ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
May 14,
1981
PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS,
)
)
Petitioner,
v.
)
PCB 80—112
PETER OCCHIPINTI,
Respondent.
ORDER OF THE BOARD
(by I. Goodman):
On April
17, 1981 Respondent moved the Board to delete Para-
graph
2 of its Order of March 19, 1981,
citing several arguments.
On April
23, 1981, Complainant responded and moved the Board to
clarify its Opinion of March 19,
1981 with respect to the term
misrepresented”.
Paragraph
2 of the Order, which directs Respondent
to install
holding tanks of a design and capacity to be determined by the
Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, was imposed in balancing
the financial burden of the Respondent with the constitutional and
other rights of affected citizens to a healthy environment pursuant
to S33 of the Illinois Environmental Protection Act (Act).
The
paragraph has the further effect of mitigating against the Board’s
revocation of Respondent’s permit.
Respondent cites an inability to install the tanks due to
the
Village of Lombard’s alleged refusal to approve their installation.
These holding tanks will not only minimize backups to neighboring
homes, but decrease wet weather load on the Village’s treatment
plant.
Although Respondent disputes the Board’s finding that an
ordinary person could reasonably expect an overload and backup
problem under the facts of this case, alleging the finding to be
inconsistent with reasonable engineering criteria, the finding
was not solely based on technical evidence, but included the
common sense recognition that a 12—inch pipe may not flow freely
at all times when many pipes connect to it, one of which
is of the
same 12-inch diameter.
The Board agrees with Complainant that
Respondent’s exhibits to its motion were improperly appended;
such
evidence was not a part of the record in this proceeding and is
therefore immaterial and irrelevant to the Board’s Opinion of March
19,
1981.
As to the Order, however,
the Board accepts the exhibits
as evidence of the feasibility of complying with Paragraph 2.
Although the Board denies Respondent’s motion to delete Para-
graph
2 of its Order, it will amend that Paragraph to allow
Respondent to,
in lieu of installing holding tanks, timely submit
to Complainant
a plan,
to the complete satisfaction of Complainant,
41—407
—2—
to reduce the pollution.
However, the instant matter
is an enforce-
ment action and not a grant of variance.
Further delay
in cleani~q
up the pollution is not warranted,
and the Board will set
a deadiin~
for the submission of an alternative plan.
Respondent’s other arguments are of no merit; that the cost
of the holding tanks cannot justify their benefits was not under
consideration in the record of this enforcement case, and reliance
upon a previous permit is immaterial to the duty to make true
sLi~
ments of fact in permit applications.
The Board declines to require of Respondent
a performance band
and also declines to revoke the permit pursuant to §33 of the
)\c~:.
As to the Agency’s concern with the Board’s use of the term
“misrepresented,” the Board need not make, and did not here,
a
finding as to state of mind,
as state of mind is immaterial to
a
finding of whether facts
in a permit application are true.
The
Agency itself had pleaded the irrelevancy of intent to the issue
of whether the permit should be revoked (People’s Reply Brief, p.5).
If the meaning of the term in the phrase “Occhipinti misrepresented
the condition of the downstream sewers
...
in his permit application”
is “unclear from a reading of the Opinion,” since one might chonso
to “infer that the Board interpreted the term
...
to include so~~c
state of mind accompanying Occhipinti’s act of submitting incorrert
information in his permit application,” the Board cites the
Agenc’~’
to Webster’s Dictionary and not tort law principles.
The Agency’s final plea to clarify the elements of a j~ima
facie case for the Board’s revocation of Respondent’s permit is
answered by reference to §33 of the Act which calls for the Boar’-l’~
consideration of a number of facts in finding violations and in
drafting its Orders.
It is the Order of the Illinois Pollution Control Board that
Paragraph
2 of the Order of March 19,
1981 he amended to read as
follows:
2.
Peter Occhipinti
shall
install one or more holding tanks
of
a design and capacity to be determined by the Illinois Environ-
mental Protection Agency so as to restrict flow to the sanitary
sewer system of the Village of Lombard during rainstorms.
In the
alternative, Peter Occhipinti shall
submit an alternadve plan for
the same purpose to the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency
on or before July 17,
1981 and shall abide by the Agency’s
determination regarding said plan.
I, Christan
L. Moffett,
Clerk of the Illinois Pollution Co~itr-l
Board, hereby certify that the above Order was adopted on the
/t/~’
day of
_________,
1981 by a vote of
~-C~
‘.
Christan
L.
Mdffett, Clerk
Illinois Pollution Control Board
41—408