ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
July 21, 1982
CARGILL, INC.,
Petitioner,
v.
)
PCB 81—37
ILLINOIS
ENVIRONMENTAL
)
PROTECTION AGENCY,
)
Respondent.
DISSENTING OPINION
(by D. Anderson):
The Board’s Opinion and Order of May 27,
1982 based the
determination as to whether an NPDES permit is required of
this discharge on the physical configuration of the system
rather than the properties of the effluent:
a process discharge
is required to have a permit, but not a stormwater discharge.
The Agency’s motion does not accept this distinction.
It
continues to argue that a permit is required on the basis of
contaminants appearing in the discharge.
The Opinion of May 27,
1982 contains legalistic arguments,
but ignores the common sense aspect.
In the first place,
stormwater discharges generally contain contaminants in excess
of the effluent standards set by Part IV (Part 304).
In the
second place, process discharges which meet the effluent stand-
ards must nonetheless have
a permit.
If the Agency’s argument
were accepted, that the presence of contaminants determines
the permit requirement,
then all storm sewers would be brought
into the permit system, and process and municipal discharges
with well-operated treatment works could surrender their permits.
This would clearly be contrary to the intent of the permit
system to regulate even well-operated treatment works and to
exempt uncontrollable non-point source discharges.
The decision in this case turned on the lack of information
connecting the discharge to the manufacturing process.
For
example, if the plant grounds were shown to be contaminated
with fall-out from process sources, and that this was the source
of the contaminants in the stormwater, then a permit would have
been necessary.
I would schedule a hearing to allow the parties
to present evidence on whether the discharge is process or storm—
water.
Donald B. ~Anderson, Board Member
47-131
—2—
I, Christan L. Moffett, Clerk of the Illinois Pollution
Control Board, do hereby certify that the above Dissenting
Opinion was filed on the
~b#’-day
of
~
,
1982.
Christan L. MoffetU.,
\q1~er
Illinois Pollution ~i~?rol
Board
47-132