The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency administers the UST Fund, which the agency established in 1989 to help tank owners and operators pay for cleanup of their leaking USTs. Even just the smallest hole in an underground tank can leak up to 400 gallons of fuel in one year, contaminating the surrounding soil and groundwater.

The more extensive the environmental contamination, the more it generally costs to clean the surrounding land. Cleanup costs can be prohibitively expensive for many private tank owners.

The state’s UST fund is sustained by a $0.003 per-gallon fuel tax and an $0.008 per-gallon environmental impact fee, which amounts to $60 per 7,500 gallons of fuel sold by vendors. The fund has paid out more than $800 million since its inception, but became effectively insolvent in recent years when the former governor used $54 million of its funds for other purposes.

Speaking on the House floor, Cavaleto said that sweeping money from the fund had hurt people who deserved compensation from it.

One such person is Jay Koch, the owner of United Science Industries, a company that the state contracted to clean up multiple LUST sites. The state of Illinois owes Koch nearly $20 million for work performed since 2007.

Mr. Koch, who testified to the committee in support of House Bill 770, spoke about how the depleted fund has put a strain on his company.

“It’s forced me to take on their debt,” Koch told the Mt. Vernon Register-News in March. “The state has forced their debts onto the balance sheet of business and small business. It’s very disheartening. Unlike a private party, who, if they fail to pay you, you have some recourse against, the way our state system is set up, we don’t have any recourse against the state. We’re forced to sit on the side and deal with whatever they throw at you. They don’t have to play by the same rules they set up for everyone else.”

Cavaletto’s bill has passed the Illinois House and will go before the Senate.

SOURCE: Leaking Underground Storage Tanks › Bill to protect UST funds passes Illinois House

“I feel very strongly that dedicated funds should be left alone so they can serve the purpose they were meant to serve,” John Cavaletto (R-Salem) told the House Government Committee, according to a report in the Mt. Vernon Register-News.

“Here we have honest, hard working people doing a service for our state in cleaning up dangerous leaking storage tanks and the State of Illinois refuses to honor its obligations. Something needs to be done to ensure that these people are getting paid for the work they do on behalf of the state.”

According to the Register-News, Cavaletto’s documents indicated that more than $54 million has been siphoned from the Leaking Underground Storage Tank fund since 2003, the year that Rod Blagojevich became the 40th governor of Illinois.

Jay Koch, owner of United Science Industries, had the opportunity to confront Blagojevich in November of last year. Blagojevich promised Koch reimbursements, but shortly after the encounter, the governor was arrested and booted from office.

“It’s forced me to take on their debt,” Koch told the Register-News. “The state has forced their debts onto the balance sheet of business and small business. It’s very disheartening. Unlike a private party, who, if they fail to pay you, you have some recourse against. The way our state system is set up, we don’t have any recourse against the state. We’re forced to sit on the side and deal with whatever they throw at you. They don’t have to play by the same rules they set up for everyone else,” Koch said in the Register-News report.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, 17,188 leaking underground storage tank cleanups have been completed in Illinois. However, nearly 7,000 known leaking tanks remain in the backlog awaiting cleanup.

If Illinois has spent all its LUST funds for other purposes, where will it get the money to remove the tanks that continue to pollute the surrounding soil and water? Assuming Koch’s company can stay afloat in all of the state’s bad debt, he may find some relief with the passage of a new Illinois state bill that amends the Environmental Protection Act and would prohibit the sweeping of money from one state fund to another. While the bill wouldn’t necessarily replenish funds already moved and spent or make Illinois current on payments, it could spell much future work for United Science Industries. Also, a protected LUST fund would in turn protect Illinois residents and wildlife from exposure to environmental toxins.

SOURCE: Leaking Underground Storage Tanks › Leaking underground tank funds used for other purposes in Illinois