ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
August 23,
1979
FEDERAL PAPER BOARD COMPANY, INC.,
Petitioner,
PCB 79—69
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY,
Respondent.
MS.
PERCY L.
ANGELO, MAYER, BROWN
& PLATT, APPEARED ON BEHALF
OF PETITIONER;
MS. LORETTA A.
~EBER, ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL, APPEARED ON
BEHALF OF RESPONDENT.
OPINION AND ORDER OF THE BOARD
(by Mr. Goodman):
On March
29,
1979 Federal Paper Board Company,
Inc.
(Federal)
filed a Petition for Review of Permit Denial,
alleging that the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency
(Agency) wrongfully denied Federal~s operating permit appli-
cation regarding a coal-fired boiler at its Morris,
Grundy
County,
Illinois plant.
A hearing was held on June 21, 1979
and a
Stipulation of Fact was filed with the Board on June
25,
1979,
No members of the public were present at the hearing,
and the Board has received no public comment
in this matter.
Federal owns and operates a plant
for the recycling of
wastepaper into paper packaging products in Morris,
Illinois.
The boiler in question is
a traveling grate, stoker—type
coal—fired boiler.
The boiler has
a maximum firing rate of
179 million Btu per hour and is used to produce process and
heating steam.
Pursuant to an operating permit issued by the
Agency on August 16,
1973,
Federal equipped the boiler with a
multiple cyclone mechanical dust collector which cost approxi-
mately $300,000,
and also switched to low sulfur coal.
The
permit was to expire
in August,
1978.
On May
9,
1978,
Federal applied for renewal of its boiler
operating permit.
The application was denied by the Agency on
June
15,
1978 for the reason that a stack test taken in 1973
demonstrated boiler particulate emissions of
0.8 lbs.
per
million Btu and a sulfur emission rate of 4.4
lbs. per million
Btu.
Federal then arranged for a new stack test to be conduc—
:35—217
—2—
ted.
Results
of the new stack test demonstrated an average
particulate emission rate of
0.144
lbs. per million Btu by F
factor calculation and 0.17
lbs.
per million Btu by “conven-
tional” calculation.
On January
9,
1979,
Federal reapplied
for an operating permit,
stating that its plant was not con-
tributing
to any
failure
to attain or to maintain ambient air
quality
standards.
The Agoncy’s February
22, 1979 denial of the second appli-
cation resulted in the present petition.
The Agency claims
that Federal failed to demonstrate that its emission sources
would not prevent the attainment or maintenance of the air
quality standards for particulates set forth in Rule 307 of
Chapter
2.
The Agency also claims that Federal’s particulate
emission rate exceeded 0.1
lb. per million Btu,
the standard
in Rule 203(g)(1)(A)
of Chapter
2,
and the standard the Agency
views
as the emission level necessary
to maintain air qualtiy
(Respondent’s Brief,
p.5).
The Agency alleges that Federal
has failed to meet its burden of proof that it will not violate
Rule 102.
Federal counters
that
it has not prevented the attainment
or maintenance
of air quality standards in Grundy County, and
is not in violation of the standards
in Rule 203(g)(1)(A).
Federal submits
that its permit application incorporated the
Agency’s December
5,
1977 submission to the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency
(U.S.
EPA) which designated Grundy County
as an attainment area for particulates.
As further proof of
compliance with Rule 102,
Federal
submits that
it has never
been deemed necessary to perform air quality modeling of
Grundy County,
Illinois.
Federal contends that the results of the F factor analy-
sis, an accepted engineering technique which
is prescribed by
the U.S.
EPA,
should be applicable
in its case.
Federal alleges
that 0,144
lbs. per million Btu as calculated by the
F factor
approach is equivalent to 0.1
lb. per million Btu when rounded
to the first significant decimal.
Thus, Federal pleads com-
pliance with the standards in Rule 203(g)(1)(A), and a
facie case with regard to Rule 102.
The first question before the Board is whether 0.144
lbs.
per million
I3tu calculated by F factor or
0.17
lbs. per million
Btu calculated by “conventional”
calculation is the applicable
omission rate.
The Board finds
that because the F factor
(Ipproach was ~tpproved by
Lhe
Agency
and
was
adopted
by
the
parties
in
the
Stipulation
of
Fact,
the
rate
of
0.144
lbs.
per
million
Btu
by
F
factor
is
the applicable emission rate.
T~oadditicnai questions before the Board concern whether
Federal violated the standard of 203(g)(1)(A)
and whether
Federal failed
to prevent attainment or maintenance of air
quality standards in Grundy County.
35—218
—3—
The Board will not engage
in a game of semantics with
respect
to the standards of Rule 203(g)(1)(A) defining whether
emission rates
should be rounded to the first significant
decimal when gauging compliance with the 0.1
lb. per million
Btu standard.
As with all Regulations of this type,
there
will be some situations which,
so to speak,
fall through the
cracks.
It
is the Board’s duty to resolve these situations
based on the facts of the particular situation
(U.S.
Steel Corp.
v.
EPA,
PCB
77-317,
p.4).
The
Agency
is
correct
to
consider
Rule
103’s
ambient
air
standards
in such
a case as this.
Wherever there
is vagueness
between compliance and non—compliance,
the true public concern
is
the effect of the emissions on the environment.
Federal
must
prove
that
it
has
not
prevented
the
attain—
ment or maintenance of ambient air quality in Grundy County,
Illinois.
Federal submits that Grundy County had been desig-
nated as attainment
for particulates but that Grundy County’s
emissions have never been modeled.
The Agency presents no
evidence in rebuttal.
The Board therefore
finds that Federal’s
emissions are not in violation of Rule 103 and that the Agency
erred in
its denial of the operating permit application for
Federal’s coal—fired boiler.
Therefore,
the matter
is reman-
ded to the Agency for further action consistent with this
Opinion.
This Opinion constitutes the findings of fact and conclu-
sions of law of the Board in this matter.
ORDER
It is the Order of the Pollution Control Board that the
Agency’s denial
of an operating permit for Federal Paperboard
Company,
Inc. be reversed and that this cause be remanded for
further action consistent with this Opinion.
Messrs.
Young and Dumelle concur.
I,
Christan L. Moffett, Clerk of
the Illinois Pollution
Control Board,
her ~y certify the abov
Opinion and Order were
ado~edon the
_____
day of
~1~LL4..~PL
,
1979 by a vote
~
Illinois Pollutio
ntrol Board
35—2 19