ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
January
9,
1975
CITIZENS
FOR A BETTER ENVIRONMENT,
An Illinois Not-for-Profit Corp..
COMPLAINANT
PCB 74-367
CITIZENS
UTILITIES COMPANY
OF ILLINOIS
An
Illinois
Corp.,
RESPONDENT
ORDER OF THE BOARD (by Mr.
Marder)
Citizens Utilities Company of Illinois filed
on November 27,
1974.
The Motion was directed
to
be considered separately herein.
Citizens’
first contention
is to the standing of
CBE
in this matter.
While
it is
true that CBE did not allege that it was either
a customer or
a user of the service provided by Citizens, the Board finds that Sec. 31
(b) of the Environmental Protection
Act allows
any person
to file an action
for enforcement.
CBE cannot receive any private remedies from the Board
and is actually bringing action for the people of
the state,
in order to
prevent alleged environmental damage.
Citizens next contends that CBE is
unlawfully representing citizens
of the Village of Bolingbrook,
in violation of
Chap.
13,
Ill.
Rev. Stat.,
Sec.
1.
Since
it
is
the determination that CBE
is respresenting itself and
no other,
and that CBE has standing
in this matter, CBE
is not representing
others,
and
therefore is not practicing
law in violation of statute.
Third, Citizens alleges that CBE cannot proceed pro-se.
The Rules
of the Pollution Control Board explicitly state that
‘a business, non-profit,
or government organizations may appear by any bona fide officer, employee,
or representative,
or may be represented by an attorney
licensed and regist-
ered
to practice in the State
of Illinois...”
(emphasis added), Rule 106
(a)
(2), Chapter
1,
Procedural
Rules.
Therefore,
the Board finds that CBE
is
properly represented
‘pro-se.”
The question of whether the Board may levy
a fine or issue
a cease and
desist order has been fully covered by the Illinois Supreme Court in City of
Waukegan
v.
Pollution Control Board,
et al., 57
111. 2d
170; Cobin
v. Pollu-
tion Control Board,
16 Ill.
App.
3d 958.
Therefore, these allegations
do not
support a Motion
to Dismiss.
The Board finds that
give Respondent notice as
forth
an adequate defense,
has too much iron
in
it,
in
V.
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
its Motion
to Dismiss
seven
points which
will
the Complaint states enough material
allegations
to
to what he
is being charged with so that he may put
Complainant states that the water to the customers
violation of standards prescribed
in
law.
15—209
Citizens next alleges thatParagraph 4 of the Complaint
is insufficient
in that it charges a violation of Sec.
18 of the Act, while no regulations
have been promulgated by the Board pursuant to Section 17 of the ActS
The
Board may find violation of the Act itself, even where
no regulations have
been promulgated or standards determined by the Board,
The Board need not
regulate every aspect of pollution problems but may allocate its resources
as
it sees best.
~
16 Ill.
J~nr’
3d 864.
Since compliance with the Board’s re9ulations
is only
a prima
~c~e defense
to
a violation of the Act (Sec.
49(e))
it would appear that
one can violate the Act even if no regulations have been promulgated. j~~gyg
~
20
III.
App. 3d 301.
Respondent’s
final
contention is that Rule 204
(a) does not apply
to
it,
in that Rule 207 grants exception from the constituents listed in Rule
204 (b).
Rule 207 states that constituents present naturally
in ground
water are excepted from meeting the water quality standards of Rule 204.
The question of how Rule 207 applies
to Rule 204 (a)
is
of first impression
before this Board.
The wide range
of arguments presented to the Board in-
dicate that it would
be best to consider this question within
the context of
a hearing on
the merits
and with
a complete record.
ORDER
IT IS THE ORDER of the Pollution Control Board that the Motion to Dismiss
is
denied.
I, Christan
L.
Moffett, Clerk of the Illinois Pollution Contrp4 Board,
certify that the above Order was adlopted by the Board on the
~
day of
1975, by
a vote of ~
to 0.
~tanL.Mofet,
Clerk
15—
210