ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
    May 19,
    1994
    SANGANON
    COUNTY,
    Complainant,
    AC 94—12
    v.
    )
    (County No. SCDPH-94-AC-3)
    )
    (Administrative Citation)
    ESG WATTS,
    INC.,
    Respondent.
    ORDER OF THE BOARD
    (by C.
    A. Manning):
    On May 5,
    1994,
    the respondent, ESG Watts, Inc.
    (ESG)
    filed
    a motion to file petition for review instanter.
    Sangamon County
    filed the administrative citation against ESG on March 14,
    1994.
    Pursuant to Section 31.1(d) (1) the Board entered a default order
    against ESG upholding the violation on May 5,
    1994.
    The administrative citation process,
    a creature of statute,
    has built—in time constraints for the complainant, the respondent
    and this Board.
    Section 31.1(d) (1)
    states:
    If the person named in the administrative citation
    fails to petition the Board for review within 35 days
    from the date of service, the Board shall adopt a final
    order, which shall include the administrative citation
    and findings of violation as alleged in the citation,
    and shall impose the penalty specified in subdivision
    (b) (4)
    of Section 42.
    Sangamon County served the administrative citation on ESG
    March 14,
    1994.
    Having received no timely filed petition for
    review, the Board entered its default order on May 5,
    1994.
    In respondent’s motion, which was filed on the same day that
    the Board entered its default,
    it states that although the
    administrative citations were received by the attorneys they were
    not pursued due to unforeseen and unavoidable circumstances.
    Respondent goes on to state that the responses were on the
    Respondent’s attorney’s legal secretary’s desk,
    but she was
    stricken with an illness requiring urgent medical care and
    therefore the petition for review was not filed.
    For these
    reasons, the respondent requests the Board to allow it to file
    its petition for review instanter.
    On May 10,
    1994 complainant filed a response to the
    respondent’s motion to file its petition for review instanter.
    Complainant states that the Act does not allow for the late
    filing of a petition for review.
    Moreover, complainant states
    that the affidavit supplied by the legal secretary does not
    2
    explain why Respondent’s attorneys did not respond to the
    citation by the close of the statutory time period,
    in this case
    April 18,
    1994.
    The Courts have clearly held that “an administrative agency
    is a creature of statute, any power or authority claimed by it
    must find its source within the provisions of the statute by
    which it is created.”
    (Bio—Medical Laboratories.
    Inc. v.
    Trainor, (1977),
    370 N.E.
    2d 223.)
    The statute creating the
    Board’s authority to find violation through the administrative
    citation process, quite clearly states that the Board shall find
    a violation if the person named in the administrative citation
    does not file a petition for review within 35 days of service of
    the administrative citation.
    In this matter the 35 days had run
    and by operation of law respondent was found in violation.
    The
    Board finds no authority to allow respondent to file its petition
    for review in this matter after the 35 day period has run. The
    motion to file respondent’s petition for review instanter is
    denied.
    IT IS SO ORDERED.
    I, Dorothy M. Gunn, Clerk of the Illinois Pollution Control
    Boa~d hereby certify that the above order was adopted on the
    //~
    day of
    ,
    1994, by a vote of________
    0’
    (~J
    ~
    ~
    /
    /
    I
    /
    ~
    Dorothy N. ~nn,
    Clerk
    Illinois Pollution Control Board

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