ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
October
29,
1987
IN THE MATTER OF:
PROPOSED SITE SPECIFIC WATER
POLLUTION RULES AND REGULATIONS
)
R81—19
APPLICABLE TO CITIZENS UTILITIES
)
ORDER OF THE BOARD
(by J. Theodore Meyer):
This matter
is before
the Board
on
a motion
to issue
subpoena duces tecum, filed October
22,
1987,
by the Illinois
Environmental Protection Agency (Agency).
On October
23,
1987,
petitioner Citizens Utilities Company of Illinois
(Citizens)
filed objections
to the motion and an alternative motion
to
quash.
The Agency seeks
to subpoena Thomas Stack, Assistant
Chief of the Rate Design Section of the Illinois Commerce
Commission
(ICC),
to speak
to the issue
of apportioning the
burden of rate increases over given service areas.
The motion
for subpoena
is directed
to the Hearing Officer, but asks that
it
be forwarded
to the Board
if necessary.
The Hearing Officer has
referred the motion
to the Board.
The instant petition for site—specific water pollution
regulations was filed on June
12,
1981.
Since that time,
numerous hearings have been held, and
the case has been appealed
to the Appellate Court, which remanded the proceeding.
In order
to avoid any further appeal before the conclusion of this
rulemaking,
the Board wishes to respond
to the arguments raised
by Citizens
in opposition
to the issuance of the requested
subpoena.
Citizens
first objects to the issuance of the subpoena
on
the grounds that the Hearing Officer does not have authority to
issue
the
subpoena.
Citizens contends that because
35 Ill. Adm.
Code 103.163(a)
states that subpoenas are to be issued “upon
timely motion
to the Board”, all motions by parties must be
directed
to
the Board and not to the Hearing Officer.
However,
Section
103.163(a)
applies to enforcement proceedings.
Regulatory proceedings such as
the instant case are governed by
35
Ill. Adm. Code 102.140, which provides that the Board
or the
Hearing Officer may issue subpoenas which conform to the
requirements of Section 103.163(b)
and
(c).
These subsections
deal with the form of
a subpoena and the authority to quash
or
modify
a
subpoena.
The Board
feels
that Sections 102.140
and
103.163(b)
and Cc)
give the Hearing Officer authority to issue
subpoenas and that motions for issuance of subpoena may be
directed to the Hearing Officer.
The Board
emphasizes,
however,
that
it will
issue
the subpoena
in
the
instant case pursuant
to
82—573
—2--
its own authority,
not through the Hearing Officer’s power.
Ill.
Rev.
Stat.
1985,
ch.
1111/2,
par. 1005(e).
Citizens also argues
that:
(1)
the motion
is untimely and
foreclosed because the Agency has not sought
to subpoena Mr.
Stack
at previous hearings;
and
(2)
the motion for subpoena
is
irrelevant because any deficiency in
the record
on economic
impact can only be satisfied by additional study by the
Department of Energy and Natural Resources (DENR),
not by
evidence presented by the Agency.
The Board finds
that these
arguments were rejected
in the Board’s April 10,
1986 Order
granting the Agency’s motion for interrogatories.
In that Order,
the Board concluded that the entire burden of
proof as to
economic
impact
is not on DENR.
The Board also noted that the
record
is as inadequate today as
it was prior
to the Appellate
Court’s remand.
The Board
finds that the conclusions of the
April
10,
1986 Order are equally applicable
to the instant
proceedings.
Finally, Citizens contends that the motion
for subpoena
is
improper.
Citizens asserts that:
(1)
Mr.
Stack,
a staff member
of the ICC,
cannot
speak
for the
ICC;
(2)
it
is improper
to call
as
a witness another regulatory agency having jurisdiction over
Citizens; and
(3)
to require Mr. Stack
to testify on rate matters
currently pending before the ICC could prejudice Citizens.
The
Board agrees that Mr.
Stack cannot testify to any future actions
of the ICC,
or
to his opinion on any such future actions.
However, the Board feels
that past practices of
the ICC in
apportioning rate increases are relevant to this proceeding,
and
that Mr.
Stack
is competent to testify to these matters.
For these reasons,
the Clerk
of the Board
is directed to
issue
the requested subpoena.
IT
IS SO ORDERED.
R.
Flemal
abstained.
I, Dorothy M. Gunn,
Clerk
of the Illinois Pollution Control
Board,
hereby certify ~
the above Order was adopted on
the
~5ctZT
day of
i~-~t~-
,
1987,
by a vote of
~
I
Dorothy M. Gunn,
Clerk
Illinois Pollution Control Board
82—574