ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD

March 8, 1990

GRANITE CITY STEEL DIVISION

)

OF NATIONAL STEEL CORPORATION,

)

)

Petitioner,

v.

)

PCB 90-30

)

(Variance)

ILLINOIS ENVIRONMENTAL

)

PROTECTION AGENCY,

)

Respondent.

ORDER OF THE BOARD (by B. Forcade):

On March 5, 1990, the Granite City Steel Division of National

Steel Corporation filed a petition for variance from the Board’s

rules at 35 Ill. Adm. Code 302.102, 302.208, 302.210 and Subpart

F. 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.

---

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 “open 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

120 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 decisionmaking, 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.

This Order will not appear in the Board’s Opinion Volumes.

IT IS SO ORDEREDb

I, Dorothy M. Gunn, Clerk of the Illinois Pollution Control

Board, hereby certify that the above Order was adopted on the

~day

of

___________________,

1990, by a vote of

7O

Control Board