ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD

April

22,

1976

PRAYER GARDEN CHURCH OF

GOD IN CHRIST,

Petitioner,

V.

)

PCB 76—37

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY,

Respondent.

OPINION AND ORDER OF THE BOARD

(by Mr.

Zeitlin):

Petitioner Prayer Garden Church of God

in Christ

(Prayer Garden

Church)

originally

filed a Petition for Variance on January 11,

1976,

The Board, however, found that Petition inadequate for failure

to

show certain facts, and dismissed it in an Order entered January 12,

1976.

Prayer Garden Church of God in Christ

v.

EPA, PCB 76-9

(Jan.

12, 1976).

The Petition in the instant case was

filed with the Board on

February

10,

1976, correcting the deficiencies

in the earlier one.

The Environmental Protection Agency

(Agency) thereafter filed its

Recommendation on March

8,

1976.

No hearing was held in this matter.

The subject of this case is a new church building which the

Prayer Garden Church has constructed at 2813-20th Street in North

Chicago,

Illinois.

The

new

200—seat facility will replace the

present rented facilities at 711 McAlister Street, Waukegan, where

the church has been housed during its five years of existence.

As

a result of increased membership,

the present facility is inadequate.

However, before the new church building can be used, the Prayer Garden

Church must obtain a Variance from the Board~s “sewer ban” Order in

League of Women Voters

v.

North Shore Sanitary District, PCB 70-7,

-12,

—13,

~-l4 (1971),

in order

to connect the sanita~facilities.

The new facility was scheduled for completion on April

1,

1976

and will,

in addition to

its

200-seat capacity, contain a small

kitchen facility.

The Petition estimates that the kitchen facilities

will generate approximately 225 gallons of wastewater load per week,

in addition to an estimated load of three gallons per person using

the facilities.

Although it

is not clear how many persons will be

using the church facility on other than Sundays, we assume from the

pleadings that no great loads will be generated on weekdays.

The

Agency’s Recommendation points out that most of those using the new

church building will be from the area affected by

the

League of

Women Voters sewer ban, and that the church building will discharge

to adequate sewers tributary

to

NSSD’s North Chicago treatment plant.

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—

259

---

—2—

As of March

1,

1976,

a portion of the flows from the North

Chicago treatment plant had been diverted for testing to NSSD’s

new Gurnee treatment plant.

The Agency’s Recommendation stated

that all flows from the North Chicago treatment plant, which had

disch~ed

to Lake Michigan, were to be diverted to Gurnee by

approximately March 15,

1976.

In light of those facts we agree with the Agency that even

though the Prayer Garden Church has not demonstrated a great hard-

ship in the event this Variance were denied, that hardship must

be weighed against minimal

or nonexistent environmental harm which

might result from

a grant of the Variance.

That being the case,

we shall grant the Variance.

This Opinion constitutes the findings of fact and conclusions

of law of the Board in this matter.

ORDER

IT IS THE ORDER OF THE POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD that Petitioner

Prayer Garden Church of God

in Christ be granted a Variance from

the Board’s Order

in League of Women Voters

v.

North Shore Sanitary

District,

PCB 70—7,

-12,

-13,

—14,

to allow a sanitary sewer connection

for a church located at 2813

-

20th Street, North Chicago,

Illinois.

I, Christan L. Moffett,

Clerk of the Illinois Pollution

Control Board, her~I~certify the above Opinion and Order we e

adopted on the

~i~”

day of

__________,

1976,

by a vote of

-

Q~s~4.Moe&!~

-

Illinois Pollution C

ol Board

21