TERMINATION OF PROCEEDINGS
§ 1021.141. Termination of proceedings.
(a) A proceeding before the Board may be terminated by one of the following:
(1) Withdrawal of the appeal prior to adjudication.
(2) Settlement agreement.
(3) Consent adjudication.
(b) When a proceeding is sought to be terminated by the parties as a result of a settlement agreement, the form of the settlement agreement may be a consent order, a consent assessment of civil penalties, a permit modification, or any other basis for settling an action as permitted by law. If the settlement includes any action of the Department which would have to be published if taken independently of the settlement, that action shall be published by the Department as required by law. Appealable actions of the Department contained in the settlement may be appealed to the Board by an aggrieved person not a party to the settlement in the manner provided by law. A party to the settlement may appeal only to the extent permitted by the terms of the agreement. After the parties have agreed upon a settlement they may do one of the following:
(1) Notify the Board that the case has been settled and request that the docket be marked settled.
(2) Notify the Board that the case has been settled, provide the Board with a copy of the settlement agreement for inclusion in the record of the case, and request that the docket be marked settled.
(3) Notify the Board that the case has been settled, provide the Board with a copy of the settlement agreement for inclusion in the record, request the notice of the settlement be published in the Pennsylvania Bulletin and request that the case be marked as settled.
The notice of publication shall be in substantially the following form:
RE: (Case and Docket Number)
(The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and (name of party or parties) have agreed to a settlement of the above matter. The Commonwealth had ordered under date of
, (name of party or parties) to:(Summarize order or appeal describing other action of the Commonwealth from which appeal was taken.)
The parties have agreed to a settlement, the major provisions of which include:
(Summarize major substantive provisions of settlement agreement.)
Copies of the full agreement are in the hands of:
(Names, addresses of counsel and telephone numbers) and at the office of the Environmental Hearing Board, and may be reviewed by any interested party on request during normal business hours.
(c) When a proceeding is sought to be terminated by the parties pursuant to a consent adjudication, all parties shall submit the proposed consent adjudication to the Board for approval. No proposed consent adjudication will be approved by the Board unless it contains the agreement of all parties to the action. The Board may refuse to approve a proposed consent adjudication if any of its provisions are contrary to law or constitute, in the discretion of the Board, overreaching or bad faith by any party. Prior to approval, the Board will publish the major substantive provisions of the consent adjudication in the manner indicated in subsection (b)(3). In addition, the notice shall provide a comment period of at least 30 days for comments to be provided by the public. When comments are received from the public the parties to the consent adjudication shall respond to the comments. The Board may schedule a hearing prior to taking action on the consent adjudication. Any appeal from a consent adjudication shall be with the Commonwealth Court, and shall, when taken by an aggrieved person not a party to the action, be taken within 30 days of the date of the Board’s action.
Comment: The prior rule at § 1021.120(b) authorizing dismissal with and without prejudice was deleted because the Board thought it more appropriate to determine this matter on a case-by-case basis rather than by rule.
Authority The provisions of this § 1021.141 amended under section 5 of the Environmental Hearing Board Act (35 P.S. § 7515).
Source The provisions of this § 1021.141 adopted August 30, 1996, effective August 31, 1996, 26 Pa.B. 4222; amended June 28, 2002, effective June 29, 2002, 32 Pa.B. 3085; amended November 29, 2002, effective November 30, 2002, 32 Pa.B. 5883; amended February 10, 2006, effective February 11, 2006, 36 Pa.B. 709; amended October 6, 2017, effective October 7, 2017, 47 Pa.B. 6205. Immediately preceding text appears at serial pages (372841) to (372842).
Cross References This section cited in 25 Pa. Code § 1021.106 (relating to voluntary mediation).
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