ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
May 14,
1987
JOLIET
SAND
AND
GRAVEL
COMPANY,
)
Petitioner,
)
v.
)
PCB 87—55
)
ILLINOIS ENVIRONMENTAL
)
PROTECTION AGENCY,
)
)
Respondent..
)
ORDER OF THE BOARD (by
B.. Forcade):
On April
30, 1987,
Joliet Sand and Gravel Company filed a
petition for hearing to contest permit denial,.
This matter
is
accepted for hearing.
Hearing must be scheduled within
14
days of the date of this
Order
and completed within 60 days of the date of this Order..
The hearing officer shall
inform the Clerk of the Board of the
time and location of the hearing as expeditiously as possible but
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,
and all actual exhibits to the
Board within
5 days of the hearing..
Any briefing schedule shall
provide for final filings as expeditiously as possible and
in no
event later
than 70 days from the date of this Order..
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..
This schedule will
only provide
the. Board
a very short time period to deliberate and
reach a decision before the due date..
The hearing officer and
the parties are encouraged to expedite this proceeding as much as
possible..
Within 10 days
of accepting this case, the Hearing Officer
shall enter
a Hearing Officer
Scheduling Order governing
completion of the record..
That Order shall set a date certain
for
each aspect of the case including:
briefing schedule,
hearing date(s), completion of discovery (if necessary)
and pre—
hearing conference
(if necessary)..
The Hearing Officer
Scheduling Order may be modified by entry of a complete new
scheduling order conforming with the time requirements below..
78-30
—2—
The hearing officer may extend this schedule only on a
waiver of the decision deadline by the petitioner and only for
the equivalent or fewer number
of days that the decision deadline
is waived,.
Such waivers must be provided in writing to the Clerk
of the Board..
Any waiver must be an Nopen waiver”
or a waiver of
decision until a date certain..
Because of requirements regarding the publication of notice
of hearing,
no scheduled hearing may be canceled unless the
petitioner provides an open waiver or
a waiver to a date at least
75 days beyond the date of the motion to cancel hearing..
This
should allow ample time for the Board to republish notice of
hearing and receive transcripts from the hearing before the due
date..
Any order
by the hearing officer granting cancellation of
hearing shall include a complete new scheduling order with a new
hearing date at least 40 days in the future and at least
30 days
prior
to the new due date and the Clerk of the Board shall
be
promptly informed of the new schedule,.
Because this proceeding
is the type for which the Illinois
Environmental Protection Act sets a very short statutory deadline
for decisionniaking, absent a waiver,
the Board will grant
extensions or modifications only in unusual circumstances..
Any
such motion must set forth an alternative schedule for notice,
hearing, and final submissions, as well as the deadline for
decision,
including response time to such a motion..
However, no
such motion shall negate the obligation of the hearing officer to
establish a scheduling Order pursuant to the fourth paragraph of
this Order,
and to adhere to that Order
until modified,.
The Board notes that Joliet appealed a previous denial of
this permit to the Board, and the Board,
in PCB 86—159, affirmed
the Agency’s denial..
Joliet has appealed the Board’s decision to
the Illinois Appellate Court
in Joliet Sand and Gravel Company
v..
Illinois Pollution Control Board and Illinois Environmental
Protection Agency, Appeal No
3—87—0141,.
That case
is presently
pending before the Appellate
Court..
The Board questions whether
it has jurisdiction to adjudicate
the present petition in light
of the Appellate Court’s jurisdiction over that appeal..
The
Board does not have sufficient facts before it to determine
whether the instant petition is an action separate and distinct
from the prior petition,
or whether these actions are,
in fact,
so similar
as to divest the Board of its jurisdiction,.
Therefore, the Board requests that the parties submit briefs on
this
issue..
The briefs shall be due within twenty—one
(21) days
of the date of this Order,.
IT
IS SO ORDERED
Board Member Joan Anderson concurred,.
78-31
—3—
I, Dorothy
M,. Gunn, Clerk of the Illinois Pollution Control
Board, hereby certify that the above Order was adopted on
the
/~L~dayof
_____________________,
1987,
by a vote
of
(~—o
..
Dorothy M../Gunn, Clerk
Illinois Pollution Control Board