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TO: Mayor Thomas J. Weisner
FROM: Alayne M. Weingartz, Corporation Counsel
DATE: February 3, 2016
SUBJECT:
Resolution Approving an Environmental Indemnity Agreement and Highway Authority Agreement between Phillips 66 Company and the City of Aurora for Property Located at 1331 North Farnsworth Avenue
PURPOSE:
Phillips 66 Company has asked the City to enter into an Environmental Indemnity Agreement and Highway Authority Agreement for property located at 1331 North Farnsworth Avenue, in the City of Aurora, Illinois.
BACKGROUND:
Phillips 66 Company ("Phillips") is attempting to close an underground storage tank (UST) incident with the Illinois EPA. The incident is associated with a subsurface release of gasoline from USTs which appears to have migrated onto a City right-of-way.
DISCUSSION:
Generally, the City has two options pertaining to contamination beneath the roadways. One is to enter into a Highway Authority Agreement (HAA) with Phillips, which Phillips is asking the
City to do. A HAA would allow any contamination under the roadways to remain in-place. A HAA is commonly used when contamination has migrated off private property and under a City highway or road. These agreements are not the invention of the companies asking for them, but rather, are the result of the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) getting involved in the Tiered Approach to Corrective Action Objectives (TACO) rule change which required the Illinois Pollution Control Board to consider land use controls in determining risk to human health from contaminated soil and groundwater and part of the environmental cleanup regulations. As a result of IDOT's efforts, HAAs became one of the land use controls recognized in TACO, and IDOT has signed literally hundreds of them.
The second option is to require Phillips to do a dig and haul of the contaminated soils in the right-of-way which Phillips may not be willing to do and may result in a request by Phillip...
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