ILLINOIS POLJIUTION CONTROL BOARD

Octofler 28, 1976

COMMONWEALTH EDISON COMPANY,   

)

(LAKE

SANGCHRIS),         

)

Petitioner,

)

PCB 76—198

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY,

Respondent.

OPINION AND ORDER OF THE BOARD (by Mr. Zeitlin):

This matter is before the Board on a Variance Petition filed

by Commonwealth Edison Company (Edison) on July 27, 1976. That

Petition seeks a Variance from Rule 203(1) 

(5)

of Chapter 3: Water

Pollution, allowing the hearing required under that Rule to be held

prior to April 16, 1977. Ill. PCB Regs., Ch. 3, Rule 203 (1) (5) (1976).

A Recommendation was filed by the Environmental Protection Agency

(Agency) on September 8, 1976. No hearing was held in this matter.

Edison’s Kincaid generating station, located in Christian

County, Illinois, discharges heated effluent into Edison’s Lake

Sangchris. The heated effluent from Kincaid station, and Lake

Sangchris generally, have been discussed by this Board previously

and need not again be described. Citizens fora Better Environment

v. Commonwealth Edison Company, PCB 73—245, -248, 13 PCB 69 (1974);

In The Matter of Water Quality Standards Revisions, Cooling Lakes,

R75—2, 18 PCB 381 (Aug. 14, 1975), Opinion at 18 PCB 681 (Sept. 29,

1975)

Rule 203(i) (5) provides, in pertinent part:

The

owner

of operator of a source oF cer~a in

thermal discharges

shall demonstrate

iii

a hearinq

before this Board not less

than 5 

years nor more than

6 years after the effective date of these regulations

that discharges

from that source have not caused

and cannot reasonably be expected to cause significant

ecological damage to the receiving waters. (emphasis

added.)

Rule 203(1) (5) was adopted on March 7, 1972. In The Matter of Water

Quality Standards Revisions, R71—14, 4 PCB 3, 12 (1972). Therefore,

the hearing required under Rule 203(i) (5) cannot normally take place

until April 16, 1977. Edison requests that it be allowed to seek

that hearing now.

159

—2—

Edison

‘S 

Petition notes that the Board has presently pending

before

it a Regulatory Proposal for the establishment of a specific

thermal standard for Lake Sanqchris.

in The Matter of Water_Quality

Standards_Revisions, Lake Sangchris, R II~rinç~ set for

October 27, 1976) 

Edison alleges that the testimony and data to

be presented in R76-ll will, in substantial part, be identical to

that needed for a showing under Rule 203 (i) (5). Edison claims that

updating the matters to be presented in R76-ll for presentation

under Rule 203(i) (5) only a few months later will be needlessly

duplicative, wasteful, unduly expensive and will  in light of the

fact that no environmental harm will occur 

—-

cause an arbitrary

and unreasonable hardship on Edison. Edison alleges that, because

Kincaid station has been in operation for approximately ten years,

no useful purpose would be served by waiting for several additional

months to hold the hearings required under Rule 203(i) (5).

The Agency agrees in its Recommendation that a failure to grant

the requested Variance would indeed cause an arbitrary and unreasonable

hardship. We agree, and shall grant the Variance. See, Union Electric

v. EPA, PCB 76—89,  

PCB

(July 8, 1976).

Edison’s Petitic~.~equests, as part of the relief ~o be granted,

that the hearing to bc. held for Rule 203(1) (5) purposes under this

Variance be concurrent to that to be held for R76—ll. The Agency

also recommends that this relief be granted. The Board finds that

such concurrent hearings would present procedural difficulties 

which

need not be encountered. If it wishes, Edison may obtain essentially

the same result through incorporation of the record in R76-ll, or

any other prior record, in its showing under Rule 203(i) (5)

This Opinion constitutes the findings of fact and conclusions

of law of the Board in this 

mattet.

ORDER

IT IS THE ORDER OF THE

POLI,UTTON 

CONTROL BOARD that Commonwealth

Ed i Son Company ho (J

ran (‘

a var a r

~‘

br i  

Jal:

~

nqc~ii

i

from the

fi vu (5

)

yea r (Iu~ay pr I or 1 o

hear I  fl(J 

lii1((

hit

()

3 ( I  )   (5) 

01:

Chdpbc?r 3

Ler ho 

Jut ion, oF

I

r i1oa rd 

‘

Lu I e~:and

hiiu a

I

i olr:

I, Christan L. Moffett, Clerk of the Illinois Pollution

Control Board, hereby certify the abpve~Final Opinion and Order

were adopted on the ~ day of  ~    

1976, by a vote of~O

Christan L. Moffett’,,/ç4Jerk

Illinois Pollution ~~trol Board

24

—

160