ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
July 20,
1978
GENERAL TELEPHONE COMPANY
OF ILLINOIS,
Petitioner,
v.
)
PCB 78—165
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY,
Respondent.
OPINION AND ORDER OF THE BOARD
(by Mr. Young):
This matter comes before the Board on a Petition filed
on June
5,
1978, by the General Telephone Company of Illinois
(General) for a variance from Rules
203(c)
,
402 and 404(f)
all of Chaoter
3:
Water Pollution, of the Board’s Rules
and Regulations,
as those rules apply to phosphorus.
The
Environmental Protection Agency filed a Recommendation on
July
6,
1978, which recommended that the variance be
granted for a period of five years,
subject to certain
conditions.
No hearing was held in this matter; General
waived hearing in their Petition and on July 13,
1978,
agreed to accept the conditions recommended by the Agency.
The treatment facility for which the variance is re-
quested serves an office, warehouse and construction
personnel reporting center located near Marion,
Illinois,
and is designed to serve 48 office and
78 transient con-
struction personnel
(Pet. p2).
Petitioner alleges that
design average flow, consisting entirely of domestic type
wastes,
is
0.0036 MGD
(Pet.
p2)
and that the estimated daily
discharge of phosphorus will be 0.06 pounds per day which
is discharged to a ditch tributary to Little Crab Orchard
Creek which empties into Crab Orchard Lake
(Pet.
p2,
4).
The sewage treatment facility consists of dual septic tanks,
dual septic tank effluent pumps, dual intermittent sand
filters,
chlorinator and chlorine contact basin,
and dual
effluent discharge/recirculation pumps
(Pet.
p3).
Because the concentration of phosphorus in Crab Orchard
Lake exceeds the standard of Rule 203(c), the application of
Rules
203(c)
and 402
to the facility would establish a
phosphorus effluent concentration limitation of 0.05 mg/i on
the facility.
General concludes that removal of phosphorus
to a concentration of 0.05 mg/l is almost impossible
(Pet.
p3); the Agency believes that such removal
is technically
feasible but economically unreasonable
(Rec. p3).
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—2—
General states that the cost to comply with the existing
regulations in this small
facility would be extremely high,
citing
a capital cost of $8,000.00 and annual operating costs
of
$11,400.00, which they believe would constitute an arbitrary
and unreasonable hardship in view of the insignificant contribu-
tion
to Crab Orchard Lake
(Pet.
p3-’4).
The Board is familiar with the oroblems facing dischargers
in meeting the 0.05 mg/l phosphorus limitation.
City of Hoopeston,
PCB 76—234,
24 PCB 441; Southern Illinois University at Edwards-
yule,
PCB 77-111,
25 PCB 775; Valley Water Company,
Inc., PCB
77—146,
25 PCB 289.
In those,
and a number of other cases,
the Agency and
the
Board have recognized that
it is not economically reasonable
for the petitioners
in those
cases
to comply with an effluent
concentration limitation of 0.05 mg/i for phosphorus.
In
further recognition of this difficulty,
the Agency has petitioned
the Board
in R76-l
for aopropriate amendments to the phosphorus
effluent limitations and water quality standards of Chapter
3.
If the amendments proposed in R76-l were adopted without change,
General would not be required
to provide equipment for phosphorus
removal at this facility.
Based upon the foregoing,
the Board will grant
to General
the same measure of relief during the pendency of R76-l granted
to other petitioners facing similar problems because of the
application of Rules
203(c)
and 402.
The Board will dismiss
the request for variance from Rule 404(f)
as unnecessary since
the grant of relief
from Rule
203(c) would remove any phosphorus
water quality violation from consideration for
a Pfeffer exemption
under Rule 404(f) (ii).
Pursuant to Rule 914, the Board will direct the Agency
to
modify the Petitioner’s NPDES permit consistent with the Opinion
and Order herein.
This Opinion constitutes the Board’s findings of fact and
conclusions of law in this matter.
ORDER
1.
General Telephone Company of Illinois
is granted
a
variance for the operation of its Marion,
Illinois, wastewater
treatment plant from Rules
203(c)
and 402 of Chapter
3:
Water
Pollution Rules and Regulations regarding phosphorus until
July 20,
1983, subject to the following condition:
a)
This variance will earlier terminate
upon
adoption by the Board of any modification
of the existing phosphorus water quality
standards and effluent limitations and
General shall comply with such revised
regulations when adopted by the Board.
31~122
—3—
2.
The Petition for Variance from the phosphorus
requirement of Rule 404(f) of Chapter
3
is hereby dismissed.
3.
Petitioner, within
30 days of the date of this Order,
shall request Agency modification of the NPDES permit for
this facility to incorporate all conditions of the variance
set forth herein.
4.
The Agency, pursuant to Rule 914 of Chapter
3,
shall
modify Petitioner’s NPDES permit consistent with the conditions
set forth
in this Order.
5.
Within
forty—five
(45)
days of the date of this Order,
the Petitioner shall submit
to the Manager, Variance Section,
Division of Water Pollution Control,
Illinois Environmental
Protection Agency,
2200 Churchill
Road,
Springfield,
Illinois,
62706,
an executed Certification of Acceptance and Agreement
to be bound to all terms and conditions
of the variance.
The
forty-five day period herein shall be stayed during judicial
review of this variance pursuant
to Section
31 of the Environ-
mental Protection Act.
The form of said certification shall
be
as follows:
CERTIFICATION
I,
(We)
,
____________________________ having read
the Order of the Pollution Control Board in POD 78-165,
understand and accept said Order, realizing that such
acceptance renders
all terms and conditions thereto
binding and enforceable.
SIGNED
TITLE
DATE
IT
IS SO ORDERED
I,
Christan
L. Moffett, Clerk of the Illinois Pollution
Control
Board, hereby certify the
a ove Opinion and Order were
ado
ed on the~O~ day of
________________,
1978 by
a vote
of
___.
(hristan
L.
Moffett
Illinois ,Pollution Con~ol Board
31-123