ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
August 15, 1996
IN THE MATTER OF:
)
)
STEEL AND FOUNDRY INDUSTRY WASTE
)
R96-3
LANDFILLS: AMENDMENTS TO 35 ILL.
) (Rulemaking - Land)
ADM. CODE 817.309 (FACILITY LOCATION
)
FOR LANDFILLS ACCEPTING
)
POTENTIALLY USABLE WASTE)
1
)
Proposed Rule. First Notice.
OPINION AND ORDER OF THE BOARD (by R.C. Flemal):
This matter comes before the Board upon a petition for rulemaking filed by the Illinois Cast Metals
Association (ICMA) on September 6, 1995, and a revised petition filed on February 26, 1996.
ICMA requests
that the Board’s landfill regulations governing steel and foundry industry wastes be amended at 35 Ill. Adm. Code
817.309. In pertinent part, Section 817.309 establishes minimum setback distances and strata
thicknesses between
the waste unit and Class I and Class III groundwaters. The proposed amendments would allow the owner or
operator to make a demonstration to the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (Agency) that, the absence of
natural barriers notwithstanding, the unit could be operated in a manner protective of human health and the
environment.
The Board's responsibility in this matter arises from the Environmental Protection Act (Act) (415 ILCS
5/1 et seq. (1994)). The Board is charged therein to "determine, define and implement the environmental control
standards applicable in the State of Illinois" (415 ILCS 5/5(b)). More generally, the Board's rulemaking charge is
based on the system of checks and balances integral to Illinois environmental governance: the Board bears
responsibility for the rulemaking and principal adjudicatory functions; the Agency has primary responsibility for
administration of the Act and the Board's regulations, including the regulations today proposed for amendment.
The Agency has indicated that it does not oppose the instant amendments. (
Exh. 3.)
By today's action the Board adopts the proposed amendments for the purpose of first notice, pursuant to
the Illinois Administrative Procedure Act (5 ILCS 100/1-1
et seq
. (1994)). Publication in the
Illinois Register
will
follow today's action, whereupon a 45-day public comment period will begin during which interested persons may
file public comment with the Board.
PROCEDURAL HISTORY
ICMA initially filed its proposal on September 6, 1995. By order of September 21, 1995 the Board
accepted the proposal for hearing.
Hearings were scheduled on the initial proposal for November 28 and 30, 1995. However, by filing of
November 22, 1995 ICMA moved the Board to postpone the hearings pending additional discussion of the proposal
with the Agency.
2
Public hearings were held before hearing officer Audrey Lozuk-Lawless in Chicago on June 24, 1996 and
in Edwardsville on June 26, 1996. ICMA presented the testimony of Michael Slattery and Christopher Peters,
both of Residuals Management Technology, Inc. The Agency presented the testimony of Kenneth W.
Liss,
manager of the Groundwater Unit, Permit Section, of the Agency’s Bureau of Land.
In response to considerations raised at hearing, ICMA on July 18, 1996 filed revised proposed language.
The revised proposed language frames the proposed amendments currently before the Board.
OVERVIEW
The instant proposal has antecedents in two prior Board rulemaking proceedings. In the first of these,
R88-7, the Board adopted a broadly-applicable and extensively-revised set of regulations governing non-hazardous
waste landfills
3
.
The R88-7 rulemaking resulted in the establishment of several categories of waste for which waste-
specific landfill standards were established. Among these, for example, are standards applicable to
putrescible
waste landfills. The principle underlying waste-specific landfilling standard is that different types of waste may
have sufficiently different properties as to warrant distinct provisions governing their disposal. Moreover, the
Board recognized at the time that the R88-7 rulemaking was finalized, that there were additional categories of
wastes for which further waste-specific landfill standards might be warranted.
One such additional category explicitly identified in the R88-7 rulemaking and in the regulations
themselves is “wastes generated by foundries and primary steel production facilities” (35 Ill. Adm. Code
811.101(b)). In the second of the two antecedent rulemakings, docketed as R90-26(A)
4
and R90-26(B)
5
, the
Board adopted regulations governing the land disposal of a variety of steel and foundry industry non-hazardous
wastes. Included in the R90-26 rulemakings was adoption of Part 817, which is at issue in the instant proceeding.
Today’s focus is on only a small portion of Part 817
6
. It is that portion of Part 817 that deals with
landfills that receive only potentially usable steel and foundry industry waste. Potentially usable waste (
PUW) is
one of the three types of steel and foundry industry wastes for which waste-specific
landfilling standards were
developed in the R90-26 rulemakings. “Potentially usable waste” is defined at 35 Ill. Adm. Code 810.103 as:
“Potentially usable waste” means any solid waste from the steel and foundry industries that will
not decompose biologically, burn, serve as food for vectors, form a gas, cause an odor, or form
2
Section 814.902 contains miscellaneous standards for operation and closure of existing
landfill units that accept only potentially usable steel or foundry industry waste and that plan to
stay open for more than two years.
3
See, In the Matter of: Development, Operating and Reporting Requirements for Non-
hazardous Waste Landfills R88-7, 114 PCB 483, August 17, 1990, effective September 18,
1990.
3
a leachate that contains constituents that exceed the limits for this type of waste as specified at
35 Ill. Adm. Code 817.106.
Moreover, today’s focus is only on the facility location standards for new
PUW landfills and, further,
only on that aspect of the location standards that concerns the positioning of the landfills with respect to Class I and
Class III groundwaters
7
. The current regulations at Section 817.309(b) contain a prohibition against the siting of
any new PUW landfill where any part of the landfill unit is within 1200 feet, vertically or horizontally, of a Class I
or Class III groundwater, unless there is an intervening confining layer of specific properties:
* * * * * * *
.
b)
No part of a unit shall be located within the recharge zone or within 366 meters (12
00
feet), vertically or horizontally, of that portion of a stratigraphic unit containing Class I
or Class III groundwater as defined at 35 Ill. Adm. Code 620, unless there is a stratum
between the bottom of the waste disposal unit and the top of the Class I or Class III
groundwater that meets the following minimum requirements:
1)
The stratum has a minimum thickness of 15.2 meters (50 feet);
2)
The maximum hydraulic conductivity in both the horizontal and vertical
directions is no more than 1 x 10
-7
centimeters per second, as determined by in
situ borehole or equivalent tests;
3)
There is no indication of continuous sand or silt seams, faults, fractures or
cracks within the stratum that may provide parts for migration; and
4)
Age dating of extracted water samples from both the aquifer and the stratum
indicates that the time of travel for water percolating downward through the
relatively impermeable stratum is no faster than 15.2 meters (50 feet) in 100
years.
* * * * * * *
Today’s proposal would retain this prohibition generally, but would allow for an exception if the owner or
operator of the unit successfully demonstrates to the Agency that siting of the unit will not degrade the use of any
Class I groundwater or adversely impact any existing Class III groundwater.
The Board notes that, although Part 817 is titled “Requirements for
New Steel and Foundry Industry
Wastes Landfills” (emphasis added), today’s proposed amendments would, through the operation of 35 Ill. Adm.
Code 814.902(a), also apply to existing PUW landfills.
JUSTIFICATION
Environmental Considerations
4
groundwater, or by the requirement of a intervening confining layer. Today’s proposal offers a third assurance
mechanism. That mechanism is a demonstration made to and accepted by the Agency that the landfill will not
pollute the groundwater based on the site-specific character of both the landfill and the groundwater.
This third exemption would require the operator or owner of the landfill to demonstrate to the Agency
that the unit will not impact any existing Class III groundwater or impact any Class I groundwater such that
treatment or further treatment will be required to allow reasonable use of such Class I groundwater for potable
water supply purposes. According to Christopher Peters of
ICMA, there are certain hydrogeologic situations in
which existing PUW landfills pose a negligible potential for impacts to
downgradient potable water supply wells or
to surface water. ICMA requests that an applicant should be allowed to site or continue to operate a
PUW landfill
if such a technical demonstration is made.
ICMA’s revised language, at the request of the Agency, proposes that this demonstration be made through
the use of a site-specific groundwater model developed and evaluated by an Illinois-licensed Professional
Geologist, or through other appropriate means prepared by an Illinois-licensed Professional Geologist such as
historical knowledge of local conditions or regional geological and
hydrogeological data. However, because the
licensing program for Illinois-licensed Professional Geologists is just now developing,
ICMA states that
there will not be an adequate supply of licensed Professional Geologists until mid-1997. The Board finds this
current shortage problematic and will not condition the exemption to become effective at some future uncertain
date. Therefore the Board will require that demonstration to be made to a qualified geologist, as suggested by the
Agency and ICMA.
Economic Considerations
ICMA describes the economic considerations motivating their proposal as follows:
ICMA is aware of several facilities in current operation who have the potential to
benefit from this proposal. It is also believed that there are several inactive landfills which, if
the rule is changed, have the potential to re-open. Finally, the proposed revision will allow new
landfills to be sited in locations that are currently prohibited even though a landfill would have no
reasonable likelihood of adversely impacting downgradient groundwater users.
We have prepared disposal cost estimates for an average-sized foundry who: (1) sends
its waste to an offsite landfill; (2) operates a chemical waste landfill; or (3) operates a
PUW
landfill . . . Of interest to this rule making is the difference between
offsite disposal and disposal
in a PUW landfill. That difference is . . . estimated at $1,327,560 per year per landfill.
In addition, diversion of PUW wastes to chemical waste landfills would reduce the
capacity of those landfills by hundreds of thousands of tons per year.
ICMA believes the limited
capacity of chemical waste landfills should be used for more difficult to manage industrial wastes
which create a greater threat to the environment than does
PUW.
An additional benefit of this rule making is the continued segregation of
PUW from
chemical wastes. Since the promulgation of Part 817 in July 1994, the Illinois Cast Metals
Association (ICMA) has continued to work with regulators and the foundry industry to promote
5
ICMA has initiated a contract with the University of Illinois to conduct research on
beneficial use of foundry materials for the potential use in improving the drainage of Illinois farm
soils and the project is underway. The research proposal from the University, entitled “Use of
Foundry Green Sand to Improve the Physical Properties of Poorly Drained Soils,” . . .
represents the scope of the project.
Substantial supplies of Potentially Useable Waste make it much easier to convinc
e a
possible purchaser to consider the use of the material.
ICMA believes the current rule making
effort is necessary to promote continuation of PUW sites to assure a supply of construction
materials when needed.
*******
ICMA believes that the proposed revision will result in a net economic and
environmental benefit to the State of Illinois. It will allow existing facilities to continue to
operate and new facilities to be sited without seeking Board approval for each siting decision.
Exhibit 1 at p 4-6
MODIFICATIONS OF ICMA’S PROPOSAL
Today’s proposed first notice differs is some particulars from the revised proposal offered by
ICMA.
The changes are proposed by the Board for the purpose of adding further clarity to the language of the proposal, as
well as conforming the proposal to necessary formats.
ICMA and the Agency are requested to review these
changes and advise the Board of their perspective on the changes.
The one change that the Board today proposes which it believes to be substantive is change of the word
“parts” to “paths” at 817.309(b)(1)(C). The subject of this subsection are potential routes of groundwater
migration. In this context, the word “parts” should clearly instead be “paths”.
CONCLUSION
The Board believes that ICMA has presented evidence warranting further consideration of this matter.
Accordingly, we today find that the record before us justifies adopting the proposal for first notice.
The Board will again review the record in this matter upon completion of the first notice period, and
determine then whether the record continues to support moving this matter towards adoption.
ORDER
The Board hereby proposes for first notice the following amendments to 35 Ill. Adm. Code 817. The
Clerk of the Board is directed to file these proposed rules with the Secretary
of State.
6
SUBPART A: GENERAL REQUIREMENTS
Section
817.101 Scope and Applicability
817.103 Determination of Waste Status
817.104 Sampling Frequency
817.105 Waste Classification
817.106 Waste Classification Limits
817.107 Waste Mining
7
SUBPART B: STANDARDS FOR MANAGEMENT OF BENEFICIALLY USABLE
STEEL AND FOUNDRY INDUSTRY WASTES
Section
817.201 Scope and Applicability
817.202 Limitations on Use
817.203 Notification
817.204 Long-Term Storage
SUBPART C: STEEL AND FOUNDRY INDUSTRY POTENTIALLY
USABLE WASTE LANDFILLS
Section
817.301 Scope and Applicability
817.302 Design Period
817.303 Final Cover
817.304 Final Slope and Stabilization
817.305 Leachate Sampling
817.306 Load Checking
817.307 Closure
817.308 Nuisance Precautions
817.309 Facility Location
SUBPART D: NEW STEEL AND FOUNDRY INDUSTRY LOW RISK WASTE
LANDFILLS
Section
817.401 Scope and Applicability
817.402 Facility Location
817.403 Design Period
817.404 Foundation and Mass Stability Analysis
817.405 Foundation Construction
817.406 Liner Systems
817.407 Leachate Drainage System
817.408 Leachate Collection System
817.409 Leachate Treatment and Disposal System
817.410 Final Cover System
817.411 Hydrogeologic Site Investigations
817.412 Plugging and Sealing of Drill Holes
817.413 Groundwater Impact Assessment
817.414 Design, Construction and Operation of Groundwater Monitoring Systems
817.415 Groundwater Monitoring Programs
817.416 Groundwater Quality Standards
817.417 Waste Placement
817.418 Final Slope and Stabilization
817.419 Load Checking
8
SUBPART E: CONSTRUCTION QUALITY ASSURANCE PROGRAMS
Section
817.501 Scope and Applicability
Section
817.Appendix A Organic Chemical Constituents List
AUTHORITY: Implementing Sections 5, 21, 21.1, 22, 22.17, 28.1, and authorized by Section 27 of the
Environmental Protection Act (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1991, ch. 111½, pars. 1005, 1021, 1021.1, 1022, 1022.17, 1028.1
and 1027 [415 ILCS 5/5, 5/21, 5/21.1, 5/22, 5/22.17, 5/28.1, and 5/27
]).
SOURCE: Adopted in R90-26(A) at 18 Ill. Reg. 12411, effective August 1, 1994; amended in R90-26(B) at 18
Ill. Reg. 14370, effective September 13, 1994; amended in R96-3 at 21 Ill. Reg. _________, effective
______________________ .
Section 817.309
Facility Location
a)
No part of a unit shall be located within a setback zone established pursuant to Section 14.2 or
14.3 of the Act.
b)
No part of a unit shall be located within the recharge zone or within 366 meters (1200 feet),
vertically or horizontally, of that portion of a stratigraphic unit containing Class I or Class III
groundwater as defined at 35 Ill. Adm. Code 620, unless
:
1)
Tthere is a stratum between the bottom of the waste disposal unit and the top of the
Class I or Class III groundwater that meets the following minimum requirements:
A)1)
The stratum has a minimum thickness of 15.2 meters (50 feet);
B)2) The maximum hydraulic conductivity in both the horizontal and vertical
directions is no more than 1 x 10
-7
centimeters per second, as determined by in
situ borehole or equivalent tests;
C)3)
There is no indication of continuous sand or silt seams, faults, fractures or
cracks within the stratum that may provide paths parts for migration; and
D)4)
Age dating of extracted water samples from both the aquifer and the stratum
indicates that the time of travel for water percolating downward through the
relatively impermeable stratum is no faster than 15.2 meters (50 feet) in 100
years.; or
2)
The owner or operator of the unit has demonstrated to the Agency, through the use of a
site-specific groundwater model developed and evaluated by a qualified geologist, or
through other appropriate means prepared by a qualified geologist, such as historical
knowledge of local conditions or regional geological and
hydrogeological data, that
9
ii)
Existence of deed restrictions or other legal mechanisms for imposing
a restriction on land use; and
iii)
The nature of an existing use of the groundwater.
B)
In performing groundwater modeling, the owner or operator shall:
i)
Estimate the amount of seepage from the unit during operations
assuming that the actual design standards for the unit apply;
ii)
Determine the concentration of constituents in the leachate from actual
leachate samples from the waste or similar waste, or laboratory-
derived extracts;
iii)
Collect information to develop the site-specific groundwater model
(e.g., hydraulic conductivity, gradients, hydrogeology, stratigraphy);
iv)
Develop a conceptual groundwater flow model of the site to determine
the soil units through which leachate may migrate;
v)
If leachate from the unit is expected to contain organic constituents in
excess of the MALCs for beneficial usable waste, determine the
organic carbon content for soil units through which the leachate
constituents may migrate; and
vi)
Determine the retardation factor for constituents of interest based on
traditional hydrogeological methods.
c)
Subsection (b) shall not apply to units that accept only beneficially u
seable waste.
d)
A facility located within 152 meters (500 feet) of the right of way of a township or county road
or State or interstate highway shall have its operations screened from view by a barrier of natural
objects, fences, barricades or plants no less than 2.44 meters (8 feet) in height.
e)
No part of a unit shall be located closer than 152 meters (500 feet) from an occupied dwelling,
school, or hospital that was occupied on the date when the operator first applied for a permit to
develop the unit or the facility containing the unit, unless the owner of such dwelling, school, or
hospital provides permission to the operator, in writing, for a closer distance.
(Source: Amended at 21 Ill. Reg. ______________, effective __________________.
IT IS SO ORDERED.
I, Dorothy M. Gunn, Clerk of the Illinois Pollution Control Board, hereby certify that the above opinion