ILLINOIS
POLLUTION
CONTROL
BOARD
February
2,
1989
A.R.F.
LANDFILL
CORPORATION,
)
)
Petitioner,
)
)
v.
)
PCB 89—15
COUNTY
OF
LAKE,
)
)
Respondent.
)
ORDER OF TUE BOARD (by B.
Forcade):
This action
is an appeal filed January 26, 1989, pursuant to
Section 40.1 of the Environmental Protection Act (‘Act’)
(Ill.Rev.Stat.
Ch. 111—1/2, par. 1040.1.
A.R.F. Landfill
Corporation (‘Petitioner) appeals the decision of the County of
Lake (‘County’) denying site location suitability approval.
Record Before the County Board
P.A. 82—692, 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
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 County 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 58—172,
the Board believes that the County 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
Section 105.102(a) (4) of the Board’s Procedural Rules and to
Rules 321 through 324 of the Illinois Supreme Court Rules.
In
addition to the actual documents which comprise the record, the
County Clerk shall also prepare a document entitled ‘Certificate
of Record on Appeal’
which
shall list the documents comprising
the record.
Seven copies of the certificate, seven copies of the
transcript of the county 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 County is given 21
days
from
the
date
of
this
Order
to ‘prepare, bind and certify the record on appeal’
(Ill. Supreme
Court, Rule 324).
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.
96—35
—2—
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 Corp.
et al., 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
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
Ill. 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 he.3ring
so that public
notice of hearing may be published.
~.fterhearinq,
the hearina
officer
shall submit
an exhibit list,
wri’cteri 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.
tf 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
96—36
.1
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
75 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
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 decisionrnaking, 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
set a date pursuant to this Order.
IT IS SO ORDERED
I,
Dorothy M.
Gunn,
Clerk of the Illinois Pollution Control
Board, hereby certify thaj
the above Order was adopted on
the
~‘
day of ______________________,
1989,
by a vote
of
7—o
.
(
~
~
Dorothy
M. f~unn, Clerk
Illinois Po~1lutionControl
Board
96—37