United States Steel Corporation v. Illinois Pollution Control Board

State: Illinois

Court: 5th District Appellate

Docket No: 5-07-0285 Rel

Case Date: 07/22/2008

Preview:N O T IC E Decision filed 07/22/08. The text of this dec ision m ay b e changed or corrected prior to the P e t i ti o n for filing of a or the

NO. 5-07-0285 IN THE APPELLATE COURT OF ILLINOIS

Re hea ring

FIFTH DISTRICT ________________________________________________________________________ UNITED STATES STEEL CORPORATION, ) ) Petitioner, ) ) v. ) ) ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD, ) ILLINOIS ENVIRONMENTAL ) PROTECTION AGENCY, and AMERICAN ) BOTTOM CONSERVANCY, ) ) Petition on Review of the Order of the Illinois Pollution Control Board. PCB 06-171

disposition of the same.

Respondents. ) __________________________________________________________________________ JUSTICE WELCH delivered the opinion of the court: This is a direct administrative review of a decision of the Illinois Pollution Control Board (Board) that invalidated a renewed National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit issued to United States Steel Corp. (U.S. Steel) by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (Agency). The Board invalidated the permit solely on the basis that despite a "significant degree of public interest in the proposed permit" the Agency had failed to hold a public hearing on the issuance of the permit. For reasons that follow, we vacate the decision of the Board and remand this cause to the Board for further proceedings. On October 17, 2002, the Agency received an application from National Steel Corp. for the renewal of its permit for its Granite City steel-making facility to discharge industrial process wastewater into Horseshoe Lake, which is a part of Horseshoe Lake State Park. The application was subsequently amended to reflect U.S. Steel's acquisition of the Granite City facility. On December 14, 2002, the Agency issued a public notice soliciting public comment 1

on the proposed permit. The Agency received only three comment letters, one from U.S. Steel, which did not request a public hearing on the proposed permit. The second comment letter was from an organization entitled Health & Environmental Justice

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