Title: Environmental Protection Agency v. PCB

State: illinois

Issuer: Illinois Supreme Court

Document:

86 Ill. 2d 390 (1981)
427 N.E.2d 162
THE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY, Appellee,
v.
THE POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD et al. (United States Steel Corporation, Appellant).
No. 54131.

Supreme Court of Illinois.
Opinion filed September 30, 1981.
*391 *392 Clifton A. Lake and Johnnine Brown Hazard, of Rooks, Pitts, Fullagar & Poust, of Chicago, for appellant.
Tyrone C. Fahner, Attorney General, of Springfield (Thomas R. Chiola and Judith S. Goodie, Assistant Attorneys General, of Chicago, of counsel), for appellee.
Judgment reversed; order affirmed.
MR. JUSTICE UNDERWOOD delivered the opinion of the court:
U.S. Steel Corporation (the company) applied to the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (the Agency) for operating permits for four blast furnaces located at its "South Works" in Chicago. The company sought review (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1977, ch. 111 1/2, par. 1040) by the Pollution Control Board of the Agency's denial, and the Board ordered the Agency to grant the permits. The Agency appealed to the appellate court (73 Ill.2d R. 335), which reversed the Board (88 Ill. App.3d 71), and we granted the company's petition for leave to appeal.
This case involves the Board's construction of Rule 203 of its rules and regulations (Illinois Pollution Control Board Rules and Regulations, Chapter 2: Air Pollution (1970) (the Rules)), which states, in part:
Rule 201 contains the following definitions:
Also relevant to our consideration is section 39 of the Environmental Protection Act (the Act), which provides:
The Agency's denial of the permits was by letter, *395 stating:
The letter stated no other reason for the denial. The company, in a letter to the Agency, protested that decision, stating:
The Agency replied by letter, again denying the permit for reasons identical to the original denial.
The company petitioned the Board, pursuant to section 40 of the Act, claiming that the Agency had improperly applied Rule 203(a) to emissions governed by, and in compliance with, Rule 203(f). Section 40 states in part:
Before the Board, the company and Agency stipulated to a description of the casting-house operation which included:
The stipulation also outlined the origin of the dispute between the Agency and the company:
Although the company had before the Board disputed the manner of calculation of one hour's emissions, it is apparently now conceded that emissions from each of the four furnaces would, during an hour of tapping, exceed emissions permissible under Rules 203(a) and (b), if those rules apply and if estimated casting-house emissions are included. The controversy between the company and Agency resolves itself into whether casting-house emissions must be included, at Agency-estimated levels, in calculations under Rules 203(a) and (b) as well as being subject to the limitations of Rule 203(f), compliance with which the Agency did not deny in ruling on the permit. The Board's decision ordering the Agency to issue the permits stated:
The Board denied the Agency's petition for rehearing, stating:
In Landfill, Inc. v. Pollution Control Board (1978), 74 Ill. 2d 541, 554, we recognized that the Board has both quasi-legislative and quasi-judicial functions, stating:
*400 Although the present case involved an appeal from the denial of a permit, it presented the Board with a question of defining the scope of the emission standards. Webster's Third New International Dictionary, at page 616 (1971), gives as one definition of "determine," "to set bounds or limits to: as a: to fix the boundaries of b: to limit in extent or scope." One of the meanings given by that dictionary for "define" is, "to mark the limits of: determine with precision or exhibit clearly the boundaries of." (Webster's Third New International Dictionary 592 (1971).) We believe that this function of defining the scope of the emission standards is a quasi-legislative act. On the other hand, the Board's decision whether the emissions from the company's casting operations were "collectible" was in the nature of a judicial act.
We dealt with a similar situation in Monsanto Co. v. Pollution Control Board (1977), 67 Ill. 2d 276. In that case, conditions imposed by the Board on the grant of a variance to an individual company were judged against the standard applicable to quasi-legislative acts. We likened the conditions to a rule, operating prospectively, even though they were based on specific facts concerning one company. This court stated:
Our cases clearly indicate that the Board's quasi-legislative acts are to be upheld on review unless they are *402 "clearly arbitrary, unreasonable or capricious" (Rockford Drop Forge Co. v. Pollution Control Board (1980), 79 Ill. 2d 271, 278; Illinois Coal Operators Association v. Pollution Control Board (1974), 59 Ill. 2d 305), while its quasi-judicial acts are to be upheld unless they are "contrary to the manifest weight of the evidence" (Wells Manufacturing Co. v. Pollution Control Board (1978), 73 Ill. 2d 226, 234; City of Monmouth v. Pollution Control Board (1974), 57 Ill. 2d 482). These differing standards of review should be applied to the Board's acts in a single case, if those involved both quasi-legislative and quasi-judicial functions. See Taylor v. Police Board (1978), 62 Ill. App.3d 486; Modine Manufacturing Co. v. Pollution Control Board (1976), 40 Ill. App.3d 498.
In the present case it is urged that there was not sufficient information in the record to sustain the Board's decision. This argument is more relevant to the Board's finding of noncollectibility, to which the manifest weight of the evidence standard is applicable. Actually, we believe there was ample information in the record supporting the Board's reading of Rules 201 and 203, which appears to us to be a good synthesis of somewhat ambiguous rules rather than an erroneous reading of those rules. It was supported by discussion in the Board statement promulgating the air pollution rules, including the emission standards:
(In re Emission Standards (1972), 4 Ill. P.C.B. Op. 298, 315.) This discussion, limited to "blast furnace gas" emissions, implies that the Board did not intend, in adopting Rules 203(a) and (b) emission standards, to apply those standards to blast furnace emissions related to the casting process, as opposed to "blast furnace gas," which is apparently vented through a stack. The Board's analysis was perhaps the most reasonable reading of the proviso of the Rule 201 definition of "fugitive particulate matter":
That definition seems somewhat circular at first reading. The Board's view, making the definition turn on "collectibility," seems to go to the heart of whether emissions are properly vented through a stack, and hence not truly "fugitive." Even if we assume that two readings of an ambiguous provision of an administrative regulation are both reasonable, the Board's choice must be respected, particularly where it formulated and promulgated the rule. Nor does the fact that Rule 203(d) makes specific and explicit exceptions to Rule 203 for certain processes, not including casting operations, require a different interpretation in view of the specific provisions of Rule 203(f). It is the more explicit provision, and should govern over the more general provisions of Rules 203(a) and (b), applying to all stationary emission sources except fuel-combustion emission sources and incinerators. The Board's reading parallels our rule of statutory construction, that a more specific or particular provision prevails over the more general. See People ex rel. Fore v. Missouri Pacific R.R. Co. (1930), 342 Ill. 226; Natural Products Co. v. County of Du Page (1924), 314 Ill. 74.
With respect to applying the collectibility standard to *404 the company's fact situation, the Board stated:
From information before the Board concerning the company's casting operation, including approximately 11 pages of statistics in each of the four applications, it was apparent that the company's casting operation, involving four large-capacity furnaces and ladle cars was not a "short tapping operation" which could be controlled. The stipulation stated that the emissions reached the atmosphere by means of a roof monitor, and through doors and other openings in the cast house. The particulate matter was "unavoidably" released upon contact of the molten iron and the air. A letter from the company to the Agency stated that there were not at that time any operating facilities within the United States for collecting such emissions. While the Board indicated that industry practice was not dispositive (lest adoption of low practice by an industry become a loophole in the environmental standards), the absence of even one example of the collection of such particulate emissions by stacks tends to support the Board's conclusion concerning collectibility. Since there was adequate supporting evidence and no substantial contrary evidence, the Board's finding that the company's cast-house emissions were not collectible was not contrary to the manifest weight of the evidence. It is, of course, entirely possible that technological advances have now resolved or will in the future resolve the collectibility problem, in which event we assume appropriate rules will be adopted.
The Agency also complains that the Board shifted the burden of proof concerning whether the company's facilities were complying with Rule 203(f) from the company to the Agency. This objection is without merit. There was *405 adequate information in the applications to show that the company was not in violation of the provisions of Rule 203(f). We do not believe, however, that the issue of compliance with Rule 203(f) was even before the Board. Section 39 of the Act (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1977, ch. 111 1/2, par. 1039) requires that the Agency state reasons for denial of a permit: "If the Agency denies any permit under this Section, the Agency shall transmit to the applicant within the time limitations of this Section [90 days] specific, detailed statements as to the reasons the permit application was denied," including "(ii) the provision of the regulations, promulgated under this Act, which may be violated if the permit were granted" (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1977, ch. 111 1/2, par. 1039). The Agency's letters did not specify any violation of Rule 203(f). Although section 40 of the Act (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1977, ch. 111 1/2, par. 1040) provides that, on review of a permit denial, "the burden of proof shall be on the petitioner," it also states that "[t]he Agency shall appear as respondent in such hearing." In Oscar Mayer & Co. v. Environmental Protection Agency (1978), 30 Ill. P.C.B. Op. 397, 399, the Board stated:
We believe that the Agency had a duty, reading sections 39 and 40 of the Act together, to specify reasons for the denial, including, if it intended to raise the issue before the Board, the lack of compliance with Rule 203(f), or be precluded from raising that issue. In our judgment the sole dispute *406 before the Board was whether Rules 203(a) and (b) applied to emissions which were subject to and in compliance with the provisions of Rule 203(f). Since we have decided that the Board's refusal to apply Rules 203(a) and (b) to "fugitive particulate emissions" was reasonable, and that its finding that the company's cast-house emissions were not collectible and thus were "fugitive particulate emissions" was not contrary to the manifest weight of the evidence, it follows that the appellate court erred in reversing the Board.
Accordingly, the judgment of the appellate court is reversed, and the order of the Pollution Control Board is affirmed.
Judgment reversed; order affirmed.