ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
March 28,
1977
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY,
)
Complainant,
v.
)
PCB 76—315
VILLAGE OF LIVINGSTON,
a municipal corporation,
)
Respondent.
Mr. Patrick J.
Chesley, Assistant Attorney General, Attorney
for Complainant
Mr. John Chalovich,
appeared on behalf of Respondent
OPINION AND ORDER OF THE BOARD
(by Mr. Young):
This matter comes before the Board on the Complaint filed
on December
9,
1976, by the Environmental Protection Agency
charging that the Village of Livingston has owned and operated
its public water supply from February 21,
1976 through the
filing of the Complaint without a properly certified water
supoly operator in violation of Section
1 of an Act to
Regulate the Operation of a Public Water Supply System,
Ill.
Rev.
Stat.
1975,
Ch. ill 1/2, par.
501
(Certification
Statute).
A hearing was held in Edwardsville on January 25,
1977.
The Village of Livingston, with a population of approxi-
mately 1000 peonle, owns and operates a public water su~ply
including one well,
a 100,000 gallon storage tank,
and a
distribution system.
The well water
is
aerated, chlorinated,
settled and filtered prior
to discharge into
the
distribution
systern.
Section
1 of the Certification Statute requires any
public water supply system utilizing aeration and filtration
to have in its employ at least one natural person certified
as comoetent as a Class A or B water supply operator.
On the basis of Respondent’s Answer to the Request for
Admission of Facts
(Exh.
*2)
as well as the admissions made
at the hearing,
there can be no doubt that the violation
occurred.
To mitigate the violation,
Respondent contended
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it made every reasonable effort to comply and that the viola-
tion resulted solely from Respondent’s misunderstanding re-
garding the certification requirements.
After the resignation
of their water superintendent on February 21, 1976,
the Village
hired an uncertified operator, Bob Martintoni,
to perform the
work required at the water supply.
As soon as the required
classes were offered, Mr. Martintoni enrolled therein so that
the proper certification could be obtained.
Because the
Village had followed this same procedure in 1973 when it hired
the operator whose resignation precipitated
this entire matter
(R.
35), Mr. John Chalovich,
Mayor of Livingston,
thought
that the Village was in full compliance with the requirements.
Although the Agency mailed a Notice of Violation
(Exh.
#3)
to the Respondent on March
5, 1976, both the Mayor and the
Village Clerk, Mrs.
Linda Rensing, deny that it was ever received
by the Village
(R.
31, 32).
Mrs.
Rensing did testify,
however,
that the Village was directed to employ a properly certified
operator by Mr. Ed Kane of the Agency’s Collinsville Office
some 90 days prior
to the filing of the Complaint herein
(R. 48).
The record
is silent as
to why Mr. Kane’s directions were not
followed until after
the Complaint was
filed.
At about the time the Complaint herein was filed,
the
Agency issued
a press release concerning the Village’s water
supply which allegedly listed two methods of compliance satis-
factory to the Agency,
one of which was that the Village could
comply by training a present employee to pass a written examina-
tion offered by the Agency
(Exh.
#4).
With this knowledge and
knowing
that a Complaint had been filed,
the Mayor called the
Agency for explanation.
He was informed that the press release
was in error and that the only method of compliance was to hire
a properly certified operator, a step which the Village immediately
followed by hiring
a properly certified operator within
10 days
thereof
(R. 13).
Section
23 of the Certification Statute requires the
imposition
of a penalty of not less than
$300.00
nor more than
$1,000.00 for each violation of Section
1 found by the Board.
In consideration of the entire record in this matter and in
accordance with Section 23, the Board will assess the minimum
penalty of $100.00
for the violation of Section
1 found herein.
The Board notes that even though Respondent received notice of
the violation some
90 days prior to the filing of the Complaint
herein,
Respondent delayed until after the Complaint was
filed
herein before initiating corrective action.
The Board has also
considered the effect of the Agency’s erroneous press release
and concludes that although this was indeed an unfortunate cir-
cumstance,
absent any showing of detrimental reliance, and none
was shown,
this circumstance alone is of little benefit to
Respondent’ s case.
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This Opinion constitutes the Board’s
findings of fact and
conclusions of law in this matter.
ORDER
The Village of Livingston is found to have operated its
public water supply in violation of Section
1 of the Certification
Statute and is assessed a penalty of $100.00
for such violation.
Penalty payment by certified check or money order payable to the
State of Illinois shall be made within
35 days of the date of
this Order to:
Fiscal Services Division,
Illinois Environmental
Protection Agency,
2200 Churchill Road, Springfield,
Illinois,
62706.
IT
IS SO ORDERED.
I,
Christan
L.
Moffett, Clerk of the Illinois Pollution
Control Board, hereby certify the abovç Opinion and Order were
adopted on the
~
day of
___________________,
1977 by
a vote of.~ô
Christan L. Moffê~ Clerk
Illinois Pollution Control Board
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