ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
May 22, 1975
SHELL OIL COMPANY,
Petitioner,
v.
)
PCB 75-90
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY,
Respondent.
DISSENTING OPINION (by Mr. Dumelle):
There are two unanswered questions which bear upon this
proceeding. First, what is the “airshed” affected by the
particulate from Shell (in the legal sense) and second, what
is that airshed in the physical sense if no clear legal
guidance appears?
The Metro East area of Illinois, of which Roxana (and
Shell) is a part, is in the Metropolitan St. Louis Interstate
Air Quality Control Region which includes Madison, St.
Clair, Bond, Clinton, Monroe, Randolph and Washington counties
in Illinois. It also includes St. Louis City, and St.
Charles, St. Louis, Franklin, and Jeffersoyi counties; all in
Missouri.
Are these areas the “legal airshed” to which we apply
the standards of Train v. NRDC, et al (43 USLW 4467)? If
the particulate standards are violated anywhere in this
region, as for example, in Granite City, are we then constrained
from granting a variance?
There is no dispute that the primary (health-related)
ambient air quality standards for particulate are violated
at Granite City. In 1974, the most recent report of the
Illinois Environmental Protection Agency as submitted into
the record by the Petitioner on May 20, 1975 showed the 1974
preliminary data for Granite City as follows:
Granite City (6 stations) All above primary
standard (100,93,86,l58,etc.)
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3The national primary standard for particulates is 75
ug/m as an annual geometric mean. Thus, Granite City (for
the four stations for which data are given) is respectively;
33, 24, 15 and 111 over the standard. How much the
other two stations are over the standard is not known in
this record. Thus we have four clear violations of a health-
related ambient air~quality standard. In addition, East St.
Louis, with 89 ug/m~, and Cahokia Mounds Park, with 111
ug/m3, are respectively 19 and 48 over the standard.
Granite City has a population of 40,440; East St. Louis
has 69,996; and Cahokia has 20,649. Thus 131,085 persons
that we know of from this record are subjected to unhealthy
air in the Illinois portion of this Air Quality Control
Region (AQCR). Whether there are any other particulate
violations in the remainder of the Illinois portion is not
known. Nor is it known whether any violations exist on the
Missouri side. The record is silent in presenting air
quality data for the entire AQCR.
A careful reading of Train v. NRDC fails to show any
mention of the need, if any, to meet ambient air quality
standards in an entire AQCR. Again, we just do not know. A
presumption can be made that the AQCRs exist for some purpose
and that these are the “legal airsheds” within which air
standards are to be met. But we have no guidance here and
simply must wait for further developments, either via court
decisions or from Congressional action.
We then must look to the “physical” or “meteorological
airshed”. If the air coming from Roxana and flowing southerly
into Granite City, et al, via various trajectories, is 72
ug/m3 (as measured at Wood River) or 69 at Alton or 66 at
Collinsville, then very little margin exists for the industries
and other sources in and near to Granite City, East St.
Louis and Cahokia to discharge particulate without violating
the 75 ug/m3 national standard. A community of heavy industry,
such as Granite City, must have relatively clean air coming
to it if its own discharges are not to overwhelm health-
related standards.
This record gives no inkling as to whether Granite
City, East St. Louis and Cahokia are in the same meteorological
airshed as Roxana and Shell. Knowing the frequent inversion
conditions of the American Bottoms and. the channeling effects
of the bluffs it would be my opinion that they each contribute
to each other’s pollution problems. Here again the record
is silent on this important point.
The Board 1 ~ ranted air variances until July 31, 1975
feeling that th~ te ~ ~missible under Train. I would
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have granted such a short variance to Shell in light of
their good faitiielforts. They would then have had enougii
time to present meteorological experts to discuss physica’
airshed aspects. Theycould also piesent legal argument c
the applicability of the AQCR bound ries to their situatio~.
In a variance case, the burden is upon the petitioner.
The Metropolitan St. Louis Interstate Air Quality
Control Region is probably the most thoroughly studied
such region in the United States. The 8-volume U.S. Public
Health Service “Interstate Air Pollution Study” by J.D.
Williams, G. Ozolins, J.W. Sadler, and J.R. Farmer, was
issued in May, 1967 and might possibly provide answers to
the “physical airshed” question raised earlier. Unfortunately,
this study was not entered into the record of this case.
And the “Metromex” and “RAPS” studies now in progress in
this same area may have additional findings to supplement
the 1967 study.
I respectfully dis
I, Christan L. Moffett, Clerk of the ~I1linois Pollutiu~.
Control Board, hereby certify the above Dissenting Opinion was
submitted on the /~~e1 day of
___________________,
1975.
Christan L. Moffett,/ k
Illinois Pollution ~ ol Board
in this cause.
e
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