Section 730.172  Post-Closure Care

a)         The owner or operator of a Class I hazardous waste injection well must prepare, maintain, and comply with a plan for post-closure care that meets the requirements of subsection (b) and is specified by permit condition.  The obligation to implement the post-closure plan survives the termination of a permit or the cessation of injection activities.  The requirement to maintain an approved plan is directly enforceable regardless of whether the requirement is a condition of the permit.

1)         The owner or operator must submit the plan as a part of the permit application and, upon approval by the Agency, such plan must be a condition of any permit issued.

2)         The owner or operator must submit any proposed significant revision to the plan as appropriate over the life of the well, but no later than the date of the closure report required pursuant to Section 730.171(c).

3)         The plan must assure financial responsibility, as required in Section 730.173.

4)         The plan must include the following information:

A)        The pressure in the injection zone before injection began;

B)        The anticipated pressure in the injection zone at the time of closure;

C)        The predicted time until pressure in the injection zone decays to the point that the well's cone of influence no longer intersects the base of the lowermost USDW;

D)        The predicted position of the waste front at closure;

E)        The status of any cleanups required pursuant to Section 730.164; and

F)         The estimated cost of proposed post-closure care.

5)         At the request of the owner or operator, or on its own initiative, the Agency may modify the post-closure plan after submission of the closure report following the procedures in 35 Ill. Adm. Code 705.128.

b)         The owner or operator must undertake each of the following activities:

1)         It must continue and complete any cleanup action required pursuant to Section 730.164, if applicable;

2)         It must continue to conduct any groundwater monitoring required under the permit until pressure in the injection zone decays to the point that the well's cone of influence no longer intersects the base of the lowermost USDW.  The Agency must extend the period of post-closure monitoring if it determines in writing that the well may endanger a USDW;

3)         It must submit a survey plat to the local zoning authority designated by permit condition.  The plat must indicate the location of the well relative to permanently surveyed benchmarks.  A copy of the plat must be submitted to USEPA, Region 5;

4)         It must notify the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, Office of Mines and Minerals, the State Department of Public Health, and any unit of local government authorized to grant permits under the Water Well Construction Code [415 ILCS 30] in the area where the well is located as to the depth and location of the well and the confining zone; and

5)         It must retain, for a period of three years following well closure, records reflecting the nature, composition, and volume of all injected fluids. Owners or operators must deliver the records to the Agency at the conclusion of the retention period.

c)         Each owner of a Class I hazardous waste injection well, and the owner of the surface or subsurface property on or in which a Class I hazardous waste injection well is located, must record a notation on the deed to the facility property or on some other instrument that is normally examined during title search that will in perpetuity provide any potential purchaser of the property the following information:

1)         The fact that land has been used to manage hazardous waste;

2)         The names of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, Office of Mines and Minerals and the local zoning authority with which the plat was filed, as well as the address of USEPA Region 5; and

3)         The type and volume of waste injected, the injection interval or intervals into which it was injected, and the period over which injection occurred.

d)         In addition to the requirements stated in this Section, each owner of a Class I hazardous waste injection well must comply with any other State or federal law or local ordinance that requires the reporting of any potential environmental or physical impairment of real property to subsequent or prospective owners.

BOARD NOTE:  The Responsible Property Transfer Act of 1988 [765 ILCS 90] (RPTA) formerly required the disclosure and recordation of any environmental impairment of real property in Illinois.  The General Assembly repealed that statute in P.A. 92-299, Section 5, effective August 9, 2001.  Section 10 of that repeal provided for continued maintenance of documents prepared and recorded under RPTA prior to its repeal.

BOARD NOTE:  Derived from 40 CFR 146.72 (2017).

(Source:  Amended at 42 Ill. Reg. 24145, effective November 19, 2018)