ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
January 17,
1974
)
VILLAGE OF ASHLAND
)
)
)
v.
)
PCB 73-426
)
)
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
)
)
MR. GARY L.
SUDETH, appeared on behalf of the Village of Ashland
MR.
DELBERT HASCHEMEYER, ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL, appeared on
behalf of the Environmental Protection Agency
OPINION AND ORDER OF THE BOARD
(by Mr. Dumelle):
The Village of Ashland
(“Ashland”)
filed a Petition for
a Vaiiance on October
5,
1973
to allow the Village
to open burn
landscape waste.
On October 11, 1973 the Board ordered Ashland
to amend its variance petition within 35 days detailing the costs
involved to rent or purchase
an air curtain destructor,
the cost
to use an approved sanitary landfill,
and the cost
to use
a
chipper
(Village of Ashland
v.
EPA,
PCB 73-426).
The Environmental
Protection Agency
(“Agency”)
filed
a Recommendation to grant the
variance subject
to certain conditions
on November 16,
1973.
On December 13,
1973 Ashland
filed a Motion for Reconsideration
citing
the Agency’s Recommendation
to grant
the variance.
The
Board,
on January
3,
1974,
granted Ashland’s Motion and docketed
the variance petition for decision.
Ashland has waived the 90-day
decision period.
Ashland
is
a Village of 1,100 people
and
is
located in Cass County,
Illinois.
Ashland requests
a variance
from Section 9c of the Environmental Protection Act
(“Act”)
and
Rule 502 of Chapter
2 Part
5 of the Regulations of the Pollution
Control Board
(Air Regulations).
Ashland requests this variance
to allow
it
to dispose, by open burning,of landscape waste accumulated
by Ashland from residences and streets
as
a result of ice storms
in the winter of 1972-73.
Ashland
is prohibited from disposing
of landscape waste because the
wastes were not generated on Petitioner’s
premises
as required by Rule
503
(c)(l) of the Air Regulations.
Ashland seeks
to burn approximately 900 cubic yards of
landscape
waste consisting of trees
and tree
limbs.
The Agency calculates
that Ashland’s Variance Petition is
to burn approximately 149 tons of waste.
The Agency states
that
an air curtain destructor would cost approximately $6,400.
The
nearest landfill
is approximately
30 miles from Ashland.
Ashland
10
—
~81
-2-
collected and hauled the landscape waste
to the east edge of
town where
it has stockpiled the material in
a location that
is
not adjacent to any residence.
According to the Agency,
a chipper
would be suitable for the small material but not for the larger
logs.
The Board finds
that
to require Ashland
to purchase an
air curtain destructor or haul the material
to
the nearest landfill
would work an arbitrary and unreasonable hardship on the Village
of Ashland when compared to the amount of environmental damage
to occur from the one
time
event.
The above Opinion constitutes the Board’s findings
of facts
and conclusions of
law.
Mr.
Seaman dissents.
ORDER
The
Illinois Pollution Control Board hereby grants the
Village
of Ashland a variance until April
17,
1974
to allow the
open burning
of landscape waste specified in Ashland’s Variance
Petition subject to the following conditions:
1.
The Village of Ashland shall open burn the landscape waste
only when the wind
is
from the northeast or northwest and
when the wind speed
is between
5 and 25 miles per hour;
2.
The Village of Ashland shall notify:
Illinois Environmental
Protection Agency, Region III Office,
4500 South Sixth Street,
Springfield,
Illinois 62706
(telephone 217/786-6892) when
such. open burning
is
to be conducted;
3.
The Village of Ashland shall
comply with each of the
17
applicable
conditions contained in Standard Conditions,
attached to
the Variance Petition as Exhibit 8~when conducting
the open burning.
IT
IS SO ORDERED.
Mr.
Seaman
dissent~~
I, Christan
L. Moffett, Clerk of
the Illinois Pollution Control
Board, hereby certify the above Opinion and Order were adopted on the
jJ~~~dayof January, 1974 by
a vote of ___________________________
~~PII~
~
~~stan
L. Moffett, 9~rk
Illinois Pollution Co~i(rolBoard
10 —682