ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD

September

24, 1981

I~1 THE MATTER OF:

R76—21

AMENDMENTS TO CHAPTER

3:

)

WATER POLLUTION

(EFFLUENT STANDARDS)

CONCURRING OPINION

(by

I.

Goodman):

Although generally concurring with the majority Opinion

issued today herein,

I wish to point out what

I consider an

unfortunate and potentially dangerous trend in both the presen-

tation of the Economic Impact Studies before the Board and the

use of the Studies and economic hearings by the Board.

The purpose of the Study and the economic hearings is to

fully inform the Board of the potential economic ramifications

of the proposed regulation.

The Studies are generally prepared

by economists rather than technicians and are cross-examined

with

economics rather than technology in mind.

Because these are

specialized and isolated hearings on economic impact, persons

with the expertise necessary to critique technical evidence

may not be present.

Given the nature of the Study and these

proceedings,

I believe that any technical evidence presented in

the Economic Impact Study and the economic hearings should be

viewed as incompetent and untested with regard to the technical

merits of the proposal.

Obviously some technical information is required for the

study contractor to support his conclusions from an economic

viewpoint.

The same evidence taken out of the context of an

economic hearing, however, may prove to be irrelevant or indeed

incorrect with respect to the technical feasibility of the

regulation itself.

I, therefore, believe that the Board should

not consider such evidence with respect to the technological

feasibility of the regulation.

Also,

it should not cite either

the economic impact study or the record of the economic impact

hearings

in its Opinions to support decisions concerning the

technological feasibility of a regulatioi

Member

I,

Christan L. Moffett, Clerk

of the Illinois Pollution

Control Board, hereby~certify that the above Concurring Opinion

was filed on the

~S

day of

________________,

1981.

~

~

~hristan L. Moffe~j~

Clerk

Illinois Pollutio’k~A~ontrolBoard

43—419