ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
January 24,
1991
AMOCO OIL COMPANY,
)
(Creve Coeur Terminal)
)
Petitioner,
v.
)
PCB 91—10
)
(Variance)
ILLINOIS ENVIRONMENTAL
)
PROTECTION AGENCY,
)
Respondent.
ORDER OF THE BOARD
(by B. Forcade):
On January 18,
1991 Amoco Oil Company (Creve Coeur Terminal)
filed a petition for variance.
This matter
is accepted for
hearing.
The petition states that the variance relates to the
construction of
a ground—water treatment system, however, certain
aspects of the request for
relief are unclear.
The Board directs
that the petitioner specifically address the following at
hearing:
identification of every section of the Board’s
regulations from which a variance is sought;
the dates on which
the variance would begin and terminate;
the details of the
compliance plan to which Amoco commits;
the maximum levels sought
for any concentrations of iron or other constituents
in the
receiving water;
and whether relief may be granted consistent
with federal
law.
Amoco’s petition at pages
3 and
4 refers to a complaint
filed by the State against Amoco and an Interim Agreed Order
entered by the Circuit Court for Tazewell County,
Illinois.
Amoco states that “(t)he order will govern the construction and
operation of, among other things,
the ground—water recovery
systems that are the subject of this petition.”
Amoco
is
directed to file copies of the complaint and agreed order,
indicating the extent to which the agreed order constitutes
Amoco’s compliance plan.
As a variance provides only temporary
relief from the act and regulations, a detailed compliance plan
must be submitted.
See
35
Ill. Adm. Code 104.121, Contents of
Variance Petition; Monsanto Co.
v.
IPCB,
67
Iii.
2d 276,
376
N.E.2d 684 (1977).
Hearing must be scheduled within 14 days
of the date of this
Order and completed within 60 days of the date of this Order.
The hearing officer shall inform the Clerk of the Board of the
time and location of the hearing at least
40 days
in advance of
hearing so that public notice of hearing may be published.
After
hearing, the hearing officer shall submit an exhibit list and all
—2—
actual exhibits
to the Board within
5 days of the hearing.
Any
briefing schedule shall provide for final filings as
expeditiously as possible and
in no event later than
70 days from
the date of this Order.
If after appropriate consultation with the parties,
the
parties fail
to provide an acceptable hearing date or
if after an
attempt the hearing officer is unable to consult with the
parties,
the hearing officer shall unilaterally set a hearing
date in conformance with the schedule above.
This schedule will
only provide the Board a very short time period to deliberate and
reach a decision before the due date.
The hearing officer and
the parties are encouraged to expedite this proceeding as much as
possible.
Within 10 days of accepting this case, the Hearing Officer
shall enter
a Hearing Officer Scheduling Order governing
completion
of
the record.
That Order shall set a date certain
for each aspect of the case including:
briefing schedule,
hearing date(s), completion of discovery
(if necessary) and pre—
hearing conference
(if necessary).
The Hearing Officer
Scheduling Order may be modified by entry of a complete new
scheduling order conforming with the time requirements below.
The hearing officer may extend this schedule only on a
waiver of the decision deadline by the petitioner and only for
the equivalent or fewer number of days that the decision deadline
is waived.
Such waivers must be provided in writing to the Clerk
of the Board.
Any waiver must be an “open waiver”
or
a waiver of
decision until a date certain.
Any waiver shall extend the time
deadline of Section 104.180 regarding filing the Agency
recommendation by the equivalent number of days, but
in any
circumstance the recommendation must be filed at least
20 days
before the hearing.
Because of requirements regarding the publication of notice
of hearing,
no scheduled hearing may be cancelled unless the
petitioner provides an open waiver or a waiver to a date at least
120 days beyond the date of the motion to cancel hearing.
This
should allow ample time for the Board to republish notice of
hearing and receive transcripts from the hearing before the due
date.
Any order by the hearing officer granting cancellation of
hearing shall include a complete new scheduling order with a new
hearing date at least 40 days
in the future and at least
30 days
prior
to the new due date and the Clerk of the Board shall be
promptly informed of the new schedule.
Because this proceeding
is the type for which the Illinois
Environmental Protection Act sets a very short statutory deadline
for making a decision, absent a waiver, the Board will grant
extensions or modifications only in unusual circumstances.
Any
such motion must set forth an alternative schedule for notice,
—3—
hearing, and final submissions, as well as the deadline for
decision, including response time to such a motion.
However,
no
such motion shall negate the obligation of the hearing officer to
establish a Scheduling Order pursuant to the requirements of this
Order, and to adhere to that Order until modified.
This Order will not be published
in the Board’s Opinion
Volumes.
IT IS SO ORDERED.
I, Dorothy M. Gunn, Clerk of the Illinois Pollution Control
Board, h~rebycertify
t1.~1~t
the above Order was adopted on
the
_____
day of
___________________,
1991,
by a vote
of
-6.
Dorothy M.//unn, Clerk
Illinois P6llution Control Board