ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD

October

18,

1971

SANITARY DISTRICT OF DURAND

)

v.

)

#

71—317

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

Opinion and Order

of the Board

(by Mr. Currie):

The Sanitary District asks that we extend

its July,

1972

deadline

for improved sewage treatment works

so as to allow engineering

to begin after the Board has completed its review of water pollution

regulations

in #R 71-14,

and to defer construction

thereafter until

“assurance of Federal and State financial assistance.”

The petition

falls short

in several respects of conforming with the requirements

of our procedural rules, but the governing consideration

is that

the petition does

not state

a case which,

if proved, would support

the grant of

a variance.

Neither the pendency of our rule—making proceeding nor the

uncertainty of outside financial help is an excuse

for postponing

compliance.

Outside help is all very well, but the obligation to

treat its sewage

is that of the Sanitary District and

~Ls

not c~e-

pendent upon outside

funds.

And,

as we said

in Chicago—Dubuque

Foundry Corp.

v.

EPA,

#

71-130

(June

28,

1971),

“the petitioner’s

case

is based upon the wholly unacceptable premise that all progress

toward reducing pollution must come to

a screeching hald whenever

any government attempts

to reassess

the adequacy of the present

standards.”

Moreover,

there is very little likelihood that the

pending proceedings will result in a relaxation of the treatment

requirements applicable to the petitioner

or render anything it

does

in compliance with the present regulations obsolete.

The

present requirement has been on the books

for several years, and

it

is high time it was complied with.

The petition was therefore dismissed by the Board October

14,

and this opinion gives

the reasons for that action.

I, Regina

E.

Ryan, Clerk of the Pollution Control Board, certify

that the Board adopted the above Opinion and

O~d?r,

this

18

day of

October

,

1971.

2

—

685