Section 225 ILCS 725/19.6The Department has the following specific powers and duties in administering the Oil and Gas Well Site Plugging and Restoration Program, Landowner Grant Program, and the Plugging and Restoration Fund:
(a) To adopt rules in conformity with this Act, including rules establishing priorities for well site plugging, repair, and restoration consistent with this Act.(b) To adopt rules necessary to implement the Oil and Gas Well Site Plugging and Restoration Program and Landowner Grant Program.(c) To collect the fees assessed by the Department under this Act and to make deposits into the Plugging and Restoration Fund.(d) To deposit the amount of any forfeited surety bond or other security in the Plugging and Restoration Fund.(e) To recover well site plugging, repair, and restoration costs from permittees who fail to reimburse the Plugging and Restoration Fund for expenses attributable to those permittees and to deposit any amounts reimbursed or collected into the Plugging and Restoration Fund.(f) To accept, receive, and deposit into the Plugging and Restoration Fund any grants, gifts, or other funds that may be made available from public or private sources.(g) To make expenditures of amounts appropriated from the Plugging and Restoration Fund, as it may deem appropriate in its sole discretion, for the sole purposes of plugging, replugging, or repairing any well, restoring the site of any well, including but not limited to removal of well site equipment or production facilities, and for reimbursement to landowners for plugging a well and restoring the site of a well, including but not limited to removal of well site equipment located on the landowner's property, for which the landowner has no legal obligation to plug the wells or remove the well site equipment, if the well is determined by the Department to be abandoned or ordered by the Department to be plugged, replugged, repaired, or restored under Section 8a, 19, 19.1, or 19.8 of this Act including the costs of administering the Oil and Gas Well Site Plugging and Restoration Program, the Plugging and Restoration Fund, and the Landowner Grant Program.(h) To sell or assign any lien arising under Section 19.5 of this Act to the highest and best bidder who may agree to perform the necessary plugging or corrective work as prescribed by the Department and to deposit the proceeds of such sale in the Plugging and Restoration Fund or to offset Department plugging costs.(i) To enter into contracts in accordance with the Illinois Purchasing Act and to administer the Landowner Grant Program. In contracts or grants for the plugging, replugging, repairing or restoration of a well, well site, or an associated tank battery or production facility, the consideration paid by the Department may include the sale and assignment of any lien arising under Section 19.5 of this Act.(j) To dispose in a commercially reasonable manner, at generally recognized market value, well site equipment, including an associated tank battery and production facility equipment, and any amount of hydrocarbons from the well that is stored on the lease, by either or both of the following methods after it has been determined to be abandoned by the Department through inclusion of the well in the Oil and Gas Well Site Plugging and Restoration Program:(1) a plugging contract may provide that the person plugging the well or remediating oil field waste pollution, or both, will have clear title, subject to any perfected, prior legal or equitable claim, on all well site equipment and hydrocarbons from the well that are stored on the lease, or hydrocarbons recovered during the plugging operation in exchange for a sum of money deducted as a credit from the contract price; or(2) the well site equipment, including but not limited to an associated tank battery and production facility equipment, hydrocarbons from the well that are stored on the lease, and hydrocarbons recovered during the plugging operation may be sold at a public auction or a public or private sale. All well site equipment and hydrocarbons acquired by a person by sale shall be acquired under clear title, subject to any perfected prior legal or equitable claims. P.A. 90-260, eff. 7/30/1997.