Section 170.422  Clearance Required for Underground Storage Tanks

a)         Distance to basements, etc.:

1)         Dispensing USTs shall be 20 or more feet from any basement, cellar, pit or below-grade excavation on or off the property.

2)         No new USTs not used for dispensing may be located under a building or less than 5 feet from a building.

b)         Distance to sewers, etc.  Individual tanks and piping shall be buried so that the tops of the tanks and piping shall be lower than the bottom level of all sewers, manholes, catch-basins, cesspools, septic tanks, septic tank clean out stations, wells or cisterns within twenty feet, on or off the property, or tanks and piping shall maintain a full clearance of 20  feet.  The term "sewer" includes sanitary and storm sewer lines out of service station buildings, provided, however, that these clearances shall not be required when a sewer line is constructed throughout of cast iron with lead joints or petroleum resistant o-rings.

c)         Distance to property lines.  Individual tanks shall be at least twenty feet to property lines, provided, however, that these clearances on the side adjacent to a public street, alley or highway are waived by consent of the authority having immediate jurisdiction over the public street, alley or highway, provided that the required sewer clearances will be maintained.

d)         Distance to special classes of property.  Tanks and pumps shall maintain a clearance of not less than 300 feet to any mine shaft, air or escape shaft for any mine and 85 feet to any school, institutional, public assembly or theater occupancy, as defined in NFPA 101, incorporated by reference in Section 170.410.  The distance shall be measured from the nearest points of tanks and pumps to the nearest points of buildings or shafts.

e)         Where the site size makes compliance with these clearance requirements an impossibility or an imposition, as determined by the Office of the State Fire Marshal during a permit review, a double-wall tank or piping system or both with interstitial monitoring, shall be used and is subject to approval by the Office. Interstitial piping monitoring requirements will only be waived for Europeansuction piping systems .  Hazardous substance UST systems shall be double-wall.

f)            Tanks in service on October 1, 1985 may maintain existing underground tank clearances. Existing service stations' basements less than 20 feet from a UST system shall be provided with mechanical ventilation, and only non-sparking explosion proof motors and compressors shall be permitted in such basements and proof of compliance shall be submitted to OSFM. 

g)           The minimum setback distances indicated in this Section will be required, when upgrading existing systems, only for the portion of that system that is being upgraded, including tank replacement, island replacement or piping.

(Source:  Amended at 27 Ill. Reg. 8164, effective May 1, 2003)