ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD

August 10, 1983

DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY,

Petitioner,

PCB 83—109

ILLINOIS ENVIRONMENTAL

PROTECTION AGENCY,

)

Respondent.

OPINION AND ORDER OF THE BOARD (by W.J. Nega):

This emergency provisional variance request comes before the

Board upon an August 8~ 1983 Recommendation of the Illinois

Environmental Protection Agency (Agency). The Agency recommends

that a 45—day provisional variance from Rule 502 of Chapter 2:

Air Pollution be granted to the u.S. Department of the Army

(Army) to allow the open burning of approximately 300,000 pounds

of nitrocellulose ammunition propellant.

The Petitioner~s Joliet Army M~inunitionPlant in Joliet,

Will County, Illinois currently has in storage approximately

300,000 pounds of reclaimed ammunition propellant which is made

of the highly volatile, explosive material known as nitrocellulose.

This propellant was removed from the ammunition during demilitari-

zation operations in the 1370’s and has beer: in storage since

that time, (Rec. 2).

The Army generally disposes of stored propellant in one of

two ways; it either can be sold to a private company or destroyed.

A critical factor in determining whether a specific propellant

can be sold is the propellant~s stability. Thus, the Army conducts

routine stabilizer analyses pursuant to a Propellant Stability

Program. Only those propellants which have been certified as to

stabilizer content can be offered for sale and those that cannot

be certified must be destroyed. In the present case, the

nitrocellulose—based propellant is inherently unstable and will

self-ignite when the stabilizer ingredient becomes ex~iausted.

(Rec. 2).

In the Army’s Propellant Stability Program, ammunition

stocks are labelled by assigning lot numbers to consecutive

quantities manufactured together. These identification lot

numbers, which are assigned at the time of manufacture, are used

to identify related ammunition which is withdrawn from field

units due to ammunition failure or unsafe conditions.

53493

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—2

Unfortunately, the nitroceilulose—based propellant involved

in this case lost its lot identity when incorporated into

ammunition and when it was subsequently reclaimed during demili-

tarization, Since the lot that the 300,000 pounds of nitrocellulose

propellant came from cannot be ascertained, it is impossible to

establish a baseline for the propellant, its history cannot be

known, and its degradation profile (i~e., how soon the stabilizer

ingredients will degrade and result in an explosion) cannot be

developed. (Rec. 2).

Both the Army and the Agency agree that, because no assurance

of the stability of the nitrocellulose-based propellant can he

given, the continued storage of the propellant creates an extremely

hazardous and dangerous situation which requires the immediate

disposal of this material. (Rec. 3), The Army has developed

procedures for disposal action which it asserts will be followed

to assure the safety of personnel, structures, and grounds.

(See: Exhibit 1). The Army asserts that the residue from burnt

propellant will be deposited in the sanitary landfill which is

located on the plant grounds and operated in strict accordance

with applicable regulations.

The Agency has concluded that prohibiting the Army from the

one—time open burning of the nitrocellulose—based propellant

under Rule 502 of Chapter 2: Air Pollution would not only be

extremely dangerous and present a safety hazard to human life,

but would also impose an arbitrary and unreasonable hardship upon

the Army. Therefore, the Agency recommends that the Board grant

the Army a provisional variance from Rule 502 of Chapter 2: Air

Pollution for a period of

45

days, subject to certain conditions.

The conditions suggested by the Agency provide only that variance

is limited to the 300,000 pounds which was the subject of the

request, and that the Army comply with Section 725,482 of the

RCRA rules requiring only that certain distances be maintained

from neighbor~sproperty lines depending on the amount of explosive

waste destroyed.

The Board finds these suggested conditions to be wholly

inadequate to protect the environment even during emergency

destruction of these unstable wastes, The provisional variance

as recommended essentially gives the Army carte blanche to

dispose of these wastes in any manner whatsoever, as long as

the property line distances are observed, The suggested conditions

do not even require the Army to follow its own procedures,

They do not address issues such as daytime versus nighttime

burning, assessment of atmospheric and meteorlogica. conditions

affecting smoke dissipation, or notification and reporting to

the Agency of circumstances of burns or even when the variance

burns have been completed. Such conditions were essential to the

BoarcPs grant of variance in Trojan Corp. v. IEPA

,

PCB 82—23,

October 5, 1982, to allow destruction of gunpowder—contaminated

buildings and wastes,

53-194

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—3—

Section 35(b) of the Act severely limits the Board~s

discretion in dealing with a provisional variance request and

recommendation which meet the requirements of Sections 37(b) and

35(b), Were

the Board free to exercise full discretion in this

matter, the Board would impose additional conditions to remedy

the noted deficiencies, As a minimum, given the scanty data

before the Board, such conditions would include conditions 11,

14, 15, 16, 17 and 20 of the ~2jan order, and a condition

requiring the Army to follow its standard procedures.

Under the circumstances, however, the Board can only direct

the Clerk to serve the Army with a

copy

of that Order, arid to

strongly

urge

the Army to

comply with the above-enumerated

conditions, in addition to its own “Standards Operating

Procedure

For Burning Propellant Powder,” As directed by

Section 35(b) of

the Illinois Environmental Protection Act, the Board hereby

grants

the provisional variance as recommended.

ORDER

The U.S. Department of the Army is hereby granted a provisional

variance from the open burning provisions of Rule 502 of Chapter

2: Air Pollution for a period

of 45 days from the

date of this

Order, subject to the

following conditions:

1. Only the 300,000 pounds of nitrocellulose propellant

which are the subject

of the variance petition may

be openly

burned.

2. The

Army shall conduct such open burning in full

compliance with the

Section 725.482 of the Board~s RCRA Rules.

(35 Ill, Adm, Code

725,482),

3. Within 10 days of the date of the Board’s Order, the

Department of the Army shall execute a Certificate of Acceptance

and Agreement which shall

be sent to: Illinois Environmental

Protection Agency, Division

of Air Pollution Control,

Compliance

Assurance Section, 2200 Churchill Road, Springfield, Illinois

62706. This certification

shall

have the

following

form:

53-195

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CERTI FICATION

I,

(We)

having read the Order of the Illinois Pollution Control Board in

PCB 83—109 dated August

10,

1983, understand and accept said Order,

realizing that such acceptance renders all terms and conditions

thereto binding and enforceable,

Petitioner

By: Authorized Agent

Title

IT IS SO ORDERED.

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

Control Board hereby cerjify that the above

was adopted on the

1O”

day of

~inio~~on

and Order

1983 by a vote of

,3-~

Illinois Pollution