ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
    May 5,
    1988
    ALTON PACKAGING CORPORATION,
    )
    Petitioner,
    V.
    )
    PCB 83—49
    ILLINOIS ENVIRONMENTAL
    )
    PROTECTION AGENCY,
    Respondent.
    ORDER OF THE BOARD
    (by R.
    C.
    Flemal):
    Alton Packaging Corporation (~A1tonu)filed
    a Motion
    for
    Reconsideration and Rehearing on March 31,
    1988,
    and a correction
    to that motion on April
    18,
    1988.
    The Board construes the latter
    filing to be
    an Amended Motion for Reconsideration and Rehearing.
    On April 20,
    1988 the Illinois Environmental Protection
    Agency (“Agency”)
    filed
    a Motion for Extension of Time
    to file
    a
    response
    to Alton’s motions.
    By Board Order
    of April
    21,
    1988
    Respondent was granted leave
    to file said response on or
    before
    April 29,
    1988.
    The Agency failed
    to file its response within
    the timeframe provided by the Board,
    therefore the response
    is
    stricken.
    In its motion,
    Petitioner requests that the Board reconsider
    its February 25,
    1988 Opinion and Order involving the compliance
    plan and economic hardship issues.
    In the alternative Petitioner
    requests the Board grant
    it a rehearing on the issues
    of
    compliance alternatives and coal costs.
    Petitioner makes two
    basic claims
    in support of
    its motion:
    1)
    that the currently
    filed PCB83—55 adjusted standard proceeding along with
    a
    commitment
    to burn lower sulfur coal within three years
    if the
    adjusted standard
    is not granted,
    is
    a proper compliance plan;
    and
    2)
    that the use of low sulfur
    coal,
    the only viable
    Compliance option outside of
    an adjusted standard, would impose
    an arbitrary or unreasonable hardship upon Alton.
    The Board finds
    that
    it has sufficiently discussed and
    considered each
    of these issues
    in its Opinion and Order.
    The
    only case precedent which Alton cites
    in its motion which the
    Board did not discuss
    is the October
    1,
    1987 Opinion and Order
    Schrock
    v.
    Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, PCB 86—
    205.
    The Board believes that its discussion contained in its
    previous Schrock Order, PCB 86—205, March
    5,
    1987 is supportive
    of
    the general rationale which the Board has followed regarding
    compliance plans,
    and was cited as such.
    However,
    the factual
    89—01

    —2—
    situation as presented
    in Schrock
    is disparate and not supportive
    of the relief which Alton seeks.
    The Board believes that
    the type of information Alton now
    seeks
    to present regarding low sulfur
    coal pricing
    and the other
    compliance options would not alter
    the Board’s determination of
    the lack of
    a compliance plan nor would
    it change the outcome of
    the proceeding.
    Moreover, Alton’s assertions that utilization of
    any of these compliance options and the use
    of low sulfur
    coal
    would
    be so costly as
    to constitute an arbitrary or unreasonable
    hardship,
    are indicative
    of a lack of commitment
    to
    a compliance
    plan.
    In so noting, the Board does not intend to reverse
    its
    holding that Alton failed
    to prove
    it would suffer an arbitrary
    or unreasonable hardship if denied variance relief,
    or
    its
    holdings on other matters as stated
    in the Opinion and Order, but
    merely seeks to illustrate Alton’s continued lack of commitment
    to a compliance plan which ensures that compliance will be
    achieved
    by a date certain.
    A new hearing on these matters
    is
    consequently unwarranted.
    Alton’s Motion for Reconsideration and Rehearing is
    therefore denied.
    IT
    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
    ___________________,
    1988,
    by
    a vote
    of
    7_()
    .
    Dorothy
    M. G nn, Clerk
    Illinois Pollution Control Board
    89—02

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