ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
December 19,
1980
SHEREX CHEMICAL COMPANY, INC.,
)
Petitioner,
V.
)
PCB 80—66
ILLINOIS ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
)
AGENCY,
Respondent.
SUPPLEMENTAL OPINION OF THE BOARD
(by
I.
Goodman)
The Agency’s November
6,
1980 Motion for Reconsideration of
the Board’s October
2,
1980 Order is granted.
I.
INCOMPLETENESS OF INFORMATION
Under Rule 103(b)(4) of Chapter 2,
an Agency-determined
incomplete application retains its original filing date if the
Agency does not notify the applicant within 30 days of the
incompleteness and the reasons for the incompleteness.
If there is no statement issued under the rule, then the
filing date of the application is unchanged and the Agency must
proceed to determine whether the applicant has demonstrated
nonviolation.
If the Agency determines that there was
incompleteness of information in the application, the §39(a)
denial
statement must specify what information was lacking.
In applying Rule 103(b)(4)
and §39(a) of the Act to the
facts in this matter,
the Board
found that to deny the permit
under §39(a) for incompleteness and not a nondemonstration of
nonviolation was “somewhat capricious” under these circumstances.
The Board,
in reconsidering the scope of the Agency’s duty
under these circumstances,
finds that the Agency does not have an
absolute duty under Rule 103(b) (4) to inform Sherex that the
application was incomplete.
However, when the Agency relied on
information Sherex did not formally submit—-while Sherex had
specifically asked for copies of such information under §7 of the
Act--the Agency would have acted in better faith and afforded the
maximum possible process of law had it informed Sherex of that
information it had relied upon to determine nonviolation.
40—187
II.
CLEAN AIR ACT ISSUES
§S110 and 116
The Board did not state that approval by the USEPA is
unnecessary to effectuate a SIP revision.
When it spoke of a
permit “intended to be submitted as a SIP revision the Board did
not state that any permit intended to revise the SIP is effective
as a SIP revision when issued by the Agency.
The permit so issued,
however, would be in full force under state
law upon issuance.
The Board stated that the SIP need not be revised before the permit
issues if it is the permit itself which is to constitute
the
revision.
An analogy may be made to variances which are incorp-
orated into the SIP as revisions thereto.
Such a finding
is
contrary to neither §110(a)(3) nor §116 of the Clean Air Act.
IT IS SO
ORDERED.
I,
Christan L. Moffett,
Clerk of the Illinois Pollution
Control Board, hereby certify that the above Supplemental Opinion
was adopted on the
~f~day
of
_______
1980 by a vote of
Ch~i~~i~
f~t
~
Illinois Pollution Control Board
40—188