ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
June 10, 1987
NATURAL GAS PIPELINE COMPANY
)
OF I~MERICA,
Petitioner,
V.
)
PCB 87—78
)
ILLINOIS ENVIRONMENTAL
)
PROTECTION AGENCY,
)
)
Respondent.
ORDER OF THE BOARD
(by B. Forcade):
On June
3,
1987, Natural Gas Pipeline Company of America
(hereinafter “NGPCA”)
filed a petition for hearing concerning
denial
of permit.
This matter
is accepted
for hearing.
The
Board wishes clarification as to whether the liquid industrial
waste injected into disposal Well No.
1
is
a hazardous waste.
The Board also request that NGPCA file
a copy of the April
29,
1987,
Illinois Environmental Protection Agency letter denying
a
permit.
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 as expeditiously as possible but
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, 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.
Within 10 days of
accepting this case,
the Hearing Officer
shall enter
a Hearing Officer Scheduling Order governing
completion of the record.
That Order
shall set
a date certain
for each aspect of the case including:
briefing schedule,
—2—
hearing date(s), completion
of discovery (if necessary)
and pre—
hearing conference
(if necessary).
The Hearing Officer
Scheduling Order may be modified by entry of a complete new
scheduling order conforming with the time requirements below.
The hearing officer may extend this schedule only on a
waiver of the decision deadline by the petitioner 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
petitioner 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 complete new scheduling order with
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 decisionmaking, 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 fourth paragraph of
this Order,
and
to adhere
to that Order
until modified.
IT
IS SO ORDERED
Chairman J.D. Dumelle concurred.
I, Dorothy
M. Gunn, Clerk of the Illinois Pollution Control
Board, hereby certify
that the above Order was adopted on
the
/O~-day of
_____________________,
1987,
by a vote
of
~,—O.
Illiis
Control Board
l8-43i