ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
December 1,
1994
COUNTY OF DUPAGE,
)
Complainant,
V.
)
AC 94—92
(Administrative Citation)
WASTE MANAGEMENT OF ILLINOIS,
)
Respondent.
ORDER OF THE BOARD:
(C.
A.
Manning)
This matter comes before the Board on the October 11,
1994
filing of an administrative citation by the County of DuPage
(County) against Waste Management of Illinois
(WMII)
for its
facility know as the Greene Valley Landfill.
On October 21,
1994, WMII filed a motion to dismiss the County’s administrative
citation or alternatively grant review of the administrative
citation.
The County filed a response to the motion to dismiss
on November 3,
1994.
On August 10,
1994, an inspection of the facility was done
by Dean Olson,
a County inspector, and Warren Weritz an Illinois
Environmental Protection Agency (Agency)
inspector.
Based on the
County inspector’s direct observations of that day the County
alleges that
WNII,
the present operator of the facility, violated
Sections 21(o) (7) and
(0)
(10) of the Environmental Protection Act
(Act).
(415 ILCS 5/21(0) (7) and (o)(10)
(1992).)
Section
21(o) (7)
of the Act prohibits landfill owners or operators from
accepting waste without the necessary permits and Section
21(o) (10) prohibits acceptance of special waste without the
required manifests.
The County specifically alleges that the observed waste was
generated at the Sportsman’s Park Gun Club
(Gun Club)
and on the
same day of the inspection both the County and the Agency took
grab samples of the waste at the Gun Club.
The grab samples
taken by the County were analyzed by First Environmental
Laboratory Inc. on August 11,
1994 and they determined that the
waste was of a non—hazardous nature.
Additionally the grab
samples taken by the Agency were tested at its laboratory and
also were found to be non—hazardous.
However, on August 25,
1994
the County contacted the Agency and requested the regulatory
status of soil containing lead shot and broken clay bricks.
The
Agency responded that the soil would be considered special waste.
On October 5,
1994 the County states it served WMII with notice
of the administrative citation for violating the above named
sections of the Act.
2
On October 21,
1994, WMII filed a motion to dismiss the
administrative citation.
WMII argues that the administrative
citation does not “...provide the necessary support for the bare
allegation of
‘special waste’.”
(Not.
at 2.)1
Also, WMII argues
that the County failed to follow the delegation agreement between
the Agency and itself and that therefore the administrative
citation is void.
Finally,
WMII
argues that the administrative
citation was not based on direct observation as required by
Section 31.1(b)
of the Act.
(415 ILCS 5/31.1(b)
(1992).)
WNII
argues that because the waste in question was accepted at the
landfill several days before the inspection of August 10,
1994,
the County lacks the authority to issue the administrative
citation based on that inspection.
In arguing against the motion to dismiss the County cites
to the Illinois court precedent that
“..
.all well-pleaded facts
are taken as true and all reasonable inferences which can be
drawn from them should be construed in the favor of the
nonmovant” and that applying this standard here the motion to
dismiss should be denied.
Geick v.
Kay,
236 Ill.App.3d 868,
603
N.E.2d
121,
125
(2nd Dist.
1992)
and Meerbrey v. Marshall Field
&
Q~,
144 Ill.
2d 535,
582 N.E.2d 108,
Ill
(1991).
(Res.
at 1.)
Additionally, the County states that the administrative citation
is sufficiently pled and that the arguments raised by WMII are
appropriate for hearing.
As to the alleged failure to follow the
conditions of the delegation agreement, the County argues that
there is nothing contained in the Act that would cause this
administrative citation to be void.
Finally, the County argues
that it would be impossible to conduct the necessary testing of
the waste at the site on the day of the inspection in order to
find these violations through direct observation as suggested by
WMII.
Therefore the County concludes that
WMII “...is imposing a
set of criteria on complainants which simply does not exist and,
certainly does not render the administrative citation void.”
(Res.
at 4.)
For the following reasons the Board denies the motion to
dismiss.
The pleading is sufficient.
Since the Board’s
procedural rules do not set forth relevant standards for motions
to dismiss, we will determine the instant motion by the same
principles applied to Illinois Code of Civil Procedure 2-615 and
2—619 motions to strike or dismiss.
(735 ILCS 5/2—615 and
5/2-619.)
As stated by the County all well-pleaded allegations
in the complaint are to be taken as true (Import Sales v.
Continental Bearings,
(1st Dist.
1991)
217 Ill.App.3d 893, 577
NE.2d
1205,
160 I11.Dec.
634,
639)
and a complaint should not be
dismissed unless it clearly appears that no set of facts could be
1The motion to dismiss filed by WMII will be referenced
as
“Mot.
at
“
and the County response will be referenced as “Res. at
‘,
3
proven that would entitle a plaintiff to relief (Callaizakis v.
Astor Development Co.,
(1st Dist.
1972)
4 Ill.App.3d 163,
280
N.E.2d 512).
Based upon these and normal practice standards
before the Board the complaint is sufficiently pled.
As to WMII second argument regarding the issue concerning
the County’s alleged failure to specifically follow its
delegation agreement,
there is no Section of the Act or Board
procedural rules that would void an otherwise properly issued
administrative citation if a condition of the delegation
agreement between the unit of local government and the Agency is
not met.
While the parties may desire to further brief this
issue during the course of the proceeding,
the Board will not
dismiss this administrative citation at this point.
Finally, the issue of whether the complaint needs to be
based on direct observation of the alleged violation has been
settled in prior Board cases.
In Sanciamon County v. Lee Hsueh,
(July
1,
1993), AC 92-79, the Board found that inspectors are not
required by statute to directly observe the violation, such as
open burning,
in order to file an administrative citation for
that violation.
The Board stated that the Act instead requires
direct observations to support the finding of a violation of the
Act.
In this matter the County inspector will have to show
through direct observation on August
10,
1994,
that WMII had
accepted waste that was special waste without having the proper
permits and manifests.
Therefore, we deny the motion to dismiss
and accept WMII’s petition for review.
This matter will
therefore proceed to hearing.
IT IS SO ORDERED.
I, Dorothy M. Gunn,
Clerk of the Illinois Pollution Control
Board,, hereby cert,4~f?Tthat the above order was adopted on~he
~~‘2~-’~
day of
~
,
1994, by a vote of
/
—
~
Control Board