ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
    August 14,
    1986
    ILLINOIS ENVIRONMENTAL
    )
    PROTECTION AGENCY,
    )
    )
    Complainant,
    )
    v.
    )
    PCB 78—139
    VICKERY MANOR SERVICE CORPORATION
    )
    and NORTH HILLS MUTUAL SEWER
    )
    ASSOCIATION,
    )
    Respondents.
    OPINION AND ORDER OF THE BOARD (by B. Forcade):
    This matter comes to the Board on a May 5, 1978, complaint
    filed
    by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (“Agency’)
    against Vickery Manor Service Corporation
    (‘Vickery Manor’)
    regarding
    its sewage treatment plant near Mundelein, Illinois.
    The complaint,
    as later amended,
    claims violations of the
    Environmental Protection Act (“Act’)
    and Board regulations
    relating to water pollution,
    including failure
    to meet a
    construction and compliance schedule;
    failure to submit
    monitoring report forms;
    failure
    to meet effluent limits;
    and
    failure
    to properly maintain its plant.
    The initial hearings
    were held
    in February and March of
    1981.
    Briefly, respondent
    admitted it had “technically deviated from the terms of its NPDES
    permit,” but claimed that compliance was
    an economic
    impossibility.
    On August 26, 1981, Vickery Manor filed a request
    for delay of decision to allow time for settlement discussions.
    On December 23,
    1981, Vickery Manor filed with the Board a copy
    of its Application to the Illinois Commerce Commission (‘ICC’)
    for an Order Canceling its Certificate of Convenience and
    Necessity.
    In the period
    of time from late 1981 to the present,
    the parties and the customers of Vickery Manor appear
    to have
    worked reasonably diligently to achieve
    a solution to both the
    environmental and economic problems presented.
    That solution was
    first submitted to the Board
    in a June
    13,
    1986, motion for
    expedited hearing and Board review of Settlement Agreement.
    A
    hearing on that settlement agreement was held July 22,
    1986.
    The proposal for settlement
    is premised on the participation
    of North Hills Mutual Sewer Association (“NHMSA’),
    a not—for—
    profit corporation formed by residents served by Vickery Manor’s
    facility.
    It
    is
    the intention of the settlement agreement that
    NHMSA takeover
    the assets, facility and operations of Vickery
    Manor.
    Accordingly, NHMSA’s motion
    to intervene as a party
    respondent (Settlement,
    par. C,
    p.
    6)
    is granted.
    The settlement
    72-1
    agreement provides that Vickery Manor admits
    to each violation
    in
    the Amended Complaint and agrees to pay a $250.00 civil
    penalty.
    In return
    for Vickery Manor’s admissions and agreement
    on the civil penalty,
    the Agency agrees to the substitution of
    NHMSA for Vickery Manor.
    NHMSA agrees
    to implement a compliance
    program,
    outlined on pages 7—9 of the agreement, which should
    greatly improve the condition of the facility.
    This case has presented a very difficult problem.
    The
    environmental difficulties could
    be easily remedied with a proper
    infusion of
    capital.
    However,
    the economic facts in this
    situation and legitimate ICC concerns
    in establishing fees and
    rates have placed constraints on the source of that funding.
    Today’s settlement agreement provides
    an innovative and
    appropriate approach to the funding difficulties.
    The Board has
    reviewed the Stipulation and Proposal for Settlement in light of
    the facts and circumstances of this case and the factors of
    Section 33(c)
    of
    the Illinois Environmental Protection Act.
    The
    Board finds that the stipulation and proposal for settlement
    presents a just and equitable solution to
    a very difficult
    problem and will accept that document as written and direct that
    its terms be carried
    out.
    This settlement clearly anticipates future action before the
    Illinois Commerce Commission which will
    be premised,
    in part, on
    the stipulation and proposal
    for settlement,
    as well
    as the
    Board’ Order.
    Therefore,
    the Board will not redraft that
    document into the normal format of
    a Board Order.
    Instead,
    the
    Board specifically adopts each and every provision of the
    statement of facts as
    the Board’s findings of
    fact.
    Further,
    the
    Board adopts each and every provision of the proposal for
    settlement as the Board’s conclusions of law and orders that
    those provisions be carried
    out.
    For clarity,
    the Clerk of the
    Board
    is directed
    to attach
    a copy of the Stipulation and
    Proposal for Settlement
    to this Order.
    Those provisions which
    run from the date
    of the Board Order approving the document shall
    run from August 14,
    1986.
    This Opinion constitutes the Board’s findings of fact and
    conclusions
    of law on this matter.
    ORDER
    The Board accepts the attached Stipulation and Proposal for
    Settlement and directs that its terms be carried out.
    IT
    IS SO ORDERED.
    72-2
    I, Dorothy
    M.
    Gunn, Clerk of the Illinois Pollution Control
    Board, hereby certify that the~,aboveOpinion and Order was
    adopted on the
    /&“~-
    day of ~
    ,
    1986,
    by
    a vote
    of
    ________.
    I
    ~
    Dorothy M. GZñ, Clerk
    Illinois Pollution Control Board
    72.3

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