ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD

November

6,

1975

ILLINOIS POWER COMPANY,

Petitioner,

v

)

PCB 75—110

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY,

Respondent.

OPINION AND ORDER OF TUE BOARD

(by Mr. Goodman):

This case arises upon a Petition for Variance

filed on

March

10,

1975.

Amended petitions were filed on May 19 and

July

7 in response to Board orders seeking additional infor—

mation.

On September

25,

1975 Petitioner filed

a Waiver of

Right

to Decision in this matter until November

6,

1975.

No

hearing has been held.

Illinois Power owns and operates an electric power

generating station located at Wood River,

Madison County,

Illinois.

Units

1-3 are fired with distillate fuel oil.

Unit

4

is coal—fired and is equipped with a catalytic-

oxidation

(“Cat—Ox”)

sulfur removal system.

Unit

5 is

equipped with an electrostatic precipitator to remove

fly

ash.

Illinois Power alleges that the average sulfur content

of the coal burned in these latter two units

is 3.14.

The

Environmental Protection Agency

(Agency)

claims it to be

2.95.

Sulfur dioxide emissions from Unit

5,

according to

Illinois Power,

are 5.52 lbs per million BTU.

According to

the Agency,

emissions from both boilers are 5.37 lbs per

million BTU,

although estimated emissions from Unit

4

when the “Cat-Ox” system is operating at designed efficiency

would be only .74 lbs/mBTU.

Illinois Power seeks variance

for Units

4 and 5 from Rule 204(c) (1) (A)

of Chapter

2, PCB

Rules and Regulations, which requires that a sulfur dioxide

emission rate of 1.8 lbs/mBTU have been achieved by May 30,

1975.

Illinois Power proposes to bring its two coal-fired

units into compliance by switching to low-sulfur coal.

It

alleges that prior experience with Unit

4 indicates that the

“Cat-Ox” system is not consistent or reliable enough to

warrant a renewal of its operating permit, which expired on

May

30,

1975.

It further alleges that conversion to low

sulfur coal will involve several considerations,

including

acquisition of

a coal supplier, delivery and handling

facilities,

and possible modification

to its precipitator

if

the new coal results

in lower efficiency.

Thus,

a compliance

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217

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—2—

schedule for both units has been proposed which

is

identical

to that contained in

a consent order between Illinois Power

and the Federal Environmental Protection Agency.

That

consent order, attached as an exhibit to the amended peti-

tion, calls for conversion of Unit

5 to low sulfur coal as

follows:

SELECT FUEL

MARCH

1, 1976

COMPLETE COAL HANDLING FACILITIES

JANUARY

1,

1978

MODIFY ELECTROSTATIC PRECIPITATOR

FEBRUARY

1,

1978

COMPLETE COAL TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM

JUNE

1,

1978

COMPLIANCE WITH RULE 204(c) (1) (A)

JUNE

1,

1978

In its second amended petition Illinois submitted

ambient air quality data for the vicinity of its Wood River

Power Plant.

It alleged that the data,

covering a period

from April,

1970 to April

30,

1975 showed~seven values

exceeding Federal standards, but that “those standards allow

one value per year to be above the maximums.”

(Second

Amended Petition, p.1).

The data for 1974 included 3-hour,

24—hour and annual values from four monitors.

It revealed

only one infringement

-

a “daily maximum” standard of

.168

ppm in March,

1974 at the Rosewood Heights monitor.

The

1975 data, through April, covered three monitors and re-

vealed no infringements.

The monitoring locations were

recommended to Illinois Power by the Battelle Memorial

Institute.

On the basis of this data Illinois Power con-

tends that sulfur dioxide emissions from the Wood River

Station will not cause or contribute to

a violation of

national ambient air quality standards.

The Agency Recommendation,

filed September

18,

1975,

disputes such a contention.

It points out that the closest

monitor operated by Illinois Power is 2.5 miles from the

plant.

The closest monitor operated by the Agency

is

approximately one mile from the plant.

The following data

for 1974 was provided:

Annual

(Standard)

3-hr Average

24-hr Average

(Standard)

1st

2nd

No.

1st

2nd

No.

.033

(0.03 ppm)

.587

.543

2

.241

.237

3

(0.14)

The Agency concluded that both an annual and short term

sulfur dioxide problem exist near the Wood River Plant.

The

Agency further pointed out that Illinois Power had not

indicated its methodology for determining monitoring loca-

tions or performed any dispersion modeling to determine its

contributions to air quality violations

in Wood River.

On

the basis of the data presented by both parties

in this case

we feel that Illinois Power has failed to meet its burden of

proving that a variance would not result in a failure to

achieve

or maintain national ambient air quality standards.

19

—

218

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—3—

Illinois Power requested a similar variance for Unit

5

soon after Rule 204 was adopted in

1972.

In that proceeding

the Board found that Illinois Power had failed to demon-

strate that alternatives were unavailable or that compliance

would create an arbitrary or unreasonable hardship.

Illinois

Power Co.

(Wood River

#5)

v. Environmental Protection Agency,

PCB

72-190,

6PCB

17,

30

(1972).

The Opinion noted that

Illinois Power had failed to prove that it may take four

years

(from that time)

to arrange for low-sulfur coal.

It

continued:

We shall entertain a request for more time

upon presentation of a control program indicating

specifically what is

to be done to meet the

standard, when,

and why it cannot reasonably

be done sooner.

6 PCB at

30.

In the present case, Illinois Power has

requested such additional time and presented a control

program.

It has totally

failed,

however,

to indicate why

such

a program could not have been achieved earlier.

In the

previous case Illinois Power had alleged that conversion

to

low-sulfur coal might take up to four years

(6PCB at 30).

If such were the case,

the schedule in the instant case need

only call for a variance until mid-1976 rather than mid—

1978.

The record shows no efforts by Illinois Power to

secure such coal

in the long interim period between the two

cases.

As noted by the Agency in its Recommendation,

a

compliance plan should have been submitted to the Agency by

May

1,

1973 pursuant to Rules

103(b)

and 104 of Chapter 2

(Agency

Rec. pp.4-5).

For these reasons we must hold that

any present hardship to Illinois Power in achieving com-

pliance with Rule 204 (c) (1) (A)

is self-imposed.

Furthermore, Illinois Power,

aside from describing the

steps necessary to implement a conversion

to low—sulfur

coal,

has failed to support the relatively

lengthy time-

frame proposed.

The petition merely alleges hypothetical

problems in the conversion, rather than indicating specific

efforts made at obtaining the coal, preparing unloading and

handling facilities,

or testing for precipitator degradation.

While it

is possible that

a showing may have been made to

the Federal Environmental Protection Agency to support the

consent order reached in the Federal proceeding, no such

showing has been made here.

Illinois Power has thus failed

to meet its burden of proving an arbitrary or unreasonable

hardship.

For this reason,

and for failure

to prove that

the variance would not result in a failure to achieve or

maintain national ambient air quality standards,

this peti-

tion

is denied.

This Opinion constitutes the Board’s

findings of fact

and conclusions of law.

19— 219

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—4—

ORDER

The Petition for Variance from Rule 204(c) (1) (A)

for

Illinois Power Company’s Wood River Station, Units

4 and

5,

is denied.

IT

IS SO ORDERED.

I, Christan

L. Moffett, Clerk of the Illinois Pollution

Control Board, hereby certify the above Opin~~~ Order

were adopted on the

_____________

day of

f)

1975 by a vote of

4_~

~

Illinois Pollution c~trol Board

19

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