ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
April
20,
1995
BTL SPECIALTY RESINS CORPORATION,
)
Complainant
)
V.
)
PCB 95—98
)
(Variance
—
RCRA)
ILLINOIS ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
)
AGENCY
)
Respondent
)
ORDER OF THE BOARD
(by E. Dunham):
Petitioner, BTL Specialty Resins
(BTL), filed a petition on
March 14,
1995 for a determination that the material produced by
its facility was not properly characterized by the Illinois
Environmental Protection Agency
(Agency)
as K022 waste,
or in the
alternative,
a variance from regulations applied to that waste.
The Board accepted the matter for hearing on March 16,
1995.
The
Agency filed a motion to dismiss on April 13,
1995; and BTL filed
a response to the motion on April
17,
1995.
A motion to dismiss,
like a motion for summary judgment, can
succeed where the facts,
taken in a light most favorable to the
party opposing the motion, prove that the movant is entitled to
dismissal as a matter of law.
The Agency claims that the
petition of BTL is inconsistent with Federal law,
and should be
dismissed.
To dismiss, there can be no material facts in dispute
that could reasonably support BTL’s proposition that the material
formed in its process is not K022 waste.
The Board holds that
the facts
in this case are not so clearly slanted as to admit
only one possible outcome to the threshold determination that the
material
is not K022 waste.
Further, the Agency argues that a variance can not properly
issue
in a case such as this.
BTL quotes a law review article by
Professor Currie and the case of R.R. Donnelley
& Sons Co.
v.
IEPA (February 23,
1989), PCB 88-79
for the proposition that
variance was specifically envisioned by the drafters of the
Environmental Protection Act as an appropriate means of deciding
whether a determination of the Agency was correct in the first
instance,
or in the alternative, granting a limited time to
achieve full compliance with the regulation.
The Board notes
that this method of review has been in accepted use for some
time.
(c.f.
Village of Cary v.
IPCB
(1980),
82 Ill.App.3d 793,
403 N.E.2d 83,
38 Ill.Dec.
68 and Container Corporation of
America
v. IEPA (June
2,
1988), PCB 87—183,
90 PCB 052.)
Lastly, the Agency states that the variance petition is
insufficient for failing to state an adequate compliance plan.
The Board notes that the compliance plan submitted may be less
2
detailed than the Board requires in order to grant the variance,
but the outline of a compliance plan is present and the details
can be elucidated at hearing.
The petition is not deficient on
its face.
The Agency’s motion to dismiss is therefore denied.
This
matter will proceed to hearing as expeditiously as possible.
IT IS SO ORDERED.
M. McFawn dissented.
I, Dorothy H. Gunn,
Clerk of the Pollution Control Board,
hereby certify that the above order was adopted on the
____________________
day of
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,
1995, by a vote of
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Dorothy M. G~nn,Clerk
Illinois Pol’lution Control Board