ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
December
21, 1971
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
v.
)
PCB 71-298
CITY OF WAUKEGAN,
a Municipal
Corporation; ZION STATE BANK
AND TRUST COMPANY,
a Bank
)
chartered by the State of
Illinois; T-K CITY DISPOSAL
INC.,
an Illinois Corporation;
TEWES COMPANY,
INC.,
an liii-
nois Corporation
Lee Campbell, appearing on behalf of
the Environmental Protection
Agency
Murray Conzelman, appearing on behalf
of the City of Waukegan
John Sloan,
appearing on
behalf of T-K Disposal Inc.
and Tewes
Company,
Inc.
Donald Lindquist, appearing on behalf of the Zion Bank and Trust
Company
OPINION OF THE BOARD
(by Mr.
Kissel):
On October
1,
1971,
the Environmental Protection Agency
(the “Agency”)
filed a complaint with the Board alleging that on
certain dates
in June of 1971 the City of Waukegan, T-K Disposal,
Inc., and Tewes Company,
Inc. operated
a landfill site
in the
City of Waukegan,
contrary to the Environmental Protection Act
and the Rules and Regulations promulgated thereunder.
Specifically,
Waukegan and
the Zion Bank were accused of operating the site
without first obtaining
the permit required by Section
21(e)
of
the Act,
of causing or allowing open dumping
as prohibited by
21(b)
of the Act, Rule
3.04 of the Rules and Regulations
for Refuse Dis-
posal
Sites
and Facilities
(the “Refuse Rules”),
and Section 471
of the Refuse Disposal Sites
and Facilities Act,
of failing to
adequately spread and compact the refuse and apply daily cover
as
required by
Rules
5.06 and 5.07(a)
of
the
Refuse Rules,
of not
providing fencing,
access and sanitary facilities
as
required by
3
301
Rule 5.02 of the Refuse Rules, and of creating a water pollution
hazard contrary to Section 12(d) of the Act by the improper de-
positing of contaminants on the land near water, and T—K Disposal
and Tewes are accused of having deposited refuse on the site in
violation of Section
21(f) of the Act.
The Agency asked that
Waukegan and the Zion Bank be required to apply for an operating
permit for the site and properly close the site.
In addition,
the Agency requested that an order be entered by the Board direct-
ing all respondents to cease and desist from further violation of
the Act and applicable regulations, and that money penalties be
assessed against each of the respondents.
In response, the City
of Waukegan, Tewes and T-K Disposal filed “special and limited”
appearances and moved to dismiss the complaint on various grounds
which challenged the jurisdiction of the Board.
A hearing was
held on the complaint of November 23,
1971 before Michael Berkman,
Hearing Officer.
Before discussing the events of the case, we must first turn
to a consideration of the motions to dismiss filed by Waukegan and
Tewes.
~J
The three grounds of Waukegan’s motion to dismiss will
be dealt with separately:
(1)
That Section 42 of the Act permits actions only be
filed in the name of the People of the State of Illinois and
brought only by
the State’s Attorney or the Attorney General,
and thus, the action brought here in the name of the Environmental
Protection Agency was improper.
We disagree.
The action brought
in this case is indeed permittea by Section 31(a) of the Act
which not only gives the Agency authority to file a complaint,
as it did in this case, but requires it to do so when its inves-
tigation discloses that “a violation
of
the Act or the Rules
and Regulations) may exist”,
Section 103(a), Chapter 111-1/2,
Ill.
Rev.
Stat.
In addition, in this case one of Waukegan’s
objections is moot because the Attorney General did prosecute the
case.
(2)
Section 33(b) of the Act is unconstitutional insofar
as it permits the Board to impose money penalties, and therefore
confers judicial power
upon
an administrative
body.
We have dealt
with .this argument on other occasions and particularly in the case
of EPA
V.
Modern Plating Corp. ,PCB 70-38, May 3,
1971;
see par-
ticularily pages
3-13.
We adopt the reasoning in that case here that
1)
For purposes of brevity and clarity, the use of the word
“Tewes” will mean both Tewes and T—K Disposal, unless otherwise
indicated.
3— 3fl~
Illinois has long recognized
the right of the legislature to confer
quasi—judicial power, including the power to impose money penalties,
on administrative agencies.
As
the Modern Plating opinion pointed
out,
the granting of these powers is not novel, but “What is novel
is that an argument against such authority can still be heard today”,
supra, page
4.
(3)
The Board does not have the power to enter a cease and desist
order since the complaint did not allege a continuing violation
of
the Act or the Rules, or the lack of an adequate remedy at law.
This argument has even less merit than does the other point
made
by Waukegan.
The Board has th~power to impose cease and desist
orders under Section 33(b)
of the Act; and may enter such orders
as it deems necessary under the Act to stop violations of the law
or the regulations.
In this case, there could be a continuing
violation of the law if the City failed to properly cover the
landfill as required or
if the City failed to get the required
permit,
and this was alleged as
a violation.
Whether a cease and
desist order will be entered by the Board, however, is to be deter-
mined by the facts of ihe case obtained after hearing, and it is
not a proper issue to be raised before the hearing in a motion
to
dismiss.
For these reasons we believe that the motion to dismiss
should be denied.
Tewes also filed a motion to dismiss on similar
grounds and that should be denied as well.
Waukegan, T-K Disposal,
and Tewes are subject to the jurisdiction of this Board,
and if
the evidence warrants it, can have penalties and a cease and desist
order entered against them by the Board.
One other procedural
point.
Waukegan and Tewes filed a jury
demand in this case, apparently contending that they are entitled
to a jury trial in any complaint seeking penalties under the Act.
We have previously dealt with this matter of the right to trial by
jury in EPA v. Modern Plating Corp., supra, and we adopt that opinion
here.
Generally, in administrative matters, the Illinois Courts
have, held constitutional the imposition of penalties by administra-
tive ~gencies without a trial by jury.
See People v.
Crawford,
80
Ills
App.
2d 237,
255 NE
2d 80
(1967) and Department of Finance
v.
Cohen.1
369 111.510,
17 NE 2d 327
(1938).
The demand for a jury
trial by ‘Waukegan and Tewes will, therefore, be denied.
Now to the events of the case.
Each year the City of Waukegan
sponsors
a program called the “Spring Clean Up Week”.
The citizens
of the town are encouraged to dispose of solid refuse of varying
kinds
(but not garbage) and the City picks up the refuse for de-
positing at a disposal site.
In 1971,
“Spring. Clean Up Week” ran
from June 14 through June 18.
Waukegan hired Tewes
to handle the
wastes collected during the week and also made arrangements with the
owner of the property located northeast of the intersection of But-
rick Road and Wilson Avenue and south of Blanchard Road in Waukegan
3
303
to dump the refuse on that property.
This kind of arrangement was
typical of other years during the
“Spring Clean Up”.
Before discussing the specific violations alleged by the
Agency, we should first deal with the matter of the liability of
the Zion Bank,
The testimony showed that the Zion Bank merely
held this property as
a trustee in a land trust.
The Bank did
not receive any benefits’ of ownership of the property, and merely
held the
title
from the beneficiaries of the
trust.
This
kind
of ownership, without involvement in the management of the property
itself,
is not enough to impose liability in the Zion Bank.
There
was no proof that the bank made substantial decisions about the
use of the property.
We,therefore, relieve the Zion Bank of any
responsibility for the use of the site.
By this decision we are
not saying that the trustees of land trusts will be automatically
released from responsibility, but we are saying that no proof
existed that this trustee,
the Zion Bank, participated in,
or had
anything to do with, decisions concerning the use of the property.
The first allegation made by the Agency is that Waukegan and
the Zion Bank failed to get a permit as required by Section 21(e)
of the Act.
Since we have relieved the Zion
Bank
from any respon-
sibility, we will only consider whether Waukegan should have gotten
a permit.
Section
21(e)
of the Act provides that:
“No person shall:
(e)
Conduct any refuse—collection or refuse-disposal
operations, except for refuse generated by the
operator’s own activities, without a permit granted
by the Agency upon such conditions, including
periodic reports and full access to adequate records
and the inspection of facilities, as may be necessary
to assure compliance with this Act and with regula-
tions adopted thereunder,
.
The Agency proved that Waukegan did not apply
for, or receive, a
permit from the Agency as required by the above quoted Section of
the Act.
Waukegan either knew, or should have known, that a permit
was necessary before it could operate a refuse disposal site.
The
Section is clear in stating the obligation of the City to get a
permit.
Since it didn’t,
it violated the Act.
it is clear that
the exception pertaining
to refuse “generated by the operator’s ac-
tivities” does not apply to the facts of the case.
The refuse
deposited at the site in this case was generated by the residents
of Waukegan and not by the activities of the City in performing its
daily affairs.
Simply put, Waukegan violated Section 21(e)
of the
3
304
Act in failing to apply for and receive a permit before operating
the refuse disposal site described herein.
Violations of many of the Refuse Rules were also proved.
The
uncontradicted testimony was that there was no fencing of the site
(96,
161)
as required by Rule 4.03(a)
of the Refuse Rules, and there
were no sanitary facilities
(98,
161,
213) and shelter
(97, 161,
213)
as required by Rule 4.03(c)
of the Refuse Rules.
~Obviously,Waukegan
regarded this
as a “temporary” refuse facility, but even so, it
must have complied with the Act and the Refuse Rules as stated.
It
didn’t.
In addition to the violations detailed above, Waukegan was
also accused of open dumping of refuse,
failure to compact the refuse,
failure to confine the dumped refuse to the “smallest practicable
area,
and failure to adequately cover the refuse after it was dumped.
Each of the violations were proved on certain dates between June 14
and June 18, 1971.
Open dumping by Waukegan trucks was demonstrated
by the uncontradicted testimony of three witnesses on each of the
days in question.
The witnesses testified to actually seeing the
trucks, marked with the name of the City of Waukegan, dumping refuse
on the site,
and coupled with the evidence outlined below concerning
the failure to cover the refuse,
the proof of open dumping couldn’t
be clearer.
It is certainly true that to prove “open dumping” as
described in the Refuse Regulations, one must show that not only was
there dumping in the open on an unapproved site, but that the
material was not properly covered
as required by the Refuse Rules.
One witness testified that the equipment (bulldozer) on the
site was doing nothing more than packing the refuse around to make
a clearer way for the incoming dumping trucks.
Another said that
the area of dumping was too large and was therefore uncontrollable.
It is difficult from the testimony to say that Waukegan used these
“bad practices” every day, but we can say that from the evidence
the site was not being operated as
it should have been.
The witnesses attempted to say that Waukegan did not provide
adequate cover on the refuse as required by Rule 5.07(a) which re-
quires a daily cover of at least six inches of material on the
refuse.
But as the attorney for Waukeganpointed out, none of the
witnesses were at the site at the end of the day to definitely
prove that adequate cover was not used.
The testimony of the witnes-
ses generally
is that they observed the same refuse from one day
to the next which to them demonstrated that adequate cover had not
been properly applied.
We agree, but we can only find violations
on June
18 and 19 when the same refuse was actually found by the
witnesses on the next day.
It would be eminently more convincing
i~more photos had been taken of the actual refuse site to prove
that cover had not been applied.
3
—
305
We
now turn to the question of liability of Tewes and T—K
Disposal.
Tewes and T-K Disposal are only alleged to be guilty
of open dumping in violation of Section
21(f)
of
the Act.
Neither
company had
the
responsibility of doing anything with the site
itself.
They merely contracted to bring the refuse
to
the site
and deposit it.
From the testimony,
they did their job well.
They were seen dumping refuse on June
15
(Tewes and T—K Disposal),
June 16
(Tewes), and June
17
(Tewes and T-K Disposal).
No permit
was required of Tewes or T-K Disposal to dump refuse on the site,
and therefore the question
is whether
they
should be held respon-
sible
for depositing refuse on a site apparently authorized
for dump-
ing
by the City of Waukegan.
We think they should be held to the
responsibility of inquiring
as, to whether a permit has been issued
for the
site and therefore whether it is a proper place
for the
disposal of refuse.
To hold otherwise would allow collusion
between cities and dumpers,
allowing those who do the dumping to
walk away with ignorance and say
“I didn’t know I couldn’t dump
there.”
Open dumping is
a serious environmental problem like
open burning.
Both are
the
grossest of violations and those who
are involved in conducting them must be held to accept the con-
sequences.
To require that Tewes
or P—K Disposal inquire about
the site in advance
is not an unreasonable burden~. Apparently,
both companies are in the business of hauling refuse and have done
so many times
in the past.
These are not people unfamiliar with
the laws of open dumping,
so to allow
them
to go free in this case
would give carte blanche to all haulers of refuse in the state to
dump anywhere they wish and say
“I didn’t know.”
Furthermore,
the Agency telephoned T-K Disposal on June 15,
1971,
and advised
them that continued use of the site would violate Section 21(f)
of the Act.
This telephone call was confirmed by a letter sent
to Mr. Tewes of P-K Disposal on June
16,
1971.
See complainant’s
Exhibit
8.
In fact,
then, Tewes knew that further use of the site
could subject him to an action before the Board.
He took the risk
and lost.
This opinion constitutes the findings of fact and conclusions
of law of the Board.
3—
306
ORDER
Based upon the evidence and exhibits
in the record,
the
Board hereby orders the following:
1.
Waukegan shall pay
a money penalty to the State
of Illinois in the amount of $1,000 for its failure
to obtain
a permit, failure
to provide fencing
around
the
site,
failure
to
post
a
proper
sign,
failure
to provide shelter,
failure to compact
refuse, open dumping, failure
to confine the
refuse to the smallest practicable area,
and
failure
to
adequately
cover
the
refuse
after
it
was dumped, all in violation of the Act and the
Regulations
as
described
in
the
2.
Waukegan.~shal.l
not
operate
the
refuse
disposal
site
described
in
this
opinion
without
first
applying
fo~
a
permit
as
required
in
the
Act.
3.
Tewes and
P-K
Disposal
shall
each
pay
a
money
penalty
to
the
State
of
Illinois
of
$250
for
the dumping of refuse as described in the opinion.
Mr.
Dumelle
will
submit
a
Supplemental
Statement.
I,
Christan
Moffett,
Acting
Clerk
of
the
Polluti,on
Control
Board,
certify
that
the
Board
adopted
the
above
Opinion
and
Order
this
21st
day
of
December,
1971
by
a
vote
of
4-0.
~
~
~(
3—
307