(225 ILCS 745/5)
(Section scheduled to be repealed on January 1, 2026)
Sec. 5.
Findings.
The General Assembly finds that:
(a) In recent years, governmental bodies have increasingly come to rely upon
advice from geologists when formulating laws and policies to protect the
environment and the safety, property, and well-being of the citizens of this
State.
(b) Some federal and State regulations require that geological
investigations be performed and the geological conditions be interpreted.
(c) Expert opinions regarding the geological conditions of an area provided
to regulatory bodies, State or local governmental agencies, and the public can
have significant impacts on the
environmental quality of this State and on the safety, property, and well-being
of its citizens.
(d) On a worldwide basis, natural geological events such as earthquakes,
floods, and landslides annually cause billions of dollars in property losses
and the deaths of thousands of persons. This loss of life and property, in many
instances, has been reduced or largely avoided when advice provided by
geologists has been accepted and appropriately acted upon in time by
governmental bodies and citizens.
(e) The environment and the safety, property, and well-being of the
citizens of this State are significantly threatened by natural geological
hazards such as earthquakes within the New Madrid and Wabash Valley Seismic
Zones, flooding, landslides, karst collapse, and coastal erosion.
(f) The environment and the safety, property, and well-being of the citizens
of this State also are significantly threatened by geological hazards related
to the acts of humans such as contamination of groundwater resources and mine
subsidence.
(g) The advice of geologists is needed to guide the governmental bodies and
the citizens of this State toward an appropriate level of preparedness for a
future major earthquake within the New Madrid or Wabash Valley Seismic Zones
and to assist the citizens and governmental bodies of this State in reducing
their exposure to risks to the environment and to their safety, property, and
well-being from other geological hazards, both natural and human-caused.
(h) As in the case with other professions that directly affect their safety,
property, and well-being, the citizens of this State need assurance that
persons offering the services of professional geologists are adequately trained
and experienced and are practicing their profession in an ethical manner.
Statutes and rules in this State indicate that certification through peer
review by national professional organizations is not regarded as sufficient
proof of competence and ethical practice for professions that affect the
safety, property, and well-being
of the citizens of this State. Therefore, certification by national
professional organizations also should not be considered sufficient to protect
the citizens of this State from possible harm from the practice of professional
geology by inadequately trained and experienced, or unethical persons.
(Source: P.A. 89-366, eff. 7-1-96.)
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