ELECTRONIC
FILING,
RECEIVED, CLERK’S OFFICE,
DECEMBER
1,
2005
-~
BEFORE THE ILLINOIS
POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS
AMEREN ENERGY
)
GENERATiNG COMPANY,
COFFEEN POWER STATION,
)
)
Petitioner,
)
)
v.
)
PCB 2006-64
)
(CAAPP Permit Appeal)
ILLINOIS ENVIRONMENTAL
PROTECTION AGENCY,
)
)
Respondent.
NOTICE
To:
Dorothy Gunn, Clerk
James 1. Barrington
Illinois Pollution Control Board
David
L. Ricser
100 WestRandolph Street
McGuire Woods, LLP
Suite
11-500
77 West Wacker, Suite 4100
Chicago, Illinois
60601
Chicago, Illinois
60601
Bradley P. Halloran
Hearing Officer
Illinois Pollution
Control
Board
James R. Thompson Center
Suite
11-500
IOU West Randolph Street
Chicago, Illinois
60601
PLEASE
TAKE
NOTICE that I have today filed with the Office ofthe Clerk of
the Illinois Pollution Control Board the MOTION FOR EXTENSION OF TIME TO
FILE RECORD ofthe Respondent, Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, a copy of
which
is herewith served upon the assigned Hearing Office and the attorney for the
Petitioner.
Respectfully submitted
by,
Sally C~ter
Assistant Counsel
Dated:
December
1,
2005
Illinois Environmental Protection
Agency
1021
North Grand Avenue East
P.O. Box
19276
Springfield,
Illinois 62794-9276
ELECTRONIC
FILING,
RECEIVED, CLERK’S
OFFICE,
DECEMBER
1, 2005
BEFORE
THE ILLINOIS POLLUTION
CONTROL BOARI~
-
OF THE STATE
OF ILLINOIS
AMEREN ENERGY
)
GENERATING COMPANY,
COFFEEN POWER STATION,
)
Petitioner,
)
)
v.
)
PCB 2006-64
)
(CAAPP Permit Appeal)
ILLINOIS ENVIRONMENTAL
)
PROTECTION AGENCY,
)
)
Respondent.
MOTION FOR EXTENSION OF TIME TO FILE RECORD
NOW COMES the Respondent,
ILLINOIS ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
AGENCY (“Illinois EPA”), by
and through
its attorneys, pursuant to 35
III,
Adm. Code
105.116 and moves the ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROLBOARD
(“Board”) for an
extension of the time to file the record of its
determination in the above-captioned matter.
I.
Petitioners filed
their Petition with the Board on November 3, 2005,
seeking a review of certain permit conditions contained
within
the
Clean
Air Act Permit
Program (“CAAPP”) permit issued to Ameren Energy Resources Generating Company
(“Ameren” or “Coffeen”) by
the Illinois EPA on
September 29, 2005.
The permit
authorized the operation of an electrical power generation facility known as the Coffeen
Power Station.
The facility is located at
134 CIPS
Lane in Coffeen, Illinois.
Formal
notice of the appeal was served
upon
the Illinois EPA
on November 4,
2005.
2.
On November 17, 2005, the Board accepted Ameren’s Petition
for
hearing.
In
addition, the Board ordered the Respondent to
file the
entire record of its
determination within
30 days of receipt of the Petition.
If an extension of time to file the
3.
r-~~
ELECTRONIC
FILING,
RECEIVE~
CLERK’S OFFICE,
DECEMBER
1,2005
record would be sought by
the
Respondent, the Board’s order instructed that such request
was also due within
30 days after the Illinois EPA received the
Petition.
3.
The undersigned attorney and a staff paralegal became involved with the
compilation of the administrative record relating to Ameren as early as mid-August
2005
arid since that time, most of this attorney’s and
the staff paralegal’s resources have been
devoted
to the compilation of this voluminous record
and related records pertaining to the
twenty CAAPP permit appeals involving other electrical power generation facilities in
the State.
At this juncture, Coffeen’s record consists generally of five to six trial
boxes of
material.
Approximately two to three boxes are particular to Coffeen alone, while three
other boxes are more aptly characterized as general
reference material
and documents
relevant to the decision
underlying the issuance of all twenty-one CAAPP permits
to the
State’s electrical power generation facilities.
The only remaining documents to be
assembled
and reviewed for this record preparation generally consists of several hundred
miscellaneous electronic mail messages of Illinois EPA personnel.
Some,
but not all, of
these emails may contain information that were relied
upon
by the Illinois EPA in its
permit decision.
-
4.
The other assigned attorney, Robb Layman, became involved with the
compilation of the administrative record relating to this proceeding in November 2005.
Due
to the press of other permit appeals before the United States Environmental
Protection Agency’s Environmental Appeals Board (“EAB”) and enforcement case
matters
unrelated to the present appeal, Mr.
Layman was generally unable to assist in the
compilation of the record
until this past month.
2
ELECTRONIC
FILING,
RECEIVED, CLERKS OFFICE,
DECEMBER
1,
2005
5.
Due to the sheer magnitude of the documentation
underlying the Illinois
EPA’s permitting decision in this matter and the additional twenty CAAPP permit
appeals, the Illinois EPA was not able to compile the entire administrative record
on or
before December
5,
2005.
Counsel expects that the compilation of the record
will require
at least an additional seven days.
Beyond this point, the timing of the filing of the
administrative record will likely be determined by matters
largely outside of counsel’s
control.
6.
First, while counsel for the Illinois EPA has observed that many permit
appeals are of a type that could most aptly be described
as “protective appeals” that do
not necessarily require the filing of an administrative record, it is counsel’s estimation
that some of the collective twenty-one appeals possess a much greater likelihood of
proceeding to hearing, thus necessitating the filingof an administrative record.
While
this ease is admittedly at the earliest stage of litigation, the permitting of this facility was
based upon years of work by the Bureau of Air’s permitting engineers and countless
communications with this facility and industry representatives at large.
In addition, it
is
also the Illinois EPA’s perception that the Board may not wish to accept voluminous
administrative records in this and all of the other collective CAAPP appeals unless
it
appears that
a settlement resolution cannot be reached.
-
7.
Second, the Illinois EPA does not possess the support-staff to make the
necessary copies for filing before the Board, the assigned Hearing Officer and opposing
counsel.
For instance, ifthe Respondent were to
seek leave from the Board for a waiver
of the
applicable copying requirements, the Respondent would still be mailing
approximately twenty-five to thirty trial boxes
to the Board for Coffeen
alone.
This does
3
ELECTRONIC
FILING,
RECEIVED, CLERKS
OFFICE,
DECEMBER
1,
2005
not
include
the five
to six
boxes
that
would
he required
for both the Hearing Officer and
opposing counsel.
Due to these constraints,
counsel has been researching the possibility
of hiring
an outside contractor to perform the
required copying and/or screening.
However, the
State is limited by further constraints;
for instance, the Illinois EPA must
first seek to employ a contractor that holds a State contract before taming to a non-State
contractor for copying
services. While counsel has located State
contractors that would
be willing to make
10,000 copies often documents,
counsel has not found a State
contractor willing to
make seven copies of thousands of miscellaneous sized documents.
8.
Based on the foregoing,
the Illinois EPA formally requests
an extension of
time to file its administrative record with the Board to a date determined by the Board to
be appropriate and/or consistent
with any decisional deadline in this matter.
9.
The
grant of this extension of the
filing date will
ensure that this
voluminous record
is not needlessly filed
but
filed
in the event that the matter does
not
settle.
This will serve to limit the
expenditure of constrained State resources on
a
potentially unnecessary copying job.
Moreover, this will
further minimize any potential
administrative burdens associated with the maintenance and storage of hundreds of trial
boxes
for this appeal, together with the other twenty CAAPP appeals for the Board and
the assigned Hearing Officer.
In addition, an extension of this time period
will
not result
in any hardship or prejudice to Petitioner.
4
~~~TRONIC
FILING,
RECEIVED,
CLERKS OFFICE,
DECEMBER
1,
2005
WHEREFORE,
the Illinois EPA respectfUlly
requests
that the
Board
grant this
Motion for Extension of Time
to File Record to a date determined by the Board to be
appropriate andior consistent with
any decisional
deadline in this matter.
Respectfully submitted by,
ILLINOIS ENVIRONMENTAL
PROTECTION AGENCY,
Sally Aitarter
Assistant Counsel
Illinois Environmental Protection Agency
1021 North Grand Avenue East
PD. Box
19276
Springfield, Illinois 62794-9276
(217)782-5544
5
ELECTRONIC
FILING,
RECEIVED, CLERKS
OFFICE,
DECEMBER
1,
2005
CERTIFICATE OF
SERVICE
Iliereby certify that on
the
Vt
dayof December 2005, Idid send,
by electronic
mail with prior approval, the following instrument entitled MOTION FOR
EXTENSION OF TIME TO FILE
RECORD to:
Dorothy Gunn, Clerk
Illinois Pollution Control Board
100
West Randolph Street
Suite
11-500
Chicago, Illinois 60601
and a true and correct copy of the same
foregoing instrument, by First Class Mail with
postage thereon fully paid and deposited into
the possession of the United States Postal
Service,
to:
Bradley P.
Halloran
Hearing Officer
Illinois Pollution Control Board
James R. Thompson Center
Suite
11-500
100 West Randolph
Street
Chicago, Illinois 60601
James T. Harrington
David L. Rieser
McGuire Woods, LLP
77 West Wacker, Suite 4100
Chicago, Illinois 60601
g’ally c~ter
Assistant Counsel
