ILLINOIS

POLLUTION

CONTROL

BOARD

August

5, 1976

LEONARD C. TRIEM,

d/b/a

TRIEM

INDUSTRIAL BUIlDING OPERATIONS,

Petitioner,

v.

)

PCB 76—32

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY,

Respondent.

OPINION AND ORDER OF THE BOARD

(by Mr.

Zeitlin):

The original Petition for Variance in this matter was filed

on February

5, 1976 by Leonard C. Triem, doing business as Triem

Industrial Building Operations

(hereinafter

“Triem”), seeking

relief

from the permit requirement for solid waste management sites

in

Rule 202(b) of Chapter

7: Solid Waste, of the Board’s Rules and

Regulations.

Pursuant to an Interim Order of the Board entered on

February 11,

1976, finding the original Petition inadequate, an

Amended Petition was filed on March 29,

1976, dropping the Variance

request with regard to Rule 202(b), and seeking instead relief from

the final cover requirement of Rule 305(c)

of Chapter

7.

An Agency

Recommendation was filed on June

14, 1976,

to which Triem responded

on July 20,

1976.

No hearing was held in this matter.

Triern has operated a sanitary landfill site in southern Cook

County,

Illinois since 1947.

Prior to Triem’s purchase of the site

it had been used for refuse dumping by approximately 20 surrounding

communities since 1929.

Petitioner describes the site

(as

of

1947)

as a clay hole 20

to 30 feet deep surrounded by a solid clay wall

with an additional clay berm 15 feet high added by Triem.

Now 95

full, operations on the site are confined to a trench 30 feet deep

and measuring 100 feet by 600 feet.

Petitioner states that there are some areas

of the site which

have been filled, but do not have sufficient final cover.

Petitioner

alleges that

it will take about 20 months to apply approximately

90,000 cubic yards of clay cover material,

thus bringing the site

up to final grade in conformity with all applicable cover require-

ments.

The final grade and cover should be such that surface water

will not infiltrate into the site, but will run off to adjacent

natural drainage without contacting the incorporated refuse.

The

final cover will be seeded to avert runoff problems.

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Triem also expressed a complete willingness to comply with

all closure requirements, and an intent to assure that the site

will not cause environmental damage.

Triem states that it will

perform groundwater monitoring downgrade from the site, despite

the fact that the site’s clay lining should prevent leachate flows.

Triem will also install additional methane burners

to complement

the existing one.

Based on the above factors, Triem alleges that the grant of

the requested Variance would not result in any environmental harm.

The Agency’s Recommendation agrees and states that,

“because of

the composition of the underlying soil,

the possibility of signifi-

cant groundwater pollution from leachate is small.”

Rec. at

2.

Despite its conclusions as to lack of environmental harm,

however, the Agency’s Recommendation questions whether Triem has

shown sufficient hardship to warrant the grant of

a Variance.

The

Agency notes that Petitioner has another solid waste management

site

in Beecher, Illinois,

from which cover material is now being

hauled to the site in issue

here, and questions whether the Beecher

site could be used for all of Petitioner’s operations while the site

in issue here

is closed and all required cover added.

Triem’s

response to the Agency Recommendation adequately covers this issue

by noting that in the event of such a diversion,

all cover material

at the Beecher site would be required there by virtue of the increased

operations and consequent need for additional cover.

Nor do we feel that the hardship in this case

is self-imposed.

The Amended Petition shows that Petitioner’s site was operated

as

an open dump for many years before acquisition by Petitioner,

resulting

in

a great need for cover material.

Petitioner has shown that during

the last year approximately 183,000 cubic yards of cover material

has been applied to the site, indicating

a good faith attempt to

achieve compliance.

We feel that a Variance here will allow Petitioner

to continue

those efforts, and will provide the most expeditious means toward

final, complete and proper closure of the site.

Triem has consented

to the monitoring-well condition

in the Agency Recommendation, which

should provide further assurance that there will be no environmental

harm.

This Opinion constitutes the findings of fact and conclusions

of law of the Board

in

this matter.

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ORDER

IT

IS THE ORDER OF THE POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD that Petitioner

Leonard

C.

Triem,

d/b/a

Triem

Industrial

Building

Operations,

be

granted a Variance for one year from the date of this Order from

Rule 305(c)

of Chapter

7: Solid Waste,

subject to the following

conditions:

1.

A water monitoring well built conforming to

Illinois Environmental Protection Agency specifications

shall be installed down—gradient of Petitioner’s solid

waste management site.

2.

Petitioner shall, within twenty—eight

(28) days

of the date of this Order,

execute and forward to the

Environmental Protection Agency, Control Program Coordinator,

2200 Churchill Road, Springfield, Illinois 62706,

a

Certificate of Acceptance in the following form:

I,

(We), ____________________________ having read

the Order of the Illinois Pollution Control Board in

case No. PCB 76-32, understand and accept said Order,

realizing that such acceptance renders all terms and

conditions thereto binding and enforceable.

SIGNED

TITLE

DATE

Mr.

James

Young

dissented.

I,

Christan

L.

Moffett,

Clerk

of

the

Illinois

Pollution

Control Board, h rèby certify the ab ye Opinion

and Order we e1

adopted on the

‘~

day of

_________,

1976,

by a vote of

(

Christan

L. Moffett/,çr~rk

Illinois Pollution ~e~rol

Board

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