A. E. Staley Manufacturing Co. v. Environmental Protection Agency

290 N.E.2d 892, 8 Ill. App. 3d 1018, 4 ERC (BNA) 2025, 1972 Ill. App. LEXIS 2172
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedDecember 13, 1972
Docket11842
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 290 N.E.2d 892 (A. E. Staley Manufacturing Co. v. Environmental Protection Agency) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
A. E. Staley Manufacturing Co. v. Environmental Protection Agency, 290 N.E.2d 892, 8 Ill. App. 3d 1018, 4 ERC (BNA) 2025, 1972 Ill. App. LEXIS 2172 (Ill. Ct. App. 1972).

Opinion

Mr. JUSTICE SMITH

delivered the opinion of the court:

This appeal is by the petitioner as one adversely affected or threatened by a rale or regulation of the Illinois Pollution Control Board under the provisions of Ill. Rev. Stat. 1971, ch. 111%, pars. 1029 and 1041. The appeal questions new provisions added on March 7, 1972 to the rules and regulations relating to water poHution. The appeal was taken on April 12 and was filed within 35 days after the adoption of the rules and regulations as required by the statute. It is the position of the petitioner that the Illinois Environmental Protection Act limits the authority of the Illinois Pollution Control Board to the control of contaminants discharged directly into the waters of the State, and specificaHy that the Board does not have the authority to control discharges into sanitary sewers which are tributary to a sanitary treatment plant.

The petitioner owns and operates a soybean and food processing plant located in the city of Decatur. In connection with this operation, the petitioner has constructed, owns and operates more than one mile of sewer lines located wholly within the boundaries of its private property. It performs some preliminary treatment on the material placed in its private sewer before the contents of the sewer, including certain untreated materials, are discharged into the sanitary sewer owned, operated and maintained by the Decatur Sanitary District. This district apparently operates a modem sewerage treatment works or plant and discharges its effluent into the Sangamon River below the dam which impounds the waters of Lake Decatur.

The provisions of the Environmental Control Act are cited in Ill. Rev. Stat. 1971, ch. 111%, pars. 1001 through 1051, and for convenience each paragraph referred to will carry its statutory paragraph number. It should be noted that par. 1011 does not prohibit the discharge of contaminants into the waters of the State, but actuaHy permits it, provided that such contaminants have been “given the degree of treatment or control necessary to prevent pollution”. Paragraph 1003 (n) states “ ‘Water-pollution’ is such alteration of the physical, thermal, chemical, biological or radioactive properties of any waters of the State, or such discharge of any contaminant into any waters of the State, as will or is likely to create a nuisance or render such waters harmful or detrimental or injurious to public health, safety or welfare, or to domestic, commercial, industrial, agricultural, recreational, or other legitimate uses, or to livestock, wild animals, birds, fish or other acquatic life”. Paragraph 1003 (o) states “ ‘Waters’ means all accumulations of water, surface and underground, natural and artificial, public and private, or parts thereof, which are wholly or partially within, flow through, or border upon this State”.

It is the position of the petitioner that the legislature has cogently stated its purposes in terms of enhancing the purity of the waters of this State. Petitioner agrees that the statute has authorized the Pollution Control Board to take action in connection with the discharge of contaminants “into the waters of this State”. Thus, the extent of the control, it is argued, is to regulate the discharge of contaminants at the point where they reach the waters of this State. This position clearly suggests and indeed it charges that the control of the Pollution Control Board is limited to the last actor in the discharge of contaminants into the waters of the State. It would follow that any regulation going beyond the last-actor limitation is beyond the power of the Illinois Pollution Control Board. Petitioner is not a last actor. It is argued that any attempt to exercise control beyond such limits are not regulations or are not rules and regulations implementing authority given but is substantive legislation by administrative rule and is without legitimate statutory parentage.

In Part VII of the Rules and Regulations, the Board extends it authority to discharges which go into sanitary sewers rather than into the waters of the State and secs. 701, 702 and 703 of such rales prescribes and restricts the types, concentrations and quantities of contaminants which can be discharged into such sewer systems. Part IX of the Rules and Regulations covers, permits and states that it establishes basic rules for the issuance of permits for the construction, modification and operation of treatment works, sewers, waste-water sources and other discharges. These too are not limited to one who discharges contaminants into the waters of this State. Section 904 of the Rules and Regulations provides that no person who owns and operates an inter-connected system of sanitary sewers and/or combines sewers consisting of more than one mile of pipe shall cause or allow the use or operation of part or all of that system of sewers after December 31, 1974, without an operating permit issued by the Agency. This section is apparently applicable regardless of whether the sewer is privately-owned and is located entirely on private property and irrespective of whether it discharges its effluent into a municipally-operated sanitary sewer rather than into the waters of the State.

The position taken by the petitioner here is it seems to us unduly restrictive. There is a realistic and practical nexus between controlling what flows into a sewer treatment plant and what flows out of that plant and pollutes the waters of the State. Indeed the petitioner states that some of the contaminants poured into its own sewer are treated and some are not. Indeed Ill. Rev. Stat. 1971, ch. 24, par. 11 — 141—4, recognizes that controlling what goes into a sewer system is a practical method of controlling the final effluent. The efficiency, sufficiency, adequacy and capacity of a specified sewer treatment plant are obviously controlled and patently affected by what goes into such plant. In such manner only, it would seem, can the legislative declaration contained in par. 1011 assure that no contaminants are discharged into the waters without being given the degree of treatment or control necesary to prevent pollution.

In like manner, under par. 1013 (i), the authority is given to provide “standards for equipment and procedures for monitoring contaminants discharged at their sources, the collection of samples and the collection, reporting and retention of data resulting from such monitoring”. The petitioner concedes that it engages in treatment of some, but not all, of the contaminants it discharges into its own sewer system and thus by its own statement concedes that in the furtherance of its industry, it discharges contaminants into its sewer system. Breakage of its sewer system or line might well discharge dangerous contaminants into the underground water systems of the State and the Act seeks to and does control both the surface and subsurface waters of the State. Thus, it would seem to follow that the effective administration of the Act requires jurisdiction to a degree over private sewer systems for two reasons: (1) to protect underground waters of the State and (2) to determine whether or not the Decatur treatment plant which receives the Staley effluent is adequate to provides that degree of treatment or control necessary to prevent water pollution. In short, when the Pollution Control Board undertakes to define “waste-water source” and specifically excludes sewers, it seeks to distinguish between sources which do and those which do not flow into a sanitary treatment plant. Under par.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

McGee v. State
923 S.W.2d 627 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1995)
People v. Archer Daniels Midland Corp.
489 N.E.2d 887 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1986)
Chemetco, Inc. v. Pollution Control Board
488 N.E.2d 639 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1986)
People v. Pollution Control Board
456 N.E.2d 909 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1983)
Ray v. Illinois Racing Board
447 N.E.2d 886 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1983)
Madison Park Bank v. Zagel
423 N.E.2d 939 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1981)
Parliament Insurance v. Department of Revenue
365 N.E.2d 667 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1977)
Central Illinois Public Service Co. v. Pollution Control Board
344 N.E.2d 229 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1976)
Peabody Coal Co. v. Pollution Control Board
344 N.E.2d 279 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1976)
Cornue v. Weaver
331 N.E.2d 148 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1975)
Meana v. Morrison
329 N.E.2d 535 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1975)
Ralston Purina Co. v. Pollution Control Board
325 N.E.2d 727 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1975)
Commonwealth Edison Co. v. Pollution Control Board
323 N.E.2d 84 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1974)
Cobin v. Pollution Control Board
307 N.E.2d 191 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1974)
City of Waukegan v. Environmental Protection Agency
296 N.E.2d 102 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1973)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
290 N.E.2d 892, 8 Ill. App. 3d 1018, 4 ERC (BNA) 2025, 1972 Ill. App. LEXIS 2172, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/a-e-staley-manufacturing-co-v-environmental-protection-agency-illappct-1972.