ILLINOIS
POLLUTION
CONTROL
BOARD
anu~~ryI~,
I
ENTRAL
OUPAGE
HOSPITAL ASSOCIATION
?CR
74— :64
ENVIRONMENTAL
PROTECTION
AGENCY
Respondent
IN1~1MOPINION of the B3ard
(by Mr.
Dumefle):
This Opinion
is
in support of
an ORDER granting the sewer connection
and issued
on
~ovember
22,
1974.
Petition for variance
to permit
a sewer connection
to the Village of
Wirifield sewage treatment plant
in DuPaqe
County was
filed on October
9,
1974.
No public hearing was held.
The
Environmental
Protection Agency filed
its
recommendation
on
November 18,
1974 and recommended
a grant of the variance instanter.
On
November 19,
1974, just three days before
the Board made its decision, the
Petitioner moved that the matter be decided
on November 22 because of the
expiration of bids on November 30.
The variance petition asks for relief from Sections
12 and 39 of
the
Environmental Protection Act and Rule 927 of Chapter 3 (which are the Water
Pollution Regulations of the Board).
The Central
DuPage Hospital
Association
(“Hospital’) operates
a 241-bed hospital
on
a 40-acre site in Winfield.
Its
primary service area contains
in excess of 100,000 residents in central,
western and northern DuPage County.
Average occupancy in
the hospital
for the first half of 1974 was 90.3
and
at times
all
beds were occupied,
it
is
alleged.
In
1972,
the petition states,
an addition of 150-beds was planned
of which
112—beds were to be installed and
staffed.
Fees and expenditures of some ~80O,O0O
were incurred for this project.
A
refinancing of debt and fundinq
for the addition of $20,000,000 was secured
through
the Illinois Health Facilities
Authority.
Construction of the addition
is
scheduled to
begin November 1974.
The fol-
lowing schedule
is planned.
New Facilities
in operation
November 1976
40-bed unit staffed
-
November 1976
~~ccpd40—ced
~.nit
staffed
)urinq 1977
~
r
nts
15—205
The Village of Winfield was unable to provide sewer service to the
Hospi~land had hoped that the Board’s DuPage Regionalization pr~eedings
(R 70—17) would bring
a solution,
The Board
issued
its Order in R 70-17
on August 29, 1974 and
its Opinion
on September 27,
1974.
West Chicago,
which was designated as
one of the major treatment plants and was to have
accepted Winfield’s wastes,
has appealed the DuPage Regionalization regu1a~
tion to the Appellate Court.
Consequently it is not known how long
it
wilt
take to resolve the legal questions raised.
The Winfield sewage treatment plant
is said to be “hydraulically and
organically overloaded”.
The hospital alleges
a bid ex~irationdate of
November 30,
1974 but speaks of the necessity to enter into
a firm construc-
tion contract before October 31, 1974,
a date since passed.
The Agency’s
recommendation
is for
a grant of the variance.
The
Agency asserts that the Winfield sewage plant, designed for 0.5 million
gallons per day (MGD), averaged 1.61 MGD for the period from August
1972
through July 1973.
Bypassing of sewage occurred during 11.3 days per month
in the average
in
this same period.
The average daily amount bypassed was
1.86 MGD which
is
in excess of flow through the plant.
As to the need for the hospital beds
in northern DuPage County,
the
Agency states that the total
hospital bed need
is 818 beds and only 633
beds are now in existence,
leaving
a need of 185 as delineated
in the Health
Facilities Plan issued by the Comprehensive State Health Planning P.gency.
A letter was received by Board
on November 20, 1974 from the President
of the DuPage County Comprehensive Health Planning Agency.
It pointed out
that the 185-bed “need” cited above was based upon 1972 data and that a 291-
bed facility was under construction in Downers Grove.
The letter went on
to state that its Board of Directors could not make
a formal recommendation
until January 8,
1975.
This of course, would be well past the November 30
date for expiration of the bids.
The Board feels that the record
in this case
is deficient.
Neither the
hospital
nor the Agency delineate the damage,
if any, caused by the constant
bypassing of sewage to the West Branch of the OuPage River.
The possible al-
ternative of requiring holding tanks,
as has been done in
a dozen cases
in
the Rockford area,
is not mentioned or discussed.
Data for the Winfield plant
end at August 1973 or 14 months prior to the date of the recommendation.
We
do not
know the present extent of bypassing because of the lack of recent data.
The alleged fact of the expiration of bids
is not proven.
We are not
told when the bids were taken nor with whom or the amount.
On
the other hand,
the 52,400 gallons per day of domestic waste will
not
flow, even partially,
until
November 1976 which
is two years hence.
With grant
priority numbers
for Winfield and West Chicago of 131 and 132 it seems reason-
able that these projects will
be funded soon and will proceed reasonably par-
allel with construction of the hospital
addition.
15
—
206
4e c~.
~
rule co
the ne~d~or
~
~
~~ds
t~r
~:he
r~asonsgiuen
i”~’e
~ut~heoverbu 1ding of ~
~‘
beds
is
~is’~
risk which
is
~nmarilvto ne carried by the Lert, ~lDuPa~e~tospi~a’
~~:oci~tton
and one
Ii y ~rew~‘ing to accept.
The
ariance is g~~ited
on ~h~ ‘ncomplete record
f
the ‘mTnin~ntexpiration
~°
tr
ds.
~e ~etair
r
stream ,~jdywithin 60 days
as
ielirea
~i
n th~3rde~
siso reoort on and th~Agency ~halI orrnLrt on the nece~~
r
no ~irg
taNKs
for this fac~i~t’
narily because
s~’rtionand require
he ~iospital
shall
y and feasib lity
T~iis(pinion consL~uLes~e Co~ros ~‘r~incs
~ ~
‘nd
~OflC~u5iOflS
of
Dr
Odell dissents. Mr.
Zeitlin aossaired
I, Chr~stanL. Moffett, ~erk of the
Itinois Pollution Controt
Board,
cetify that the above Opinion was adopted by
the Board on the
~
day
~
1975,
by
a vcte of
3
to
I
~stanL.Moffett,
15—207