Petitioner,

v.

)

PCB 75-150

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY,

Respondent.

OPINION AND ORDER OF THE BOARD

(by Mr. Zeitlin):

This

case comes before the Pollution Control Board

(Board)

on a

Petition for Variance filed by the Iowa-Illinois Gas and Electric

Company

(Iowa-Illinois)

on April

7,

1975.

An Environmental Protec-

tion Agency

(Agency)

Recommendation was received by the Board

on

June 23,

1975.

No hearing was held in this matter,

Iowa-Illinois,

an Illinois Corporation, generates electric

energy for use in both the Illinois and Iowa Quad-Cities areas,

including the cities of Rock Island, Moline, and East Moline,

in

Illinois,

and Davenport, Bettendorf,

Iowa City and Fort

Dodge,

in

Iowa,

Iowa—Illinois also serves additional nearby areas

in

Iowa

and

Illinois.

Petitioner~sgeneration

sources

for this load

include

the

Quad-Cities nuclear station

(Cbrdova,Illinois), Riverside

Generating

Station

(Bettendorf,

Iowa), and facilities at Coralville,

Iowa and

Moline Generating Station in Illinois,

In addition to

the above

units, Iowa~Illinoishas interconnection agreements with

other

utilities which are utilized when necessary.

The Petition in this matter concerns several of the units located

at Petitioner~sMoline Generating Station,

Those units for which this

Variance is requested are those units at Moline which utilize distillate

oil as a fuel.

Because of the economics of fuel utilization,

those units

are

normally utilized

only after the nuclear capacity at

Quad—Cities,

the coal-fired capacity

at

Riverside,

the natural gas-fired facilities

at

Riverside, Coralville,

and Moline,

and the energy available through

interconnections

to

other utilities have been utilized.

In essence,

units

in

issue here are peaking units, used when other sources

maintain peak and reserve capabilities;

they are primarily utilized

over a sixteen—week summer peaking period, in June,

July, August and

September.

In

additic5n, these units are used to fulfill reserve

obligations of Iowa-Illinois in relation to its interconnections with

other utilities.

Finally, these units are used as back-up capacity

for periods when other facilities are out of operation for maintenance

or because of breakdowns.

17—427

---

(2)

The oil—fired generating facilities at Moline represent 144

megawatts of generating capacity, and utilize No.

2 distillate

oil.

The Moline Station has a maximum utilization rate

of

15,000 gallons

per hour,

or 360,000 gallons per day,

of oil,

Iowa-Illinois has

approximately 5.6 million gallons of such oil in

storage to

provide

for usage at the Moline Station.

This constitutes about

a fifteen-

day reserve supply.

These oil supplies

contain approximately 0.5

sulfur by weight,

which equate

to a flue gas discharge of approximately 0.52

(according

to the Petitioner~s

figures)

or 0.56

(according to the Agency) pounds

of sulfur dioxide emitted per million BTU5 of heat input.

The appli’~

cable standard, under Board Rule 204

(c) (2) (B)

of Chapter

2:

Air

Pollution, of the Board!s Rules and Regulations,

is 0,3 pounds of

sulfur dioxide emissions per million BTU of heat input, when distillate

fuel oil is burned,

That standard is applicable after May 30,

1975,

under the provisions of Rule 204 (h) (2).

Petitioner~scompliance plan for Rule 204

(e) (2) (B)

is the use

of low sulfur oil,

Petitioner has requested

a Variance for one year

to allow the usage of its existing 5.6 milliOn gallon reserve of

0.~5 sulfur oil.

Alternatively, Petitioner asks that its Variance

extend until such time as the 5.6 million gallon reserve has been

exhausted,

However, Petitioner also notes

(at page

9 of the Petition)

that in the course of anticipated operations,

it would expect to burn

the 5.6 million gallon reserve on or before September 30,

1975.

For

that reason, the Agency in its Recommendation asked that the

Variance be granted only until October

1,

1975,

At the time Iowa-Illinois filed its Variance Petition in this

matter,

there was some question as to the availability of low sulfur

oil under Federal Energy Administration Regulations.

Iowa-Illinois

noted that a conversion to low sulfux.. oil would be

a••.llowed under

proposed FEA Regulations, and also that it iad requested an exception

from the existing FEA Regulations, which prohibited

such conversion.

Petitioner does

state that, once conversion

is allowed by FEA,

it will

have available the necessary sources of low sulfur oil,

The Agency Recommendation points out that the FEA has taken

regulatory action since the filing of the Iowa~IllinoisVariance

Petition,

The Board may take official notice of that action,

contained in Volume

40 of the Federal Register, published on Friday,

April

11,

1975.

The Board notes that Amendments there published to

10 CFR § 215 now allow the conversion to petroleum products having a

lower specified sulfur content by weight with

30 days notice to the

FEA,

As a result,

the Board finds that Iowa-~Il1inoisis now legally

entitled to convert to sulfur oil, which is commercially available.

The Board also finds that Petitioner has adequately demonstrated

the

hardship which would result were this Variance not granted.

Although many of the hardships described

by Petitioner have been

mooted by the FEA regulatory action,

insofar as Iowa—Illinois would

be able to burn low sulfur oil even in the absence of a Variance,

---

—3—

there nonetheless remains sufficient hardship to allow a

grant here,

The Board sees no reason to require that Petitioner

dispose of those quantities of oil having a high sulfur

content

which were,

under the prior FEA regulatory scheme,

the only

types of oil available.

Petitioner~sclaimed hardship

cannot

be seen as self imposed;

in a practical sense, Iowa-Illinois

had no choice but to acquire the present

stocks of high-sulfur

oil.

According to Petitioner, load

factors demanded the reserve

capacity,

and

no other oil was available

to Petitioner under

federal law.

We shall

allow

Iowa-Illinois to exhaust its

existing supplies while working toward compliance with low

sulfur oil.

Turning

now to

the recent United States Supreme Court

decision of Train v. N,R,D,C,,

44 USLW 4467 ~(U.S.,April 16,

1975),

the Board finds that the criteria there applied to the grant of

Variances will not prevent such a grant here.

In its

Recommendation the Agency cited 1973 and 1974 air quality data

indicating that the federal ambient air quality standards have

not been violated.

Maximum twenty—four hour concentrations

of sulfur dioxide, measured at the Rock Island County Building,

approximately

3 miles from Iowa—Illinois Generating Plant, were

.057 ppm and

.101 ppm for 1973 and 1974, respectively.

The

second highest maximum twenty—four hour concentration for 1974

was

.069 ppm,

Annual concentrations for 1973 and 1974 were

,0ll ppm, and .018 ppm, respectively.

(The annual standard

for SO2 is

0.03 ppm, and the twenty—four hour standard is

0.14 ppm, not to be exceeded more than once per year,)

The

Board notes with some apprehension that these figures may

indicate an increase in sulfur dioxide loading in the area

affected by this Variance, but~does not find that these

figures provide evidence indicating that the Variance must

be denied.

The figures show compliance with the federal

ambient air quality standards,

for both 1973 and 1974.

Petitioners neither cause nor contribute to any violations

of those standards.

The facts being thus,

the prohibition

in the Train case is inapplicable.

In summary, the Board agrees with the Agency that a

Variance is warranted in this situation.

We further agree,

however, that Petitioner has not shown any reason why the

Variance should extend beyond October

1,

1975, particularly

in

light of the recent FEA Regulatory Order making a conversion

to low sulfur oil possible.

Taking into account the fact

that Section 36(a)

of the Environmental Protection Act

requires a performance bond to assure completion of the work

covered by the Variance,

where

the hardship complained of

consists

solely of the need

for a reasonable

delay to correct

a violation of Board Regulations,

the Board feels that such

assurance

is not necessary

here,

Should,

for some

reason,

any

high sulfur

oil remain in Petitioner~sreserves

after

October

1,

1975, either further Variance proceedings, or

Enforcement proceedings, will then be in order.

It is

17—429

---

stocks of high sulfur oil.

This Opinion constitutes the findings of fact and

ORDER

It is the Order of the Pollution Control Board that Petitioner

Iowa—Illinois Gas and Electric Company be granted

a Variance

from the provisions

of Rule 204(c) (2) (B)

of Chapter

2:

Air

Pollution,

of the Board’s Rules

and Regulations,

to allow

the usage of existing stocks of high sulfur oil in its oil-

fired units at the Moline, Illinois, Generating Station.

This Variance shall run until October

1,

1975,

or until all

existing stocks of such high sulfur oil have been exhausted,

whichever is sooner.

This Variance is subject to the following

conditions:

a)

Petitioner Iowa-Illinois Gas and Electric

Company shall submit bi-monthly progress reports, commencing

one month subsequent to the entry of this Order, detailing

the amounts of high sulfur oil remaining in stockage, and

the amounts of such oil utilized at the Moline Generating

Station, and progress made in the purchase and storage of

low sulfur distillate oil to achieve compliance as more

fully set out in the accompanying Opinion,

to:

Illinois Environmental Protection Agency

Division of Air Pollution Control

Control Program Coordinator

Springfield, Illinois

62706

Mr.

Dumelle

dissents.

I, Christan L. Moffett,

Clerk of the Illinois Pollution

Control Board, hereby ce tify the above Opinion and Order

were adopted on the

~day

of

,

1975 by

vote of

~

Christan L. Moffett

Illinois Pollution Control Board