ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
July 23, 2009
AMEREN ENERGY GENERATING
COMPANY and GIBSON CITY POWER
PLANT,
Petitioners,
v.
ILLINOIS ENVIRONMENTAL
PROTECTION AGENCY,
Respondent.
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PCB 09-93
(CAAPP Permit Appeal - Air)
ORDER OF THE BOARD (by G.T. Girard):
On April 23, 2009, Ameren Energy Generating Company and Gibson City Power
Plant (Ameren) timely filed a petition (Pet.) asking the Board to review a March 19,
2009, determination of the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (Agency).
See
415
ILCS 5/40.2(a) (2006); 35 Ill. Adm. Code 101.300(b), 105.302(e). The Agency’s
determination concerns Ameren’s combustion turbines at the Gibson City Power Plant,
located at 545 North Jordan Drive, Gibson City, Ford County. Ameren appeals on
several grounds including that numerous conditions within the renewed permit are
arbitrary, capricious, unnecessary, unauthorized by law, unreasonable, or vague. Pet. at
3-6. Ameren challenges the inclusion of these conditions and asks the Board to stay their
effect until ultimately ruling on the merits.
Id
. at 7. On May 7, 2009, the Board accepted
the permit appeal for hearing, but reserved ruling on the motion to stay.
In Ameren’s request for partial stay, Ameren argues “[h]istorically, the Board has
granted partial stays in permit appeals where a petitioner has so requested.” Pet. at 2
(citations omitted). Ameren asks “that the Board exercise its inherent discretionary
authority to grant a partial stay of the CAPP permit, staying only those conditions or
portions of conditions indicated in Exhibit 2,
i.e.,
Conditions 5.6.2, 5.7.2, 5.9.2, 7.1.3(f),
7.1.3(f)(iv), 7.1.5(a)(iii)(A), 7.1.S(a)(iii), 7.1.9(1), 7.1.9(m), 7.1.10(e), and 7. 1.1 2(e),
during the pendency of this appeal.” Pet. at 3,
see
Exh. 2. Exhibit 2 to the petition is a
“redlined” version of the permit that indicates the conditions or parts of the conditions
Ameren seeks to stay.
Id
.
Section 101.500(d) of the Board’s procedural rules provides that, “[w]ithin 14
days after service of a motion, a party may file a response to the motion. If no response is
filed, the party will be deemed to have waived objection to the granting of the motion, but
the waiver of objection does not bind the Board or the hearing officer in its disposition of
the motion.” 35 Ill. Adm. Code 101.500(d). The Agency has filed no response to
Ameren’s request for a partial stay.
2
In Community Landfill Co. and City of Morris v. IEPA, PCB 01-48, 01-49, slip
op. at 4 (Oct. 19, 2000), the Board found “that it has the authority to grant discretionary
stays from permit conditions.” The Board noted that it “has previously granted or denied
discretionary stays in permit appeals, both when the Agency did and did not consent to
such stays.”
Id
. (citations omitted). The Board elaborated that “[t]he permit appeal
system would be rendered meaningless in many cases, if the Board did not have the
authority to stay permit conditions.”
Id
.
The Board has reviewed Ameren’s request for partial stay and Ameren’s exhibit
2, which is entitled “Redlined Version through Section 8”. The Board notes that Exhibit
2 strikes the permit conditions 5.6.2, 5.7.2, 5.9.2, 7.1.3(f), 7.1.3(f)(iv), 7.1.5(a)(iii)(A),
7.1.S(a)(iii), 7.1.9(1), 7.1.9(m), 7.1.10(e), and 7. 1.1 2(e).
See
Exh. 2.
The Board grants the requested partial stay and permit conditions 5.6.2, 5.7.2,
5.9.2, 7.1.3(f), 7.1.3(f)(iv), 7.1.5(a)(iii)(A), 7.1.S(a)(iii), 7.1.9(1), 7.1.9(m), 7.1.10(e), and
7. 1.1 2(e), are stayed as requested by Ameren. The stay remains in effect until the Board
takes final action on the permit appeal or until the Board orders otherwise.
IT IS SO ORDERED.
I, John Therriault, Assistant Clerk of the Illinois Pollution Control Board, certify
that the Board adopted the above order on July 23, 2009, by a vote of 5-0.
___________________________________
John Therriault, Assistant Clerk
Illinois Pollution Control Board
