ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
March 25,
1993
EUGENE DALY,
JANE SCHMIT,
CARL WILLIAMS,
SOUTH COOK
)
COUNTY ENVIRONMENTAL ACTION
)
COALITION,
Petitioner,
PCB 93—52
v.
)
(Landfill Siting Review)
VILLAGE OF ROBBINS,
AND
THE
)
ROBBINS RESOURCE RECOVERY
)
COMPANY,
)
Respondent.
CITIZENS FOR A BETTER
ENVIRONMENT,
Petitioner,
PCB 93—54
v.
)
(Landfill Siting Review)
VILLAGE OF ROBBINS,
AND
THE
)
ROBBINS RESOURCE RECOVERY
)
COMPANY,
Respondent.
ORDER OF THE BOARD
(by G.
T. Girard):
These actions are third-party appeals filed pursuant to
Section 40.1
(b)
of the Environmental Protection Act
(“Act”)
(415
ILCS 5/40.1).
Eugene Daly,
Jane Schmit,
Carl Williams,
Cook
County Environmental Action coalition filed their appeal on March
12,
1993 and Citizens for A Better Environment filed its appeal
on March 15,
1993.
Because all of the petitioners appeal the
decision of the Village of Robbins granting site location
suitability approval to the Robbins Resource Recovery Company,
the Board is consolidating PCB 93-52 and PCB 93-54.
It appears that the petition is not duplicitous or frivolous
and that petitioners participated
in the hearing below
(~,
PCB
93-52 Pet.
at 4-6 and PCB 93-54 Pet.
at 2—3).
Record Before the County Board
P.A.
82—682, also known as SB—172,
as codified in Section
40.1(a)
of the Act, provides that the hearing before the Board
is
to “be based exclusively on the record before the county board or
Qi~Q-O253
2
governing body of the municipality”.
The statute does not
specify who is to file with the Board such record or who is to
certify to the completeness or correctness of the record.
As the Village of Robbins alone can verify and certify what
exactly is the entire record before it,
in the interest of
protecting the rights of all parties to this action, and in order
to satisfy the intention of SB-172, the Board believes that the
Village of Robbins must be the party to prepare and file the
record on appeal.
The Board suggests that guidance in so doing
can be had by reference to Rules 321 through 324
of the Illinois
Supreme Court Rules.
The record shall contain legible versions
of all documents,
transcripts, and exhibits deemed to pertain to
this proceeding from initial filing through and including final
action by the local government body.
The record shall contain
the originals of all documents,
shall be arranged as much as
possible in chronological sequence, and shall be sequentially
numbered, placing the letter
“C” before the number of such page.
In addition to the actual documents which comprise the record,
the Village of Robbins Clerk shall also prepare a document
entitled “Certificate of Record on Appeal” which shall be an
index of the record that lists the documents comprising the
record and shows the page number upon which they start and end.
Seven copies of the certificate,
seven copies of the transcript
of the Village of Robbins hearing and three copies of any other
documents in the record shall be filed with the Board,
and a copy
of the certificate shall be served upon the petitioner(s).
The
Clerk of the Village of Robbins
is given 21 days from the date of
this order to “prepare, bind and certify the record on appeal”
(Ill.
Supreme Court, Rule 324).
If the record is not legible, is
not sequentially numbered, or fails to include an appropriate
index of record, the Clerk of the Pollution Control Board may
refuse to accept the document for filing.
Waiver of Decision Deadline
Section 40.1(a)
provides that if there is no final action by
the Board within 120 days, petitioner may deem the site location
approved.
The Board has construed identical “in accordance with the
terms of” language contained in Section 40(b)
of the Act
concerning third—party
appeals of the grant of hazardous waste
landfill permits as giving the person who had requested the
permit
a) the right to a decision within the applicable statutory
time frame
(now 120 days), and b) the right to waive
(extend) the
decision period
(Alliance for a Safe Environment, et al.
v. Akron
Land Corl.
et p1., PCB 80—184, October 30,
1980).
The Board
therefore construes Section 40.1(b)
in like manner, with the
result that failure of this Board to act in 120 days would allow
the site location applicant to deem the site location approved.
Pursuant to Section 105.104 of the Procedural Rules, it is each
UI L~O-O25’4
3
party’s responsibility to pursue its action,
and to insist that a
hearing on the petition is timely scheduled in order to allow the
Board to review the record and to render its decision within 120
days of the filing of the petition.
Transcription Costs
The issue of who has the burden of providing transcription
in Board site location suitability appeals has been addressed in
Town of Ottawa,
et al.
v.
IPCB, et
al..,
129 Iii.
App.
3rd, 472
N.E.2d 150
(Third District,
1984).
In that case, the Court
ordered the Board to assume transcription costs
(472 N.E.2d at
155).
The Supreme Court denied leave to appeal on March 14,
1985.
In cognizance of this ruling, the Board will provide for
stenographic transcription of the Board hearing in this matter.
This matter is accepted for hearing.
Hearing must be
scheduled within 14 days of the date of this order and completed
within 60 days of the date of this order.
The hearing officer
shall inform the Clerk of the Board of the time and location of
the hearing at least 40 days in advance of hearing so that public
notice of hearing may be published.
After hearing, the hearing
officer shall submit an exhibit list, written schedule for
submission of briefs if any and all actual exhibits to the Board
within
5 days of the hearing.
Any briefing schedule shall
provide for final filings as expeditiously as possible and in no
event later than 70 days from the date of this order.
If after appropriate consultation with the parties, the
parties fail to provide an acceptable hearing date or if after an
attempt the hearing officer is unable to consult with the
parties, the hearing officer shall unilaterally set a hearing
date in conformance with the schedule above.
This schedule will
only provide the Board a very short time period to deliberate and
reach a decision before the due date.
The hearing officer and
the parties are encouraged to expedite this proceeding as much as
possible.
The hearing officer may extend this schedule only on a
waiver of the decision deadline by the site location suitability
applicant and only for the equivalent or fewer number of days
that the decision deadline is waived.
Such waivers must be
provided in writing to the Clerk of the Board.
Any waiver must
be an “open waiver” or a waiver of decision until a date certain.
Because of requirements regarding the publication of notice
of hearing, no scheduled hearing may be canceled unless the site
location suitability applicant provides an open waiver or a
waiver to
a’ date at least 120 days beyond the date of the motion
to cancel hearing.
This should allow ample time for the Board to
republish notice of hearing and receive transcripts from the
hearing before the due date.
Any order by the hearing officer
U
I (~Q-U255
4
granting cancellation of hearing shall include a new hearing date
at least 40 days in the future and at least 30 days prior to the
new due date and the Clerk of the Board shall be promptly
informed of the new schedule.
Because this proceeding is the type for which the Illinois
Environmental Protection Act sets a very short statutory deadline
for making a decision,
absent a waiver, the Board will grant
extensions or modifications only in unusual circumstances.
Any
such motion must set forth an alternative schedule for notice,
hearing, and final submissions,
as well as the deadline for
decision,
including response time to such a motion.
However, no
such motion shall negate the obligation of the hearing officer to
establish a Scheduling order pursuant to the requirements of this
order, and to adhere to that order until modified.
IT IS SO ORDERED.
I, Dorothy N.
Gunn,
Clerk of the Illinois Pollution Control
Board, hereby certify that the above order was adopted on ~he
~
day of
_________________,
1993, by a vote of
~
in, Clerk
ion Control Board
01 i~Q-O256