415 ILCS 5/ Environmental Protection Act.

(415 ILCS 5/40.3)

Sec. 40.3. Review process for PSD permits.

(a) (1) Subsection (a) of Section 40 does not apply to any PSD permit that is subject to subsection (c) of Section 9.1 of this Act. If the Agency refused to grant or grants with conditions a PSD permit, the applicant may, within 35 days after final permit action, petition for a hearing before the Board to contest the decision of the Agency. If the Agency fails to act on an application for a PSD permit within the time frame specified in paragraph (3) of subsection (f) of Section 39 of this Act, the applicant may, before the Agency denies or issues the final permit, petition for a hearing before the Board to compel the Agency to act on the application in a time that is deemed reasonable.

(2) Any person who participated in the public comment process and is either aggrieved or has an interest that is or may be adversely affected by the PSD permit may, within 35 days after final permit action, petition for a hearing before the Board to contest the decision of the Agency. If the petitioner failed to participate in the public comment process, the person may still petition for a hearing, but only upon issues where the final permit conditions reflect changes from the proposed draft permit.

The petition shall: (i) include such facts as necessary to demonstrate that the petitioner is aggrieved or has an interest that is or may be adversely affected; (ii) state the issues proposed for review, citing to the record where those issues were raised or explaining why such issues were not required to be raised during the public comment process; and (iii) explain why the Agency's previous response, if any, to those issues is (A) clearly erroneous or (B) an exercise of discretion or an important policy consideration that the Board should, in its discretion, review.

The Board shall hold a hearing upon a petition to contest the decision of the Agency under this paragraph (a)(2) unless the request is determined by the Board to be frivolous or to lack facially adequate factual statements required in this paragraph (a)(2).

The Agency shall appear as respondent in any hearing pursuant to this subsection (a). At such hearing the rules prescribed in Section 32 and subsection (a) of Section 33 of this Act shall apply, and the burden of proof shall be on the petitioner.

(b) If there is no final action by the Board within 120 days after the date on which it received the petition, the PSD permit shall not be deemed issued; rather, any party shall be entitled to an Appellate Court order pursuant to subsection (d) of Section 41 of this Act. This period of 120 days shall not run for any period of time, not to exceed 30 days, during which the Board is without sufficient membership to constitute the quorum required by subsection (a) of Section 5 of this Act. The 120-day period shall not be stayed for lack of quorum beyond 30 days, regardless of whether the lack of quorum exists at the beginning of the 120-day period or occurs during the running of the 120-day period.

(c) Any person who files a petition to contest the final permit action by the Agency under this Section shall pay the filing fee for petitions for review of permit set forth in Section 7.5.

(d)(1) In reviewing the denial or any condition of a PSD permit issued by the Agency pursuant to rules adopted under subsection (c) of Section 9.1 of this Act, the decision of the Board shall be based exclusively on the record before the Agency unless the parties agree to supplement the record.

(2) If requested by the applicant, the Board may stay the effectiveness of any final Agency action on a PSD permit application identified in subsection (f) of Section 39 of this Act during the pendency of the review process. In such cases, the Board shall stay the effectiveness of all the contested conditions of the PSD permit and may stay the effectiveness of any or all uncontested conditions only if the Board determines that the uncontested conditions would be affected by its review of contested conditions. Any stays granted by the Board shall be deemed effective upon the date of final Agency action appealed by the applicant under this subsection (d). Subsection (b) of Section 10-65 of the Illinois Administrative Procedure Act shall not apply to actions under this subsection (d).

(3) If requested by a party other than the applicant, the Board may stay the effectiveness of any final Agency action on a PSD permit application identified in subsection (f) of Section 39 of this Act during the pendency of the review process. In such cases, the Board may stay the effectiveness of all the contested conditions of the PSD permit and may stay the effectiveness of any or all uncontested conditions only if the Board determines that the uncontested conditions would be affected by its review of contested conditions. The party requesting the stay has the burden of demonstrating the following: (i) that an immediate stay is required in order to preserve the status quo without endangering the public, (ii) that it is not contrary to public policy, and (iii) that there is a reasonable likelihood of success on the merits. Any stays granted by the Board shall be deemed effective upon the date of final Agency action appealed under this subsection (d) and shall remain in effect until a decision is issued by the Board on the petition. Subsection (b) of Section 10-65 of the Illinois Administrative Procedure Act shall not apply to actions under this paragraph.

(Source: P.A. 99-463, eff. 1-1-16.)

(415 ILCS 5/Tit. XI heading) TITLE XI: JUDICIAL REVIEW

(415 ILCS 5/41) (from Ch. 111 1/2, par. 1041)

Sec. 41. Judicial review.

(a) Any party to a Board hearing, any person who filed a complaint on which a hearing was denied, any person who has been denied a variance or permit under this Act, any party adversely affected by a final order or determination of the Board, and any person who participated in the public comment process under subsection (8) of Section 39.5 of this Act may obtain judicial review, by filing a petition for review within 35 days from the date that a copy of the order or other final action sought to be reviewed was served upon the party affected by the order or other final Board action complained of, under the provisions of the Administrative Review Law, as amended and the rules adopted pursuant thereto, except that review shall be afforded directly in the Appellate Court for the District in which the cause of action arose and not in the Circuit Court. For purposes of this subsection (a), the date of service of the Board's final order is the date on which the party received a copy of the order from the Board. Review of any rule or regulation promulgated by the Board shall not be limited by this Section but may also be had as provided in Section 29 of this Act.

(b) Any final order of the Board under this Act shall be based solely on the evidence in the record of the particular proceeding involved, and any such final order for permit appeals, enforcement actions and variance proceedings, shall be invalid if it is against the manifest weight of the evidence. Notwithstanding this subsection, the Board may include such conditions in granting a variance and may adopt such rules and regulations as the policies of this Act may require. If an objection is made to a variance condition, the board shall reconsider the condition within not more than 75 days from the date of the objection.

(c) No challenge to the validity of a Board order shall be made in any enforcement proceeding under Title XII of this Act as to any issue that could have been raised in a timely petition for review under this Section.

(d) If there is no final action by the Board within 120 days on a request for a variance which is subject to subsection (c) of Section 38 or a permit appeal which is subject to paragraph (a) (3) of Section 40 or paragraph (d) of Section 40.2 or Section 40.3, the petitioner shall be entitled to an Appellate Court order under this subsection. If a hearing is required under this Act and was not held by the Board, the Appellate Court shall order the Board to conduct such a hearing, and to make a decision within 90 days from the date of the order. If a hearing was held by the Board, or if a hearing is not required under this Act and was not held by the Board, the Appellate Court shall order the Board to make a decision within 90 days from the date of the order.

The Appellate Court shall retain jurisdiction during the pendency of any further action conducted by the Board under an order by the Appellate Court. The Appellate Court shall have jurisdiction to review all issues of law and fact presented upon appeal.

(e) This Section does not apply to orders entered by the Board pursuant to Section 38.5 of this Act. Final orders entered by the Board pursuant to Section 38.5 of this Act are subject to judicial review under subsection (j) of that Section. Interim orders entered by the Board pursuant to Section 38.5 are not subject to judicial review under this Section or Section 38.5.

(Source: P.A. 99-463, eff. 1-1-16; 99-934, eff. 1-27-17; 99-937, eff. 2-24-17; 100-863, eff. 8-14-18.)

(415 ILCS 5/Tit. XII heading) TITLE XII: PENALTIES

(415 ILCS 5/42) (from Ch. 111 1/2, par. 1042)

Sec. 42. Civil penalties.

(a) Except as provided in this Section, any person that violates any provision of this Act or any regulation adopted by the Board, or any permit or term or condition thereof, or that violates any order of the Board pursuant to this Act, shall be liable for a civil penalty of not to exceed $50,000 for the violation and an additional civil penalty of not to exceed $10,000 for each day during which the violation continues; such penalties may, upon order of the Board or a court of competent jurisdiction, be made payable to the Environmental Protection Trust Fund, to be used in accordance with the provisions of the Environmental Protection Trust Fund Act.

(b) Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (a) of this Section:

(1) Any person that violates Section 12(f) of this Act or any NPDES permit or term or condition thereof, or any filing requirement, regulation or order relating to the NPDES permit program, shall be liable to a civil penalty of not to exceed $10,000 per day of violation.

(2) Any person that violates Section 12(g) of this Act or any UIC permit or term or condition thereof, or any filing requirement, regulation or order relating to the State UIC program for all wells, except Class II wells as defined by the Board under this Act, shall be liable to a civil penalty not to exceed $2,500 per day of violation; provided, however, that any person who commits such violations relating to the State UIC program for Class II wells, as defined by the Board under this Act, shall be liable to a civil penalty of not to exceed $10,000 for the violation and an additional civil penalty of not to exceed $1,000 for each day during which the violation continues.

(3) Any person that violates Sections 21(f), 21(g), 21(h) or 21(i) of this Act, or any RCRA permit or term or condition thereof, or any filing requirement, regulation or order relating to the State RCRA program, shall be liable to a civil penalty of not to exceed $25,000 per day of violation.

(4) In an administrative citation action under Section 31.1 of this Act, any person found to have violated any provision of subsection (o) of Section 21 of this Act shall pay a civil penalty of $500 for each violation of each such provision, plus any hearing costs incurred by the Board and the Agency. Such penalties shall be made payable to the Environmental Protection Trust Fund, to be used in accordance with the provisions of the Environmental Protection Trust Fund Act; except that if a unit of local government issued the administrative citation, 50% of the civil penalty shall be payable to the unit of local government.

(4-5) In an administrative citation action under Section 31.1 of this Act, any person found to have violated any provision of subsection (p) of Section 21, Section 22.38, Section 22.51, Section 22.51a, or subsection (k) of Section 55 of this Act shall pay a civil penalty of $1,500 for each violation of each such provision, plus any hearing costs incurred by the Board and the Agency, except that the civil penalty amount shall be $3,000 for each violation of any provision of subsection (p) of Section 21, Section 22.38, Section 22.51, Section 22.51a, or subsection (k) of Section 55 that is the person's second or subsequent adjudication violation of that provision. The penalties shall be deposited into the Environmental Protection Trust Fund, to be used in accordance with the provisions of the Environmental Protection Trust Fund Act; except that if a unit of local government issued the administrative citation, 50% of the civil penalty shall be payable to the unit of local government.

(5) Any person who violates subsection 6 of Section 39.5 of this Act or any CAAPP permit, or term or condition thereof, or any fee or filing requirement, or any duty to allow or carry out inspection, entry or monitoring activities, or any regulation or order relating to the CAAPP shall be liable for a civil penalty not to exceed $10,000 per day of violation.

(6) Any owner or operator of a community water system that violates subsection (b) of Section 18.1 or subsection (a) of Section 25d-3 of this Act shall, for each day of violation, be liable for a civil penalty not to exceed $5 for each of the premises connected to the affected community water system.

(7) Any person who violates Section 52.5 of this Act shall be liable for a civil penalty of up to $1,000 for the first violation of that Section and a civil penalty of up to $2,500 for a second or subsequent violation of that Section.

(b.5) In lieu of the penalties set forth in subsections (a) and (b) of this Section, any person who fails to file, in a timely manner, toxic chemical release forms with the Agency pursuant to Section 25b-2 of this Act shall be liable for a civil penalty of $100 per day for each day the forms are late, not to exceed a maximum total penalty of $6,000. This daily penalty shall begin accruing on the thirty-first day after the date that the person receives the warning notice issued by the Agency pursuant to Section 25b-6 of this Act; and the penalty shall be paid to the Agency. The daily accrual of penalties shall cease as of January 1 of the following year. All penalties collected by the Agency pursuant to this subsection shall be deposited into the Environmental Protection Permit and Inspection Fund.

(c) Any person that violates this Act, any rule or regulation adopted under this Act, any permit or term or condition of a permit, or any Board order and causes the death of fish or aquatic life shall, in addition to the other penalties provided by this Act, be liable to pay to the State an additional sum for the reasonable value of the fish or aquatic life destroyed. Any money so recovered shall be placed in the Wildlife and Fish Fund in the State Treasury.

(d) The penalties provided for in this Section may be recovered in a civil action.

(e) The State's Attorney of the county in which the violation occurred, or the Attorney General, may, at the request of the Agency or on his own motion, institute a civil action for an injunction, prohibitory or mandatory, to restrain violations of this Act, any rule or regulation adopted under this Act, any permit or term or condition of a permit, or any Board order, or to require such other actions as may be necessary to address violations of this Act, any rule or regulation adopted under this Act, any permit or term or condition of a permit, or any Board order.

(f) The State's Attorney of the county in which the violation occurred, or the Attorney General, shall bring such actions in the name of the people of the State of Illinois. Without limiting any other authority which may exist for the awarding of attorney's fees and costs, the Board or a court of competent jurisdiction may award costs and reasonable attorney's fees, including the reasonable costs of expert witnesses and consultants, to the State's Attorney or the Attorney General in a case where he has prevailed against a person who has committed a willful, knowing, or repeated violation of this Act, any rule or regulation adopted under this Act, any permit or term or condition of a permit, or any Board order.

Any funds collected under this subsection (f) in which the Attorney General has prevailed shall be deposited in the Hazardous Waste Fund created in Section 22.2 of this Act. Any funds collected under this subsection (f) in which a State's Attorney has prevailed shall be retained by the county in which he serves.

(g) All final orders imposing civil penalties pursuant to this Section shall prescribe the time for payment of such penalties. If any such penalty is not paid within the time prescribed, interest on such penalty at the rate set forth in subsection (a) of Section 1003 of the Illinois Income Tax Act, shall be paid for the period from the date payment is due until the date payment is received. However, if the time for payment is stayed during the pendency of an appeal, interest shall not accrue during such stay.

(h) In determining the appropriate civil penalty to be imposed under subdivisions (a), (b)(1), (b)(2), (b)(3), (b)(5), (b)(6), or (b)(7) of this Section, the Board is authorized to consider any matters of record in mitigation or aggravation of penalty, including, but not limited to, the following factors:

(1) the duration and gravity of the violation;

(2) the presence or absence of due diligence on the part of the respondent in attempting to comply with requirements of this Act and regulations thereunder or to secure relief therefrom as provided by this Act;

(3) any economic benefits accrued by the respondent because of delay in compliance with requirements, in which case the economic benefits shall be determined by the lowest cost alternative for achieving compliance;

(4) the amount of monetary penalty which will serve to deter further violations by the respondent and to otherwise aid in enhancing voluntary compliance with this Act by the respondent and other persons similarly subject to the Act;

(5) the number, proximity in time, and gravity of previously adjudicated violations of this Act by the respondent;

(6) whether the respondent voluntarily self-disclosed, in accordance with subsection (i) of this Section, the non-compliance to the Agency;

(7) whether the respondent has agreed to undertake a "supplemental environmental project", which means an environmentally beneficial project that a respondent agrees to undertake in settlement of an enforcement action brought under this Act, but which the respondent is not otherwise legally required to perform; and

(8) whether the respondent has successfully completed a Compliance Commitment Agreement under subsection (a) of Section 31 of this Act to remedy the violations that are the subject of the complaint.

In determining the appropriate civil penalty to be imposed under subsection (a) or paragraph (1), (2), (3), (5), (6), or (7) of subsection (b) of this Section, the Board shall ensure, in all cases, that the penalty is at least as great as the economic benefits, if any, accrued by the respondent as a result of the violation, unless the Board finds that imposition of such penalty would result in an arbitrary or unreasonable financial hardship. However, such civil penalty may be off-set in whole or in part pursuant to a supplemental environmental project agreed to by the complainant and the respondent.

(i) A person who voluntarily self-discloses non-compliance to the Agency, of which the Agency had been unaware, is entitled to a 100% reduction in the portion of the penalty that is not based on the economic benefit of non-compliance if the person can establish the following:

(1) that either the regulated entity is a small entity or the non-compliance was discovered through an environmental audit or a compliance management system documented by the regulated entity as reflecting the regulated entity's due diligence in preventing, detecting, and correcting violations;

(2) that the non-compliance was disclosed in writing within 30 days of the date on which the person discovered it;

(3) that the non-compliance was discovered and disclosed prior to:

(i) the commencement of an Agency inspection, investigation, or request for information;

(ii) notice of a citizen suit;

(iii) the filing of a complaint by a citizen, the Illinois Attorney General, or the State's Attorney of the county in which the violation occurred;

(iv) the reporting of the non-compliance by an employee of the person without that person's knowledge; or

(v) imminent discovery of the non-compliance by the Agency;

(4) that the non-compliance is being corrected and any environmental harm is being remediated in a timely fashion;

(5) that the person agrees to prevent a recurrence of the non-compliance;

(6) that no related non-compliance events have occurred in the past 3 years at the same facility or in the past 5 years as part of a pattern at multiple facilities owned or operated by the person;

(7) that the non-compliance did not result in serious actual harm or present an imminent and substantial endangerment to human health or the environment or violate the specific terms of any judicial or administrative order or consent agreement;

(8) that the person cooperates as reasonably requested by the Agency after the disclosure; and

(9) that the non-compliance was identified voluntarily and not through a monitoring, sampling, or auditing procedure that is required by statute, rule, permit, judicial or administrative order, or consent agreement.

If a person can establish all of the elements under this subsection except the element set forth in paragraph (1) of this subsection, the person is entitled to a 75% reduction in the portion of the penalty that is not based upon the economic benefit of non-compliance.

For the purposes of this subsection (i), "small entity" has the same meaning as in Section 221 of the federal Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act of 1996 (5 U.S.C. 601).

(j) In addition to any other remedy or penalty that may apply, whether civil or criminal, any person who violates Section 22.52 of this Act shall be liable for an additional civil penalty of up to 3 times the gross amount of any pecuniary gain resulting from the violation.

(k) In addition to any other remedy or penalty that may apply, whether civil or criminal, any person who violates subdivision (a)(7.6) of Section 31 of this Act shall be liable for an additional civil penalty of $2,000.

(Source: P.A. 102-310, eff. 8-6-21.)

(415 ILCS 5/43) (from Ch. 111 1/2, par. 1043)

Sec. 43. (a) In circumstances of substantial danger to the environment or to the public health of persons or to the welfare of persons where such danger is to the livelihood of such persons, the State's Attorney or Attorney General, upon request of the Agency or on his own motion, may institute a civil action for an immediate injunction to halt any discharge or other activity causing or contributing to the danger or to require such other action as may be necessary. The court may issue an ex parte order and shall schedule a hearing on the matter not later than 3 working days from the date of injunction.

(b) If any term or condition of an NPDES permit issued under this Act for discharges from a publicly owned or publicly regulated sewage works is violated, the use of the sewage works by a contaminant source not using the works prior to a finding that the condition was violated:

(i) may be prohibited by the public body owning or regulating such sewage works, pursuant to State law or local ordinance; or

(ii) may be prohibited or restricted under the provisions of Title VIII of this Act; or

(iii) the State's Attorney of the county in which the violation occurred, or the Attorney General, at the request of the Agency or on his own motion, may proceed in a court of competent jurisdiction to secure such relief.

(c) If an industrial user of a publicly owned or publicly regulated sewage works is not in compliance with a system of user charges required under State law or local ordinance or regulations or as a term or condition of any NPDES permit issued under this Act to the sewage works into which the user is discharging contaminants, the system of charges may be enforced directly against the industrial user--

(i) by the public body owning or regulating such sewage works, pursuant to State law or local ordinance; or

(ii) under the provisions of Title VIII of this Act; or

(iii) the State's Attorney of the county in which the violation occurred, or the Attorney General, at the request of the Agency or on his own motion, may proceed in a court of competent jurisdiction to secure such relief.

(Source: P.A. 78-862.)