ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
December 3,
1981
ZYX DIXON CORP.,
)
)
Petitioner,
V.
ILLINOIS
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY,
)
PCB 81—167
Respondent,
and
COUNTY OF LEE,
)
Intervenor.
ORDER OF THE BOARD
(by 3, Anderson):
On November 19,
1981 the Board directed the parties to this
action to brief the applicability to and effect of SB
172, P.A.
82—0682.
A brief was filed by each party on December 1,
1981.
As previously noted, ZYX submitted an application for a
permit to develop a hazardous waste storage site to the Agency on
July
13,
1981
(Rec.
Ex.
1).
The facility is to be located near
Amboy
in unincorporated Lee County, and it anticipates accepting
waste from facilities
located in Illinois,
not necessarily
restricted to Lee County
(ZYX Appeal of October 27,
1981 at 2).
The Agency denied the permit on October
8,
1981
(Rec.
Ex.
16).
ZYX filed
its appeal before the Board on October 27,
1981.
On November 12,
1981,
the Governor certified SB 172,
P.A.
82—0682,
“An Act relating to the location of sanitary landfills
and hazardous waste disposal sites.”
The act states that “no
permit for the development or construction of a new regional
pollution control facility may be granted by the Agency unless
the applicant submits proof to the Agency that the location of
said facility has been approved by the County Board...if
the
facility is to be located in
an unincorporated area.”
A “new
regional pollution control facility” is one
“initially permitted
for development or construction after July 1,
1981.”
There is no argument that the ZYX site is not
a “new regional
pollution control facility” within the meaning of the Act.
The
Agency and Lee County contend that the new county approval require-
ment must be satisfied by ZYX before a permit can be issued, and
44—19 1
z
that this appeal should be dismissed.
ZYX argues that the
new
requirement should not be applied to it,
and that this appeal
should proceed.
The Board is persuaded by the authority cited by
the Agency,
and will dismiss this action.
Hogan v. Bleeker,
29 Ill.2d 181,
184
(1963) establishes the
proposition that
“As
a general rule...statutes will not be construed
retroactively unless it clearly appears
such is the
legislative intention.
But this general rule is not
ordinarily applied to statutes which relate merely
to remedies and forms of procedure and which do not
affect substantive rights”
(citations omitted).
The statute applies to this action under either rule.
On July
1,
1981 SB 172 was passed by the legislature.
It
defined “new regional pollution control facility” as one “not
permitted on or before July 1,
1981,” after which local approval
certification was a requirement for Agency permit issuance.
The
Governor’s amendatory veto message of September
24,
1981 speci-
fically referred to this date, stating clarifIcation was needed,
as
“Only those new sites seeking first—time approval after July
1,
1981 should be included.”
The Senate accepted this amendatory
veto with the July
1 date on October 15,
1981,
as did the House
on October 28,
1981.
The changes were certified by the Governor
November
12,
1981.
Senate Bill 172 contains no savings clause.
As the Supreme
Court noted in Board of Education v. Brittini,
11 Ill.2d 411,
143,
N.E.2d 555,
557—8
(1957):
“The legislature unquestionably knew of this Court’s
holdings...to the effect that unless there
is a
savings clause all pending actions must abate unless
in conformity with the amendatory act...
There is no
difference whether the cases were in the administrative
stage,
as here, or the court of record state... w)here
a law is changed and given retroactive effect,
reservation of any proceeding or parts thereof had
under the old law must be expressly manifested”
(citations omitted).
In addition, the statute being given retroactive effect
relates to changes in procedures.
The Supreme Court has con-
sistently directed that “such statutes should be complied with
as far as is practicable in all pending and undetermined causes.”
McQueen
V.
Conner, 385 Ill.
455,
459
(1944).
See also Nelson v.
Miller,
11 Ill.2d 378,
143 N.E.2d 673
(1957)
and cases cited
therein.
44—192
3
It
is the Board’s opinion that SB
172 deprives the Agency of
statutory authority to grant the permit
in question here unless
and until
it receives certification of
local approval.
It is
also the Board’s belief that the Board itself would
lack statutory
authority to order the Agency to issue this permit in contravention
of SB 172’s requirements, even were the Board to find that the
permit was improperly denied
for the reasons stated pursuant to
the Act as
it existed October
8,
1981.
While the unanticipated and unintended fundamental procedural
flaws in this action could conceivably be cured by supplementation
of the record consistent with Section 40(c)
of the Act,
the Board
believes that all parties are ill—served by such course of action.
The parties’ Section 41 right to a speedy appeal of this Order
would be prejudiced by the resulting delay,
and proper computation
on remand of the statutory deadlines for various actions by local
authorities, the Agency,
and the Board would be rendered nearly
impossible amidst the inevitable welter of argument concerning
legislative intent under such peculiar, unimagined circumstances.
Issuance of
a permit by operation of
law as a result of
administrative uncertainty would run absolutely counter
to the
legislature’s intent in its passage of SB
172.
For the foregoing reasons, this appeal
is dismissed.
IT
IS SO ORDERED.
I, Christan L. Moffett, Clerk of the Illinois Pollution
Control Board,
hereby certify that the above Order was adopted on
the
~2~°
day of
Af~t~4~~Vt__
,
1981 by a vote of
~‘—O
Christan L. Moffe
,/~lerk
Illinois Pollution
b’ntrol Board
44—193