ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
July 23, 2009
AMEREN ENERGY GENERATING
COMPANY and ELGIN ENERGY CENTER,
Petitioners,
v.
ILLINOIS ENVIRONMENTAL
PROTECTION AGENCY,
Respondent.
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PCB 09-97
(CAAPP Permit Appeal - Air)
ORDER OF THE BOARD (by G.T. Girard):
On April 24, 2009, Ameren Energy Generating Company and Elgin Energy Center
(Ameren) timely filed a petition (Pet.) asking the Board to review a March 19, 2009,
determination of the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (Agency).
See
415 ILCS
5/40.2(a) (2006); 35 Ill. Adm. Code 101.300(b), 105.302(e). The Agency’s determination
concerns Ameren’s combustion turbines at the Elgin Energy Center, which is an electric
generating station, located at 1559 Gifford Road, Elgin, Cook County. Ameren appeals on
several grounds including that that numerous conditions within the renewed permit are arbitrary,
capricious, unnecessary, unauthorized by law, unreasonable, or vague. Pet. at 3-8. Ameren
challenges the inclusion of these conditions and asks the Board to stay their effect until
ultimately ruling on the merits.
Id
. at 8. On May 7, 2009, the Board accepted the permit appeal
for hearing, but reserved ruling on the motion to stay.
In Ameren’s request for partial stay, Ameren argues “[h]istorically, the Board has granted
partial stays in permit appeals where a petitioner has so requested.” Pet. at 2 (citations omitted).
Ameren asks “that the Board exercise its inherent discretionary authority to grant a partial stay of
the CAAPP permit, staying only those conditions or portions of conditions indicated in Exhibit 2,
i.e.,
Conditions 5.6.2, 5.7.2(b), 5.9.2, 5.10.2, 7.1.3(f), 7.1.3 (f)(iv), 7.1.5(a)(iii)(A), 7.1.8(a)(iii),
7.1.9(l)(i), 7.1.9(l)(ii), 7.1.9(l)(iii), 7.1.10(e) and 7.1.12( e) during the pendency of this appeal.”
Pet. at 3,
see
Exh. 2. Exhibit 2 to the petition is a “redlined” version of the permit that indicates
the conditions or parts of the conditions Ameren seeks to stay.
Id
.
Section 101.500(d) of the Board’s procedural rules provides that, “[w]ithin 14 days after
service of a motion, a party may file a response to the motion. If no response is filed, the party
will be deemed to have waived objection to the granting of the motion, but the waiver of
objection does not bind the Board or the hearing officer in its disposition of the motion.” 35 Ill.
Adm. Code 101.500(d). The Agency has filed no response to Ameren’s request for a partial stay.
In Community Landfill Co. and City of Morris v. IEPA, PCB 01-48, 01-49, slip op. at 4
(Oct. 19, 2000), the Board found “that it has the authority to grant discretionary stays from
2
permit conditions.” The Board noted that it “has previously granted or denied discretionary stays
in permit appeals, both when the Agency did and did not consent to such stays.”
Id
. (citations
omitted). The Board elaborated that “[t]he permit appeal system would be rendered meaningless
in many cases, if the Board did not have the authority to stay permit conditions.”
Id
.
The Board has reviewed Ameren’s request for partial stay and Ameren’s exhibit 2, which
is entitled “Redliened Version through Section 8”. The Board notes that Exhibit 2 strikes the all
or part of the permit conditions 5.6.2, 5.7.2(b), 5.9.2, 5.10.2, 7.1.3(f), 7.1.3 (f)(iv),
7.1.5(a)(iii)(A), 7.1.8(a)(iii), 7.1.9(l)(i), 7.1.9(l)(ii), 7.1.9(l)(iii), 7.1.10(e) and 7.1.12( e).
See
Exh. 2.
The Board grants the requested partial stay and permit conditions 5.6.2, 5.7.2(b), 5.9.2,
5.10.2, 7.1.3(f), 7.1.3 (f)(iv), 7.1.5(a)(iii)(A), 7.1.8(a)(iii), 7.1.9(l)(i), 7.1.9(l)(ii), 7.1.9(l)(iii),
7.1.10(e) and 7.1.12( e), are stayed as requested by Ameren. The stay remains in effect until the
Board takes final action on the permit appeal or until the Board orders otherwise.
IT IS SO ORDERED.
I, John Therriault, Assistant Clerk of the Illinois Pollution Control Board, certify that the
Board adopted the above order on July 23, 2009, by a vote of 5-0.
___________________________________
John Therriault, Assistant Clerk
Illinois Pollution Control Board
