ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
    July
    3,
    1990
    WESTERN ILLINOIS POWER
    COOPERATIVE,
    INC.,
    Petitioner,
    )
    PCB 85—164
    )
    (Permit Appeal)
    V.
    )
    ILLINOIS ENVIRONMENTAL
    PROTECTION AGENCY,
    Respondent.
    DISSENTING OPINION
    (by J.D.
    Dumelle,
    J. Theodore Meyer,
    and M.L.
    Nardulli):
    Our
    reasons
    for dissenting are two—fold:
    First,
    this case
    has languished since being
    filed with the Board on October
    24,
    1985.
    A permit appeal
    is based upon the record before the Agency
    at the time of
    the permit: application.
    Why then have almost
    5
    years gone by without resolution
    of this matter?
    Second,
    the IEPA,
    in two separate filings
    in R90—8
    (June
    25,
    1990 and June
    27,
    1990)
    has stated:
    Potential Abuses
    The Agency has pointed our certain actual
    and potential abuses available
    to the permit
    applicant because of its ability
    to submit new
    evidence outside
    the scope of
    the record
    without restraint.
    Applicants are able
    to
    prolong discovery and develop new information
    not available
    to the Agency.
    Over the last
    five years,
    the average length of time from
    filing to Board Order in NPDES permit appeals
    was
    1 year
    9 months.
    However, appeals such as
    Citizens Utilities Co.
    of Illinois
    v.
    Illinois
    EPA,
    85—166 and 85—140 and Western Illinois
    Power Cooperative,
    Inc.
    v.
    Illinois EPA,
    PCB
    85—164 have taken upwards of
    3 and
    4 years.
    This often allows the applicant
    to delay
    compliance with the Act and corresponding
    regulations.
    Also,
    the Agency feels
    that the
    applicant has an opportunity
    to forum—shop.
    Thus on one hand the
    IEPPt
    in
    its June 29,
    1990 status report
    in
    the instant case has agreed to more time but on the other
    I 13—’)3
    hand,
    in R90—8,
    the IEPA
    is
    holding up this same case as a
    terrible example
    of slow governmental action.
    Who speaks for
    IEPA?
    And shouldn’t
    it have one voice?
    We think that almost
    5 years of delay are enough.
    We would
    have dismissed this case for want of prosecution.
    _________________
    __________________
    //
    /
    /
    /i~
    Jacob
    D. Dumelle
    ~X4
    T eod~reMeyer
    Michael
    I~. Nardulli
    Board
    Member
    B&ard Member
    Board Member
    I, Dorothy
    M. Gunn, Clerk
    of the Illino~
    Pollution Control
    Board, do hereby certify that the above diss
    ing opinion -~~as
    submitted the
    //~.
    day of
    __________
    ~,
    1990.
    /
    f_-i
    Dorothy
    ~.
    Gunn,
    Clerk
    illinois Pollution Control Board
    1l3~-(~L-

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