Find Court Cases > Go Back to List > Community Landfill Co. v. Pollution Control Board

Community Landfill Co. v. Pollution Control Board

Case Date: 07/17/2002
Court: 3rd District Appellate
Docket No: 3-02-0024 Rel

No. 3--02--0024


IN THE APPELLATE COURT OF ILLINOIS

THIRD DISTRICT

A.D., 2002

 

COMMUNITY LANDFILL COMPANY ) Appeal from a decision
and THE CITY OF MORRIS, ) by the Pollution Control
         Petitioners-Appellants, ) Board
)
         v. ) No. 01-170
)
THE POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD )
and THE ENVIRONMENTAL )
PROTECTION AGENCY, )
        Respondents-Appellees.  )

 


Modified Upon Denial of Rehearing

JUSTICE BRESLIN delivered the opinion of the court:

 

Petitioners Community Landfill Company and City of Morris(collectively, the company) appeal from a decision by respondentIllinois Pollution Control Board (Board) affirming respondentIllinois Environmental Protection Agency's (Agency) denial of thecompany's application for a waste disposal permit because thesurety that provided the previously approved performance bonds waslater removed from a United States Department of the Treasury listof approved sureties. We affirm and hold that a permit for wastedisposal is appropriately denied if the surety that provides thefinancial assurance is removed from the list of approvedgovernmental sureties.

I. FACTS

Community Landfill Company is the operator of a landfilllocated in Morris, Illinois. The landfill is owned by the City ofMorris. The property on which the landfill is located consists oftwo parcels of land, parcel A and parcel B.

In August of 2000, the Agency issued a significantmodification permit to the company that called for the closure ofparcel B and authorized the continued operation of parcel A undernew landfill regulations. The new regulations required increasedleachate collection and control devices as well as the installationof a separation layer. The permit was supported by financialassurance of $17,427,366 guaranteed by bonds issued by FrontierInsurance Company. The permit required that the company file asupplemental permit application in the future to secure approval ofthe construction of the separation layer and authorize theacceptance of waste for disposal in the newly constructed arealocated in parcel A.

On November 14, 2000, the Agency sent notice to the companythat it was in violation of the Environmental Protection Act (Act)(415 ILCS 5/1 et seq. (West 2000)) because the surety that wrotethe bond for the significant modification permit was no longer onthe list of approved governmental sureties. Two weeks afterreceiving this notice, the company filed its supplemental permitapplication for parcel A.

On May 11, 2001, the Agency denied the company's applicationfor the supplemental permit for two reasons. One was because thesurety was no longer on the list of approved government sureties. Specifically, the application was denied for failure to comply withsection 811.712(b) of the Illinois Administrative Code (Code) (35Ill. Adm. Code