ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
    April 21, 1994
    AMERICAN TREE SERVICE, INC.,
    )
    an Illinois Corporation,
    )
    )
    Petitioner,
    )
    v.
    )
    P~B94—43
    )
    (Permit Appeal)
    ILLINOIS ENVIRONMENTAL
    )
    PROTECTION AGENCY,
    )
    )
    Respondent.
    ORDER OF THE
    BOARD (by C. A. Manning):
    On February 3, 1994, American Tree Service, Inc., (American)
    filed an amended petition for permit review regarding its
    facility, located in Sangamon County. The Board directed this
    matter to be set for hearing on February 3, 1994. On March 28,
    1994 The Val—E-Vue Improvement Association (Association) filed a
    motion to intervene as a respondent in this proceeding pursuant
    to 35 Iii.
    Adm.
    Code 103.142. It is this motion which is the
    subject of this order.
    The Val-E-Vue subdivision is a residential subdivision
    located less than one mile from the Petitioner’s facility in
    Springfield,
    Illinois. The Association represents itself as an
    Illinois Corporation, incorporated under the General Not For
    Profit Corporation Act on
    October 8,
    1956. The Association
    opposes the issuance of a
    permit to American that would allow the
    burning of landscape waste. The Association claims that the
    current permit issued to American is in violation of Illinois law
    and that its members are detrimentally affected by American’s
    activities.
    However, the Association has not provided any legal
    arguments or authority in support of its request for the Board to
    grant the motion to intervene in the permit process that is
    before the Board. Rather, case law clearly provides that the
    Board has no authority to grant a motion to intervene in an air
    permit case or to even allow a third party appeal of the issuance
    of an air permit. (County of LaSalle v. Illinois
    Pollution
    Control Board, (August 26,
    1986), 146 Ill. App. 3d 603, 497 N.E.
    2d 164, 100 Ill. Dec. 284; See also•Ohio Grain ComDanv v.
    Illinois Environmental
    Protection Agency, (December 17, 1992),
    PCB 90-143.) In County of LaSalle
    the appellate court upheld the
    Board’s ruling that
    the Environmental Protection Act (Act)
    provided no authority for the Board to allow intervention in
    certain permit appeals.
    Id.
    at 290. In addition, the courts
    have stated that there is no right for third party appeals of an
    2
    Agency issuance of permits other than where it is specifically
    allowed for by the Act. (Landfill Inc. v. Pollution Control
    Board (1978), 74 Ill. 2d 541, 387 N.E.2d 258.) In Landfill Inc~
    the court said that “(t)he grant of a permit does not insulate
    violators of the Act or give them a license to pollute; however,
    a citizen’s statutory remedy is a new complaint against the
    polluter, not an action before the Board challenging the Agency’s
    performance of its statutory duties in issuing a permit.” Id. at
    609.
    Therefore, while the Association may be free to make its
    arguments in another proceeding before the Board, it can not do
    so in this context. Moreover the Association is not prohibited
    from participating in any public hearing which might be held in
    this matter pursuant to 35 Ill. Adm. Code Part 103.
    Additionally, the Board will allow the Association to file an
    amicus curiae brief at the close of the hearing pursuant to the
    briefing schedule as developed by the hearing officer.
    The Board denies the motion to intervene filed on March 28,
    1994 by the Association and directs this matter is to proceed to
    hearing.
    IT IS SO ORDERED.
    I, Dorothy M. Gunn, Clerk of the Illinois Pollution Control
    Board, hereby certif that the above order was adopted on the
    ~
    day of
    __________________,
    1994, by a vote of
    h-”
    /
    c7~J
    ‘~-~t-~
    ~•
    Dorothy M./~unn,Clerk
    Illinois ~llution Control Board

    Back to top