ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD

January 11, 1990

IN THE MATTER OF:

UST UPDATE, USEPA REGULATIONS

)

R89-lO

(10/27/88 THROUGH 6—30—89)

)

(Rulemaking)

ORDER OF THE BOARD (by J. Anderson):

The Board adopted a proposed Opinion and Order in this

matter on November 15, 1989. The proposed reguations appeared

at on January 5, 1990, at 14 Ill. Reg. 153.

Section 22.4(d) of the Environmental Protection Act (Act)

requires the Board to adopt regulations which are “identical in

substance” with USEPA underground storage tank (UST) rules

adopted pursuant to the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.

The term “identical in substance has recently been defined in

Section 7.2 of the Act. Section 7.2(b) requires the Board to

adopt a rule within one year of adoption of the federal rule,

unless the Board extends the time based on a finding that the

time is insufficient and stating the reasons. The Board is

entering this Order to extend the time.

As is detailed in the November 15, 1989 Opinion, the

earliest Federal Registers were November 7 and December 21,

1988. As also noted in the Opinion, the first of these may not

result in any change to the Board rules. The comment period will

end on approximately February 12, 1990. The next Board meeting

will be February 22, 1990. The Board anticipates adopting these

rules at that time.

On September 23 and October 26, 1988, USEPA adopted two

large sets of rules which completely revised the UST rules in 40

CFR 280. The Board followed USEPA’s lead and adopted these rules

in two packages, in R88-27 and R89—4, rather than combining them

into a normal update batch for the period July 1 through December

31, 1988. By the time R89—4 was completed, it was time to start

the update for the period January 1, 1989 through June 30,

1989. This is why the update period is longer than the usual six

months.

Inspection of the Federal Registers involved in this update

discloses that the USEPA amendments are corrections to the rules

adopted in R88—27 and R89—4. These corrections were made at a

time when those Dockets were still pending. The corrections

could have been adopted in those Dockets, had the corrections

come to the Board’s attention in time. The error was discovered

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on November 3, 1989, during drafting of the Order in this

matter. Section 7.2(b) gives the Board one year to correct such

errors, from the date of discovery. The Board should be able to

adopt these rules by November 3, 1990. However, the Board is

entering this Order to avoid any future confusion.

As noted in the Order entered in R89—l on August 31, 1989,

the number of federally—driven programs requiring adoption of

large blocks of rules has expanded from two (RCRA and UIC) to

five (including Pretreatment, UST and SDWA). In the last year

the Board has devoted substantial resources to initial adoption

of two large new programs (UST and SDWA), and to an unusually

large RCRA update (R89—l). The Board has recently received

funding for expansion of staff to manage these large

rulemakings. The Board believes that it will be able to return

to schedule as its expanded staff gains experience.

The Board directs that these reasons be published in the

Illinois Register pursuant to Section 7.2 of the Act.

:T IS SO ORDERED.

I, Dorothy M. Gunn, Clerk of the Illinois Pollution Control

Board, hereby certify that the above Order was adopted on

the

_____

day of

______________

,

1990, by a vote of

_________

Dorothy M. Gunn, Clerk

Illinois Pollution Control Board

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