ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD

July 31,

1986

VILLAGE OF LEMONT,

)

Petitioner,

v.

)

PCB 86—54

ILLINOIS ENVIRONMENTAL

)

PROTECTION AGENCY,

Respondent.

CONCURRING OPINION (by J.D. Dumelle):

My reason for concurring lies mainly

in the failure

of

the

majority

to recognize the risk

in using this high radium public

water

supply.

(See Opinion,

p.

3.)

The Village of Leinont (Lemont) gives

its combined radium

level on its water

bills

to consumers as 19.8 pCi/l.

The Federal

and State standard

is 5.0 pCi/i.

Thus Lemont’s water

is four

times

the standard.

The Federal Register

of August

14,

1975, gives

the risk

as

“between 0.7 and

3 fatal cancers annually per million exposed

persons”

at

5 pCi/i

of combined

radium.

At four

times that

level,

Lemont’s risk would

thus be 2.8

to 12 fatal

cancers

(an

average of

7.4) annually per million exposed persons.

If the

variance had been granted for the five—year period requested,

the

risk would be five times

the

7.4

or

30

fatal cancers per

million.

Put another way,

the risk would be

l—in—33..000

to an

individual resident over

a five—year

period.

Please

note that this l—in—33,000

risk for

a five—year

period

is

in existence

now to all

of Lemont’s residents.

The

Village should quickly bring down these extremely high combined

radium levels.

On another matter,

I believe that the procedure allowed here

of permitting members of

the audience to question witnesses was

not correct.

A variance

is

a contested case.

Only parties may

cross—examine.

A person may become

a party by intervening.

The

testimony elicited

by this non—party cross—examination should

have been stricken by the majority.

(~-~

of the Board

71-403

---

—2—

I, Dorothy M.

Gunn,

Clerk

of the Illinois Pollution Control

Board, hereby

certify that the above Concurring Opinion was

submitted on the

~

day of

~i~_,4-

,

1986.

Dorotny

Illinois

Control Board

71-404