You’ve received a letter from us telling you your facility is in the “Red Tag” database at the Office of the State Fire Marshal (OSFM). You may be on this list for several reasons. The most common are because you have a tank that failed its tank tightness test. Other popular reasons to be in the Red Tag database are because your facility is closed, possibly abandoned and the tanks are still in the ground.
The OSFM is concerned with the health and human safety of the citizens of Illinois and petroleum products in the soil or groundwater are an obvious threat. The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA) shares authority with the OSFM because while not all environmental contamination is flammable, petroleum products definitely are and fire and its causes are squarely in the OSFM wheelhouse.
Red Tag – Property Value Killer
I probably don’t need to tell you this but having an Underground Storage Tank (UST) is a drag on the value of your property whether it’s leaking or not. Clearly, the leaking version of USTs is the greater drag on property values. In fact, you may have tried to refinance your property and found resistance from lenders who want the tanks removed in order to lend. You also may have tried to sell or redevelop your property only to find buyers unwilling to purchase the property without the tanks removed.
Often the facilities we work on are marginally located gas stations that would make better locations for a coffee shop, donut shop, bank or restaurant. With the clock ticking on the tank life, removing the tanks and having options to sell the property to other developers including gas stations is the smarter play. All tanks have an allowed service life, at a certain point, the OSFM will make you remove them, especially if they have been red tagged or out of service for 5 years.
Finding Your Facility at the OSFM Website
I’d like to help you find your facilities red tag and complete file on the OSFM website.
Illinois Office of the State Fire Marshal Red Tag Database Link
Assets Not Liabilities
Click through the link above which will open in another browser window into the OSFM Red Tag database. They have no search function in here so you’ll have to do it old school. If you’re reading this website because of a letter we sent you, you will want to find your “Facility Number” on the letter we provided. Once on the red tag database page, hit the “control” and “F” button at the same time. If you’re on a MAC, hit the command and F buttons at the same time. You’ll get a small search screen which will open, most likely at the top of your screen somewhere. Enter your Facility Number and it will take you to your database record. If you don’t have a facility number you can enter small pieces of your tank location street address. Try the town or zipcode the tank is located in. Or try just the numbers from the street address, so if it was located at 123 Main Street, just enter 123 into the search-box that hitting “control F” opened for you.
At this point you should be able to see how many tanks are red tagged, what they held, and how long they were red tagged for. Most importantly you can see your facility number if you did not have it before.
Finding Your Complete Facility Records at the OSFM Website
Now if you want to get into the nitty-gritty of whats going on with your case, you can click on the link below and search your facility number.
Illinois Office of the State Fire Marshal Underground Storage Tank (UST) Database
At this point you can read to your hearts content about your UST case. Hopefully you aren’t one of the cases that has been referred to the Illinois Attorney General.
How A3 Environmental Consultants Can Help
We can do the science necessary to get your tank removed and remediated. We don’t do the actual tank pull ourselves but we can coordinate it with State of Illinois certified tank contractors. If you had a leak or worse yet, free product, we may be able to enroll you in the Leaking Underground Storage Tank program which is essentially an insurance program to help you clean your property. If you want to move faster and have the money to spend, the Site Remediation Program can be a good option too. We can help get your project finished and the regulators off your back. Call us at (630) 507-9033 or email at LUST@A3E.com
