Proposed draft — not law
PROPOSED draft language under legal review — not enacted law, not a filed bill — Illinois only.
Digital Permitting and Records
Sealed drawings, revision history, and a tamper-evident audit trail for the whole permit file.
In plain language
The base draft modernizes monitoring and inspections, but the permit file itself — applications, plan drawings, equipment lists, inspection records — stays paper-shaped. PWO's additions define the digital counterpart and authorize its use.
§3.28 defines an electronic permitting and records system: a Department-approved system through which permit applications, plan drawings, equipment records, and inspection records are submitted, reviewed, versioned, and maintained — and which produces a tamper-evident audit record of each action taken.
Under §11.5, after May 1, 2030, permit applications — with their drawings, revisions, and equipment bill of materials — may be submitted and maintained through such a system. Drawings must preserve their full revision history and the professional seals of the people who prepared, reviewed, and approved them. The equipment list must include the manufacturer, model, and serial number of every water-quality testing device and every suction outlet cover or anti-entrapment device at the facility. And every submission, revision, comment, inspection, and decision lands in a tamper-evident audit record naming who acted and when.
Note the verb: "may." §11.5 is enabling, not mandatory — an operator can still file on paper. Whether Illinois should eventually require the electronic path is one of the open counsel questions.
What the July 2026 draft already covers
Nothing in the base draft addresses permitting mechanics: no definition of an electronic permitting system, no revision-history or professional-seal requirements for drawings, and no equipment serial-number registry.
What Pure Water Ops adds
Both sections are PWO additions in full: the §3.28 definition and the §11.5 operative section — sealed drawings with preserved revision history, serialized equipment records, and the tamper-evident audit trail.
“The system shall maintain a tamper-evident audit record of each submission, revision, comment, inspection, and decision, including the identity of the actor and the date and time of the action.”
What it means
For operators
One authoritative permit file: current drawings with their full revision chain and seals, equipment records by serial number, and no lost paperwork between the facility, its engineers, and the Department.
For regulators
Every action in the permit lifecycle is attributed and timestamped. A reviewer sees the current drawing and the complete history of how it got that way.
For the public
A permit history that cannot be quietly rewritten — every change to the record leaves a visible, attributable trace.