ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
    July 10,
    1980
    ILLINOIS ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
    )
    AGENCY,
    Complainant,
    v.
    )
    PCB 78—233
    GRANITE CITY STEEL, DIVISION OF
    NATIONAL STEEL CORPORATION,
    Respondent.
    PATRICK CHESLEY, ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL, APPEARED ON BEHALF
    OF COMPLAINANT.
    RANDALL ROBERTSON,
    ESQUIRE (LUEDERS, ROBERTSON
    & KONZEN) APPEARED
    ON BEHALF OF RESPONDENT.
    OPINION OF THE BOARD
    (by I.
    Goodman):
    This Opinion supports the Board Order herein of June 12,
    1980.
    On August 28,
    1978 the Illinois Environmental Protection
    Agency (Agency)
    filed a complaint with the Board alleging that
    Granite City Steel
    (GCS) was violating Section
    9(a) of the
    Illinois Environmental Protection Act (Act) by causing or
    allowing white ash to be emitted from its sinter plant.
    On
    July 20,
    1979 a Stipulation and Proposal
    for Settlement
    (Stipulation) by the parties was submitted
    to the Board.
    The
    Board’s interim order of August 23, 1979 rejected the Stipulation
    on the ground that the contingent penalty therein did not aid in
    the enforcement of the Act or induce compliance
    with regulations
    in that
    it was designed solely to expedite private claims, a~
    area over which the Board did not wish to extend its authority.
    At
    a public hearing on February
    27, 1980 the parties hereto
    submitted an amended Stipulation concerning which citizens
    offered testimony.
    At that hearing the hearing officer,
    after
    allowing oral argument, denied a motion to intervene by Mrs.
    Florence Farmer.
    That motion has been referred
    to the Board
    along with this case.
    The amended Stipulation acknowledges that white ash falling
    from the air is causing injury to property and unreasonably
    interferes with the enjoyment of life in the area.
    The Agency
    will stipulate that GCS’s sinter plant
    is causing the problem,
    but GCS will not.
    GCS, nevertheless, agrees to pay a penalty of

    —2—
    $10,000 and to institute an emission control program which
    calls
    for the replacement of the old baghouse on its sinter plant with
    a
    flew one.
    The Agency believes that the program if followed will
    eliminate the white ash problem.
    The Board finds that the amended Stipulation satisfies the
    requirements of Procedural Rule 331 and that the stipulated
    penalty of $10,000 is necessary for the enforcement of the Act.
    The Board affirms the hearing officer’s order to deny
    Mrs. Florence Farmer’s motion
    to intervene.
    Procedural
    Rule 310(a)
    requires that petitions for intervention be made
    ‘t~upon
    timely
    written application and
    subject to the necessity for conducting
    an orderly and expeditious hearing
    ..“
    Emphasis
    added.
    Rule
    310(b)
    requires that copies of petitions for intervention be
    filed with the Board and each party within 48 hours prior to the
    hearing.
    The Board received the petition for intervention more
    than one week after the third and last hearing in the matter;
    therefore, the petition is untimely.
    For the hearing officer to
    have allowed intervention may have necessitated additional
    hearings in the matter when the record had then been complete.
    t~urthermore,the petition to intervene declares that Mrs. Farmer
    was one of the complainants causing the Agency to institute this
    enfOrcement action.
    The Board notes that disallowing the
    petition does not affect the jurisdiction of other tribunals
    regarding claims of damage to Petitioner’s property, etc.
    The Board accepts the amended Stipulation as presented at
    the hearing of February 27,
    1980 and incorporates the document by
    reference as
    if fully set forth herein.
    This Opinion constitutes the findings of fact and
    conclusions of law of the Board
    in this matter.
    I,
    Christan
    L, Moffett, Clerk of the Illinois Pollution
    Control Boa~d,hereby certify that the above Opinion was adopted
    o~the
    Jo
    day of
    ____________________,
    1980 by a vote of
    c~Id~
    Christan L. Mo
    i~j,çi,
    C erk
    Illinois Pollutith
    Control
    Board

    Back to top