ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD

May 22,

1986

IN THE MATTER OF:

)

R82—7

PETITION FOR SITE SPECIFIC

)

RELIEF BY THE CITY OF ALTON

ORDER OF THE BOARD

(by

3.

Marlin):

On May 16,

1985,

the Board

adopted

a first notice

order

proposing site—specific language for

the City of Alton

(“City”).

First notice was published at

9

Ill. Reg.

8392 on June

7,

1985.

The Board modified this language

in its second notice

Order

dated March

27, 1986.

The second notice period began on

March

28, 1986 and ended on April

17, 1986 when the Joint

Committee on Administrative Rules

(JCAR)

issued

a certification

of

no objection to the rulemaking.

The JCAR certification

is

conditioned

upon the Board

adding

the clause

“nb

later

than the

date of completion of Lock and

Darn No.

26”

to proposed Section

304.210(b)(3).

For reasons explained below,

the Board will await

further comments from the City,

the Illinois Environmental

Protection Agency (“Agency”),

and

the United States Environmental

Protection Agency (USEPA)

before proceeding with this rulemaking.

Subsequent

to

the Board’s second notice Order,

the Agency

filed letters with the Board dated April

9 and 17,

1986 stating

that this matter was still

in

the negotiation process with the

City and USEPA.

Appended

to the April

17 letter was

a USEPA

preliminary comment dated April

16, 1986,

suggesting

that if

additional economic data were placed

in the record, an exception

to the requirement

that all

river

flows up to

the

25 year

flood

event be transported

to

the wastewater treatment plant may be

possible.

It appears that the City

is now moving

to authorize an

additional engineering

cost and

feasibility study.

Once

the second notice period commences by JCAR’s receipt of

a filing,

Section 5.01(b)

of

the Illinois Administrative

Procedure Act,

(APA),

Ill. Rev.

Stat. 1985,

ch.

127,

par.

1005.01(b), provides that the Board may not subsequently change

the language of

a proposed rule unless

it

is in response

to

comments from JCAR.

Additionally, JCAR has interpreted Section

5.01(c)

as requiring that the rule as approved

at second notice

must then be filed.

Thus,

in the ordinary course of events, the

Board

could

not accommodate any untimely, post—first

notice

public comments that attempt

to substantially change the proposed

rule during

the second notice period except by way of

a

proceeding

to amend

an adopted

rule.

The Agency

is requested

to

bear this

in mind

in future proceedings.

70-72

---

2

Section 5.01(d)

of the APA provides, however, that

if the

Board does not adopt and file

a final rule within one year

of

commencement of

the 1st notice period——here, June

7,

1986——all of

the APA notice procedures must be recomnienced and the proposal

republished

in

the Illinois Register.

Under the circumstances here,

the Board believes the most

efficient course

of action

is

to await the outcome of the

negotiation process between the participants and the USEPA and

return

to first notice

if and when warranted.

This will add

a

minimum of

90 days to

the proceeding.

By spending additional

time in negotiation, future time consuming appeals may be

avoided.

In the

interim, the City shall submit monthly letters

to

the

Board informing it of the status of negotiations.

The first

letter pursuant

to this Order

is due on July

1,

1986.

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

_______________,

1986,

by

a vote

of

/

Dorothy

M.

GT?nn, Clerk

Illinois Pollution Control Board