial institution, or under the terms of an
extension of credit made by the financial
institution, unless the financial institution takes
actual physical possession of the site and, in so
doing, directly causes a release of a regulated
substance that results in removal or remedial
activity.
(F) A corporate fiduciary that has acquired
ownership, operation, management, or control of a
site through acceptance of a fiduciary appointment
unless the corporate fiduciary directly causes a
release of a regulated substance resulting in a
removal or remedial activity.
(b) In the event that the State of Illinois seeks to
require a person who may be liable pursuant to this Act to
conduct remedial activities for a release or threatened
release of a regulated substance, the Agency shall provide
notice to such person. Such notice shall include the
necessity to conduct remedial action pursuant to this Title
and an opportunity for the person to perform the remedial
action.
(c) In any instance in which the Agency has issued
notice pursuant to subsection (b) of this Section, the
Agency and the person to whom such notice was issued may
attempt to determine the costs of conducting the remedial
action that are attributable to the releases to which such
person or any other person caused or contributed.
Determinations pursuant to this Section may be made in
accordance with rules promulgated by the Board.
(d) Within 18 months of the effective date of this
amendatory Act of 1995, The Board shall adopt, not later than
January 1, 1999, pursuant to Sections 27 and 28 of this Act,
rules and procedures for determining proportionate share.
Such rules shall, at a minimum, provide for criteria for the
determination of apportioned responsibility based upon the
degree to which a person directly caused or contributed to a
release of regulated substances on, in, or under the site
identified and addressed in the remedial action; procedures
to establish how and when such persons may file a petition
for determination of such apportionment; and any other
standards or procedures which the Board may adopt pursuant to
this Section. In developing such rules, the Board shall take
into consideration any recommendations and proposals of the
Agency and the Site Remediation Advisory Committee
established in Section 58.11 of this Act and other interested
participants.
(e) Nothing in this Section shall limit the authority of
the Agency to provide notice under subsection (q) of Section
4 or to undertake investigative, preventive, or corrective
action under any other applicable provisions of this Act.
The Director of the Agency is authorized to enter into such
contracts and agreements as may be necessary to carry out the
Agency's duties and responsibilities under this Section as
expeditiously as possible.
(f) This Section does not apply to any cost recovery
action brought by the State under Section 22.2 to recover
costs incurred by the State prior to July 1, 1996.
(Source: P.A. 89-443, eff. 7-1-96.)
Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon
becoming law.