ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BAORD
October 10,
1991
PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS,
Complainant,
PCB 90—112
V.
)
(Enforcement)
)
CHICAGO HEIGHTS REFUSE DEPOT,
INC.,
Respondent.
DISSENTING OPINION
(by J.D. Dumelle);
My dissent is based upon two points.
First, Count
I alleges
that this condition was violated:
All monitoring points shall
be maintained
such that a sample may be obtained.
The key word here
is
“maintained”.
The witnesses for the
respondent pointed out under oath that the groundwater wells were
not clogged with rocks and were thus “maintained” correctly.
The
complainant is obviously construing the word “maintained” to mean
“construct” or to mean “construct to a water bearing depth”.
One has to use plain meanings of words.
The meaning of “the
bridge was maintained”
is far different from the meaning of “the
bridge was constructed”.
And no one would give both meanings to
either operative word used alone.
The
second
point
is
that
the
IEPA
according
to
sworn
testimony,
wanted the
respondents groundwater wells
to be sunk
deeper in order to monitor the adjacent abandoned Fitz-Mar landfill
site.
See
R.
141
in the December
17,
1990 hearing.
Collin W.
Gray, the respondent’s witness, testified that this was stated to
him by
J.
Stephen Van
Hook,
the
IEPA
official
concerned with
monitoring
at
this
site.
No refutation
of Van Hook’s
alleged
statement appears
in the record.
Thus we have a permit condition which was given overly broad
meaning and an unrefuted sworn
statement that IEPA was
in
fact
trying to monitor the Fitz—Mar site’s groundwater when demanding
that the respondent’s wells be deepened.
The complainant did not carry its burden on this charge and
thus
I dissent.
Please note that the environment is not at risk
because the respondent will have to satisfy the closure and post—
126—445
closure regulations of the Board by filing an acceptable plan as
a permit modification.
1~u~j~
~
Eacob
D.
Dumelle, P.E.
Board Member
I,
Dorothy M.
Gunn,
Clerk of the Illinois Pollution Control
Board,
hereby certify~~atthe
above~~bise
g
opinion
was
submitte~don the
_________
day of
________________,
l99),~.
~
~
/~
Dorothy M. G~tn,C erk’
Illinois Po~9/utionControl Board
126—446