Section 245.250  Public and Governmental Notice by the Permit Applicant

a)         The applicant shall provide the following public and governmental notice (Section 1-40(c) of the Act):

1)         Applicants shall mail specific public notice by U.S. Postal Service certified mail, return receipt requested, within 3 calendar days after submittal of the high volume horizontal hydraulic fracturing permit application to the Department to:

A)        all persons identified in Section 245.210(a)(16) as owners of any real property surface interest within 1,500 feet of the proposed well site as disclosed by the records in the office of the recorder of the county or counties;

B)        the governing body of each municipality in which the well is proposed to be located; and

C)        the county board of each county in which the well is proposed to be located. (Section 1-40(c)(1) of the Act)

2)         Except as otherwise provided in this subsection (a)(2), applicants shall provide general public notice by publication, once each week for 2 consecutive weeks, beginning no later than 3 calendar days after submittal of the high volume horizontal hydraulic fracturing permit application to the Department, in a newspaper of general circulation published in or, if necessary, as near possible to each county where the well proposed for high volume horizontal hydraulic fracturing operations is proposed to be located.  If a well is proposed for high volume horizontal hydraulic fracturing operations in a county where there is no daily newspaper of general circulation, applicant shall provide general public notice, by publication, once each week for 2 consecutive weeks, in a weekly newspaper of general circulation in that county beginning as soon as the publication schedule of the weekly newspaper permits, but in no case later than 10 days after submittal of the high volume horizontal hydraulic fracturing permit application to the Department. (Section 1-40(c)(2) of the Act)

3)         Within 15 calendar days after submitting the permit application to the Department, the applicant must provide a copy of the permit application's well site safety plan to the county or counties and all local fire departments with jurisdictions covering the well site in which high volume horizontal hydraulic fracturing operations will occur. (Section 1-35(b)(12) of the Act)

4)         Within 15 calendar days after submitting the permit application to the Department, the applicant must provide a copy of the permit application's traffic management plan to the county or counties in which the well site is located and any impacted highway authorities identified in the traffic management plan pursuant to Section 245.210(a)(15) (Section 1-35(b)(15) of the Act).

5)         The specific and general public notices required under subsections (a)(1) and (a)(2) shall be on forms provided by the Department and shall contain the following information (Section 1-40(c)(3) of the Act):

A)        the name and address of the applicant (Section 1-40(c)(3)(A) of the Act);

B)        the date the application for a high volume horizontal hydraulic fracturing permit was received by the Department (Section 1-40(c)(3)(B) of the Act);

C)        the dates for the public comment period and a statement that anyone may file written comments, objections and recommendations about any portion of the applicant's submitted high volume horizontal hydraulic fracturing permit application with the Department during the public comment period (Section 1-40(c)(3)(C) of the Act);

D)        the proposed well name, review number assigned by the Department, well location, and legal description per the Public Land Survey System of the well, well site, and its unit area (Section 1-40(c)(3)(D) of the Act). The well location shall be surveyed by an Illinois licensed land surveyor and the description of the surveyed well location shall also include the legal description, the GPS latitude and longitude location, and ground elevation of the well. The GPS location shall be recorded as degrees and decimal degrees recorded to 6 decimal places in the North American Datum 1983 projection and shall be accurate to within 3 feet. The reported GPS location is required to be an actual GPS field measurement and not a calculated or conversion measurement;

E)        a statement that the information filed by the applicant in its application for a high volume horizontal hydraulic fracturing permit is available from the Department through its website (Section 1-40(c)(3)(E) of the Act);

F)         the Department's website and the address and telephone number for the Department's Office of Oil and Gas Resource Management (Section 1-40(c)(3)(F) of the Act);

G)        a statement that any person having an interest that is or may be adversely affected, any government agency that is or may be affected, or the county board of a county to be affected under a proposed permit, may file written objections to a permit application and may request a public hearing pursuant to Section 245.270 (Section 1-40(c)(3)(G) of the Act); and

H)        the date, time and address of the public hearing and the name and address of the Hearing Officer scheduled to preside over the public hearing for the permit application should a request for public hearing be filed.

b)         After providing the public notice as required under subsection (a), the applicant shall supplement its permit application by providing the Department with a certification and documentation that the applicant fulfilled the public notice requirements of this Section no later than 35 days after the Department's receipt of the permit application (Section 1-40(d) of the Act).

c)         If multiple applications are submitted at the same time for wells located on the same well site, the applicant may use one public notice for all applications provided the notice is clear that it pertains to multiple well applications and conforms to the requirements of this Section (Section 1-40(e) of the Act).