ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD

September

20,

1985

\LTON

PACKAGING CORPORATION,

Petitioner,

v.

)

PCB 83—49

PCB 83—55

ILLINOIS ENVIRONMENTAL

PROTECTiON AGENCY,

Respondent.

ORDER OF THE BOARD

(by J.D.

Dumelle):

This matter

comes before the Board upon a September

4,

1985

motion

for reconsideration and

to vacate dismissal filed on

behalf of the Alton Packaging Corp.

(Alton).*

The Illinois

Environmental Protection Agency (Agency)

responded

in opposition

on September 18, 1985.

On July

1, 1985 the Board adopted

an Order dismissing

this

matter due

to Alton’s

failure

to proceed diligently toward

final

ruling.

Alton contends that the Board’s action was improper

in

that “Alton had,

prior

to the December

7,

1984 hearing

in this

matter, diligently prosecuted

its petitions and had, subsequent

to that time,

a reasonable explanation, not known to

the Board

at

tue

time of

its Order,

for

the delay in filing

its amended

petition.”

(Motion,

pp. 1—2).

The Board disagrees.

Pursuant to Section 38(b)

of

the

Illinois Environmental Protection Act, Alton

stayed

the effect

ol

an otherwise applicable rule for well over two years on

the basis

of

filing

a variance petition which

the Board

could have ordered

to hearing

5 days after

the date of notice of hearing.

Section

38(b)

grants unusual relief which clearly contemplates an

unusually expeditious proceeding.

Yet, in its conclusion

to its

motion Alton speaks of the “relatively

short delay”

of nearly

seven months

in filing

(or rather

not filing)

an amended petition

after

the December

7,

1984 hearing which

the Board had earlier

ordered

to

be held

at least three months before that date based

upon

the

apparent inactivity

in the proceeding since

the filing

of

the

Illinois Environmental Protection Agency’s recommendation

more

than

ten months before that.

This proceeding has been anything but expeditious, and Alton

should

no longer be allowed to benefit from the unusual

relief of

Section 38(b).

Therefore,

the motion

to reconsider

and vacate

is

*

A corrected copy was

submitted on September

13,

1985.

65-463

---

2

hereby denied.

Alton

is,

of course,

free to file a new petition.

IT

iS SO ORDERED.

I,

Dorothy

M.

Gunn, Clerk of the Illinois Pollution Control

Board, hereby certify that the above Order was adopted on

the

______________

day

øf,,

,

1985 by vote

of

___________.

Dorothy M. Gunn,

Clerk

Illinois Pollution Control Board