ELECTRONIC
FILING,
RECEIVED, CLERK’S
OFFICE,
DECEMBER
1,
2065
BEFORE
THE ILLINOIS
POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
OF THE
STATE OF
ILLINOiS
ELECTRIC ENERGY, INCORPORATED,
)
)
Petitioner,
)
)
v.
)
PCB 2006-65
)
(Air
—
Permit Appeal)
ILLINOIS ENVIRONMENTAL
)
PROTECTION AGENCY,
)
)
Respondent.
)
NOTICE
To:
Dorothy Gunn, Clerk
James T. Harrington
Illinois Pollution Control Board
David L. Rieser
100 West Randolph
Street
MeGuire 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
100
West Randolph Street
Chicago, Illinois 60601
PLEASE TAKE NOTICE that
I have today filed with the Office of the Clerk of
the Illinois PolLution Control Board the MOTION FOR EXTENSION
OF TIME TO
FILE RECORD of the 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 ~&ter
Msistant 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, CLERKS OFFICE,
DECEMBER
1,2005
BEFORE THE
ILLiNOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
OF TIlE
STATE OF ILLINOIS
ELECTRIC ENERGY, INCORPORATED,
)
)
Petitioner,
)
)
v.
)
PCB 2006-65
)
(Air
—
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 Ill. Adm. Code
105.116 and moves the ILLINOIS
POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD (“Board”) for an
extension of the
time to file the record of its
determination in the above-captioned matter.
1.
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 Electric Energy, Incorporated (“Electric Energy”)
by
the Illinois EPA on September 29, 2005.
The permit authorized the operation of an
electrical power generation facility known as the Joppa Stream Electric Station.
The
facility is located
at 1200 Portland Road in Joppa, Illinois. Formal notice of the appeal
was served
upon the Illinois EPA on November 4, 2005.
2.
On November
17, 2005, the Board accepted Electric Energy’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
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.
1.
ELECTRONIC
FILING,
RECEIVED, CLERK’S OFFICE,
DECEMBER
1,
2005
3.
The undersigned attorney and a staff paralegal became involved with the
compilation of the administrative record relating to
Electric Energy as early as mid-
August 2005
and since that time, most of this attorney’s and the staff paralegal’s
resources have been devoted to the
compilation ofthis voluminous record
and related
records pertaining to the twenty CAAPP permit appeals involving other electrical power
generation facilities in
the State.
At this juncture, Electric
Energy’s record
consists
generally of five
to six trial boxes of material.
Approximately two to thrce boxes are
particular to Electric Energy 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 ofthe 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 enforcementcase
matters unrelated to the present appeal, Mr.
Layman
was generally unable to assist in the
compilation ofthe record
until this pastmonth.
5.
Due to
the sheer magnitude of the documejitation 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
2
ELECTRONIC
FILING,
RECEIVED, CLERK’S OFFICE,
DECEMBER
1, 2005
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 case is admittedly at the earliest stage of litigation, the permitting of this facility was
based upon years ofwork 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 Rearing Officer and opposing
counsel.
For instance, if the 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 Electric Energy
alone.
This does not include the five to
six boxes
that would be 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
3
ELECTRONIC
FILING,
RECEIVED, CLERK’S OFFICE,
DECEMBER
1,2005
screening.
However,
the
State is limitcd
by further constraints;
for instance, the Illinois
EPA must first seek to employ a contractor that
holds a State contract before turning 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 thai
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
ELECTRONIC
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 andlor consistent with any decisional deadline in this matter.
Respcctthlly submitted by,
ILLINOIS ENVIRONMENTAL
PROTECTION AGENCY,
Sally A. tarter
Assistant Counsel
Illinois Environmental Protection Agency
1021
North Grand Avenue East
P.O. Box
19276
Springfield, Illinois 62794-9276
(217)782-5544
S
ELECTRONIC
FILING,
RECEIVED, CLERK’S OFFICE,
DECEMBER
1,
2005
CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE
I hereby certify that on
the I”
day of December 2005,1 did send, by electronic
mail with prior approval, the following instmment 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
James
T. Harrington
Hearing Officer
David
L. Rieser
Illinois Pollution Control Board
MeGuire Woods,
LLP
James R. Thompson
Center
77 West Wacker, Suite 4100
Suite
11-500
Chicago, Illinois 60601
100
West Randolph Street
Chicago, Illinois 60601
4azeq-
As
Sally Cager
Assistant Counsel
