ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
October
6, 1994
CONCERNED CITIZENS OF
)
WILLIAMSON COUNTY, and REV.
)
PAUL CRAIN and ROSE ROWELL, as
)
MEMBERS OF CONCERNED CITIZENS
)
OF
WILLIAMSON
COUNTY,
and
)
individually,
Petitioner,
)
v.
)
PCB 94—262
)
(Landfill Siting Review)
BILL KIBLER DEVELOPMENT CORP.,
)
a/k/a KIBLER DEVELOPMENT
CORP.,
)
and the WILLIAMSON COUNTY BOARD
)
of COMMISSIONERS for and in
)
behalf of the COUNTY of
)
WILLIAMSON in the State of
)
Illinois,
)
Respondent.
ORDER OF THE BOARD:
This matter is before the Board on an appeal filed pursuant
to paragraph
(b)
of Section 40.1 of the Environmental Protection
Act 415
ILCS 5/40.13 on
September 21,
1994 by the Concerned
Citizens of Williamson County (~Citizens”),Rev. Paul Cram
(“Cram”) and Rose Rowell
(“Rowell”), as members of the Concerned
Citizens of Williamson County from the decision of the Williamson
County Board of Commissioners granting local siting approval to
Bill Kibler
Development Corp., a/k/a Kibler Development Corp.,
for the regional pollution control facility,
located in
Williamson County.
The cited section of the Act requires the Board to hear the
instant petition if it has been filed by a third party other than
the applicant if that party participated in the public hearing
conducted by the county board or municipal governing body which
has granted siting approval, unless it determines that the
petition is duplicitous or frivolous,
or that the petitioner is
so located as to not be affected by the proposed facility.
An
action before the Board is duplicitous if the matter is identical
or substantially similar to one brought in another forum (Brandle
V.
Ropp, PCB 85—68,
64 PCB 263
(1985)).
An action before the
Board is frivolous if it fails to state a cause of action upon
which relief can be granted by the Board
(Citizens for a Better
Environment
V.
Reynolds Metals Co., PCB 73—173,
8 PCB 46
(1973)).
The petition indicates that the Citizens, Cram
and Rowell
2
participated in the previous public hearing.
There is no
evidence before the Board to indicate this matter is identical or
substantially similar to any matter brought in another forum, nor
is there any evidence that the Board cannot grant the relief
requested.
There
is also no evidence before the Board to suggest
that the petitioner
is so located as to not be affected by the
proposed facility.
At this time, therefore, the Board finds
that, pursuant to 35 Ill. Adm. Code 103.124 (a), the complaint is
neither duplicitous nor frivolous,
that the petitioner
participated in the prior public hearing and that the petitioner
is or may be so located as to be affected by the proposed
facility.
Accordingly, this matter shall proceed to hearing.
However, the Board cannot conclusively determine whether
this case was timely filed as the petition fails to provide the
Board with a copy of the Village’s decision.
If an amended
petition curing this deficiency is not filed within 14 days of
the date of this order, this matter will be subject to dismissal.
The filing of an amended petition will restart the Board’s
decision timeclock, although the Board will look to the
petitions’ original filing dates
in making any determination as
to the timeliness of the filing of the appeal pursuant to Section
40.1.
Record Before Williamson County
P.A. 82—682, also known as SB—172,
as codified in Section
40.1(a)
of the Act, provides that the hearing before the Board
is
to “be based exclusively on the record before the county board or
governing body of the municipality”.
The statute does not
specify who is to file with the Board such record or who is to
certify to the completeness or correctness of the record.
As the Williamson County Board of Commissioners alone can
verify and certify what exactly is the entire record before it,
in the interest of protecting the rights of all parties to this
action, and in order to satisfy the intention of SB-172, the
Board believes that the Williamson County Board of Commissioners
must be the party to prepare and file the record on appeal.
The
Board suggests that guidance in so doing can be had by reference
to Rules 321 through 324 of the Illinois Supreme Court Rules.
The record shall contain legible versions of all documents,
transcripts, and exhibits deemed to pertain to this proceeding
from initial filing through and including final action by the
local government body.
The record shall contain the originals of
all documents,
shall be arranged as much as possible in
chronological sequence, and shall be sequentially numbered,
placing the letter “C” before the number of such page.
In
addition to the actual documents which comprise the record, the
Williamson County Clerk shall also prepare a document entitled
“Certificate of Record on Appeal” which shall be an index of the
record that lists the documents comprising the record and shows
3
the page number upon which they start and end.
Seven copies of
the certificate, seven copies of the transcript of the Williamson
County Board of Commissioners hearing and three copies of any
other documents in the record shall be filed with the Board,
and
a copy of the certificate shall be served upon the petitioner (s).
The Clerk of
Williamson County is given 21 days from the date of
this Order to “prepare, bind and certify the record on appeal”
(Ill. Supreme Court, Rule 324).
If the record is not legible,
is
not sequentially numbered,
or fails to include an appropriate
index of record, the Clerk of the Pollution Control Board may
refuse to accept the document for filing.
Waiver of Decision Deadline
Section 40.1(a) provides that if there is no final action by
the Board within 120 days, petitioner may deem the site location
approved.
The Board has construed identical “in accordance with the
terms of” language contained in Section 40(b) of the Act
concerning third—party
appeals of the grant of hazardous waste
landfill permits as giving the person who had requested the
permit a) the right to a decision within the applicable statutory
time frame
(now 120 days), and b) the right to waive (extend) the
decision period
(Alliance for a Safe Environment, et al. v. Akron
Land CorP.
et al., PCB 80-184, October 30,
1980).
The Board
therefore construes Section 40.1(b) in like manner, with the
result that failure of this Board to act in 120 days would allow
the site location applicant to deem the site location approved.
Pursuant to Section 105.104 of the Procedural Rules,
it is each
party’s responsibility to pursue its action, and to insist that a
hearing on the petition is timely scheduled in order to allow the
Board to review the record and to render its decision within 120
days of the filing of the petition.
Transcription Costs
The issue of who has the burden of providing transcription
in Board site location suitability appeals has been addressed in
Town of Ottawa, et al.
V.
IPCBI et al.,
129 Ill.
App. 3rd, 472
N.E.2d 150
(Third District,
1984).
In that case, the Court
ordered the Board to assume transcription costs
(472 N.E.2d at
155).
The Supreme Court denied leave to appeal on March 14,
1985.
In cognizance of this ruling, the Board will provide for
stenographic transcription of the Board hearing in this matter.
Schedulinci and Conduct of Hearing
The hearing must be scheduled and completed in a timely
manner, consistent with Board practices and the applicable
statutory decision deadline, or the decision deadline as extended
by a waiver
(the siting applicant may file a waiver of the
4
statutory decision deadline pursuant to 35 Ill.
Adm. Code
101.105).
The Board will assign a hearing officer to conduct
hearings consistent with this hearing, and the Clerk of the Board
shall promptly issue appropriate directions to that assigned
hearing officer.
The assigned hearing officer shall inform the Clerk of the
Board of the time and location of the hearing at least 40 days in
advance of hearing so that public notice of hearing may be
published.
After hearing, the hearing officer shall submit an
exhibit list,
a statement regarding credibility of witnesses and
all actual exhibits to the Board within five days of the hearing.
Any briefing schedule shall provide for final filings as
expeditiously as possible and,
in time—limited cases,
no later
than 30 days prior to the decision due date, which is the final
regularly scheduled Board meeting date on or before the statutory
or deferred decision deadline.
As stated on page two, the filing
of an amended petition will restart the Board’s decision
timeclock.
If after appropriate consultation with the parties, the
parties fail to provide an acceptable hearing date or if after an
attempt the hearing officer is unable to consult with the
parties, the hearing officer shall unilaterally set a hearing
date in conformance with the schedule above.
The hearing officer
and the parties are encouraged to expedite this proceeding as
much as possible.
IT IS SO ORDERED.
I, Dorothy N.
Gunn,
Clerk of the Illinois Pollution Control
Board,
hereby certi~ytj~atthe above order was adopted on the
~
day of
/
,
1994,
by
a
vote
of
_________
2
Control Board