ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
July 14,
1983
ILLINOIS POWER COMPANY
(Vermillion Station);
Petitioner,
PCB Nos.
82—103
82—104
ILLINOIS ENVIRONMENTAL
PROTECTION AGENCY,
)
Respondent.
ORDER OF THE BOARD
(by J,D.
Dumelle):
This matter comes before the Board upon a July
8,
1983
appeal of the hearing officeres discovery order
in
this matter
filed by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (Agency).
The Agency requests that the Board reverse
the hearing of
ficer’s
order allowing the deposition of Mr. D~Auben,an
Agency
employee.
The Agency
argues
that Mr. D’Auben “had
not been
personally
involved in the review of the permit applications which are the
subject of this appeal,”
that he
became
involved “with the
facility only in analyzing information submitted after the permits
were denied,” and that such informaton is beyond the scope of a
permit appeal.
On July
11,
1983
Illinois Power filed a response to that
motion
correctly pointing out that discovery
is to be allowed
“if
the information sought appears reasonably calculated to lead to
the discovery of admissible evidence or is relevant to the
subject matter”
(35
Ill. Adm.
Code 103,161),
While the Board has uniformly held that a permit appeal
is
to he decided on the basis of what information was before the
Agency at the time of the permitting decision, the Board has not
before been faced with the issue
of whether evidence offered
to
the Agency, but not requested by the Agency prior to denial,
is
admissable.
Further,
Mr.
D~Aubenis,
as Illinois Power alleged,
“clearly in a position
to provide”
information concerning the denial.
53~O9
—2—
While a clearer indication of what information
is sought
from Mr. D’Auben would have been helpful
in deciding this motion,
the Board’s discovery rules are liberal and the hearing officer’s
June 27,
1983 Order
is affirmed and the Agency’s motion
is denied.
IT IS SO ORDERED.
I,
Christan
L. Moffett, Clerk of the Illinois Pollution
Control Board hereby certify that the above Order was adopted on
the __________________day of
__________
_____,
1983 by a
vote of
I.~~-c
L. Moff~
Illinois Polluti
trol Board
53-10