ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
    June 26, 1975
    VILLAGE OF CERRO GORDO
    Petitioner,
    V.
    )
    PCB 75~-l83
    ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY,
    Respondent.
    INTERIM OPINION AND ORDER OF THE BOARD
    (by Mr. Dumelle):
    Petition for Variance from Rules 203(c),
    402 and 404(f)
    with
    regard
    to phosphorus was filed
    with the Board
    on April
    30,
    1975.
    The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency
    Recommendation was filed
    on June
    3,
    1975.
    No public hearing
    was held.
    The Village of Cerro Gordo, population 1,368, located
    in
    Piatt County,
    has no public sanitary
    sewer system or
    treatment plant.
    Present sewage disposal is to individual
    septic tanks and tile fields,
    some of which are connected to
    Village storm sewers.
    The Agency has made
    a grant offer totalling $1,541,900
    to Cerro Gordo for a combination project to install both
    sewers and a treatment plant.
    The grant offer, made April
    1,
    1975, requires a variance from the phosphorus standard
    before
    it can be executed,
    The standard is contained in
    Rule
    203(c) and limits phosphorus
    to a total value of 0.05
    mg/i in any stream at the point where it enters any reservoir
    or lake.
    Cerro Gordo~sproposed three cell aerated lagoon facility
    would be located northwest of the Village.
    It
    would discharge
    to an unnamed creek which in turn flows into the Sangamon
    River,
    The Sangamon River averages 0.237 mg/i phosphorus
    at
    a bridge 3.1 miles south of Cisco
    (Agency letter of April
    16, 1975 attached to Petition).
    Lake Decatur water averages
    0.127 mg/i phosphorus according to the same letter. The
    standard set by Rule 203(c)
    is
    0,05 mg/l.
    No map is included
    and thus we do not know if the bridge sampling site
    is above
    or below Cerro Gordo.
    17—439
    —2—
    The Petitioner asserts that a phosphorus removal system
    (to 1.0 mg/i)
    would cost the annual equivalent
    of $34,444.
    This
    is projected to raise the monthly user charge from
    $9.90 to $14.87 for an increase of $4.97 or $59.16 per year.
    The statement is made that “it is almost certain..,
    the
    proposed improvement program would be abandoned for economic
    reasons:
    if phosphorus removal were required.
    No substantiation
    is given for this statement.
    An alternate of land irrigation is costed out at an
    annual equivalent cost of $36,342 and is also said to be
    “prohibitive”.
    But no comparative costs are given for the
    recommended lagoon facility and thus no comparison can be
    made by the Board.
    The State Water Survey is quoted as estimating
    a daily
    input of total phosphorus via the Sangamon River as 3,380
    ibs/ day compared to Cerro Gordo’s estimated discharge of
    6.7 lbs/ day.
    A statement
    is given that phosphorus removal
    at Cerro Gordo would have
    “an insignificant effect on the
    water quality of.. .Lake Decatur”.
    However, nowhere in this
    record is any statement made as to the present effects,
    if
    any,
    of phosphorus upon Lake Decatur.
    We do not know if
    algae blooms now occur and whether blue-green algae add
    taste and odors to the public water supplies using Lake
    Decatur.
    Thus the existing record is simply inadequate upon
    which to grant this variance.
    We are told that phosphorus
    removal is not needed but we are not told ~thepresent condition
    of Lake Decatur as regards algae blooms.
    We are told that
    phosphorus treatment is inordinately expensive but no comparative
    costs are given to back up this assertion,
    We are mindful of the need for speedy action in this
    matter
    if Cerro Gordo is to finally get a public sewer
    collection system.
    We remand this case to the parties to provide by July
    10,
    the information which is lacking as more fully set out
    in the Order below.
    It is the Board’s intention to decide
    this cause on July 10 or July 11,
    1975 if timely submission
    of adequate information is made by the parties.
    ORDER
    The parties are ordered to provide, in any suitable
    form,
    by July 10, 1975 the information as delineated below:
    1.
    Comparative costs for the recommended lagoon
    treatment alternative exclusive of the sewage collection
    system costs.
    These costs
    to be computed in the same
    manner
    as those listed in the Petition.
    17—440
    —3—
    2.
    The extent,
    if any,
    of algae blooms on Lake Decatur
    and any problems of taste and odors in water supplies
    caused by these blooms.
    IT IS SO ORDERED.
    I, Christan L. Moffett, Clerk of the Illinois Pollution
    Control Board, hereby certify the above Opinion and Or~erwere
    adopted on the
    ~
    of June,
    1975 by
    a vote of
    ~
    QA~Li~L~
    ~
    ~
    ~hristan
    L. Moffett,1Cl,~rY~
    Illinois Pollution Con~.~-i
    Board
    17—441

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