ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
    May 9,
    1986
    CITY OF YORKVILLE,
    )
    Petitioner
    v.
    )
    PCB 86—24
    ILLINOIS ENVIRONMENTAL
    )
    PROTECTION AGENCY,
    )
    Respondent.
    DISSENTING OPINION
    (by J.
    D.
    Dumelle):
    My
    reasons for dissenting are my concerns over health
    effects and
    the lack of specificity as
    to the hardship.
    The Yorkville drinking water
    radium content
    is 7.8 pCi/l
    compared
    to
    the State
    and Federal
    standard of
    5.0.
    It
    is thus
    56
    over
    a health—based standard set
    to protect against cancer.
    The majority Opinion
    states,
    “For the short
    term of the
    variance,
    any adverse
    risk
    to the environment would be
    minimal.”
    Opinion,
    p.
    4.
    The variance granted
    by the majority
    is
    for three years.
    Allowing
    a full year for any new residential
    construction means
    a remaining two year exposure
    to high radium
    for persons moving into those new housing units.
    The Federal Register publication of August
    14, 1975 states,
    “...
    the potential risk due
    to radium drinking water ingestion at
    5 pCi/l
    is estimated
    to
    be between 0.7 and
    3 fatal cancers
    annually per million exposed persons.”
    40 FR.
    34325.
    The key
    word
    is “annually.”
    Since Yorkville
    is
    56
    over the standard
    its risk
    figures
    then become 1.1 and 4.7 instead
    of 0.7 and
    3 respectively.
    These
    average
    to
    2.9.
    If,
    in Yorkville,
    an average
    of 2.9 fatal
    cancers will
    be induced per million people exposed annually then
    it follows that in two years
    twice
    as many will
    be induced
    or
    5.8.
    The chances of getting cancer
    in Yorkville
    in two years are
    then about l—in—172,000.
    Are these odds the Board should allow
    to be inflicted upon the public?
    I
    think
    not.
    The vagueness
    of
    the hardship
    is bothersome.
    No projects
    are listed as being held
    up by Restricted Status.
    What then is
    the hardship?
    And
    is
    it any different from any other
    community
    on Restricted Status?
    If
    it
    is not,
    then the
    rule is useless and
    should
    be repealed.
    I would have no hesitancy in voting
    for
    a
    69-448
    —2—
    variance
    to allow water main improvements
    for fire fighting
    purposes,
    etc.
    or even
    for office or
    commercial structures.
    It
    is
    the new residences that create
    24—hour—a--day exposure
    to
    additional
    people.
    Some final
    words.
    The Agency
    in its Recommendation repeats
    its often—used statements
    about
    ion exchange softeners using salt
    resulting
    in possibly dangerous levels of sodium in drinking
    water.
    Yet
    it has never proposed
    a sodium standard
    to this
    Board.
    Why not?
    Similarly,
    it repeats its concern that
    radioactive
    ion exchange material disposal “may be a problem.”
    Is it
    or isn’t
    it?
    Do we not now have enough experience under
    RCRA
    to know?
    How
    is existing radioactive
    ion exchange waste
    disposed of now?
    Lastly,
    I object
    to the majority’s truncated inclusion into
    the record
    of portions of R85—l4.
    The paper “Drinking Water
    and
    Cancer Incidence
    in Iowa”
    (Ex.
    26E)
    is not included.
    The Journal
    of
    the American Medical Association article “Association of
    Leukemia with Radium Groundwater Contamination”
    (Ex.
    21)
    is not
    included.
    To exclude these
    and other materials in R85—14
    is
    to
    bias
    the record
    in this variance and
    is not objective.
    I,
    Dorothy M.
    Gunn,
    Clefk
    of the Illinois Pollution Control
    Board,
    hereby certify that the above Dissenting Opinion was filed
    on the
    /~~-
    day
    of
    ____________
    1986.
    /L~/
    Dorothy M.
    Gz~nn, Clerk
    Illinois Pollution Control Board
    aco&.~
    hairman
    69-449

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