ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
November
30, 1978
HEN HOUSE RESTAURANT,
Petitioner,
v.
)
PCB 78—185
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY,
Respondent.
OPINION AND ORDER OF THE BOARD
(by Mr. Young):
This matter comes before the Board on a Petition by
the Hen House Restaurant on July 14,
1978,
for a variance
for its wastewater treatment facility from the phosphorus
and ammonia nitrogen water quality standards of Rules
203(c)
and 203(f) of Chapter
3:
Water Pollution Regulations.
On September
13,
1978, Petitioner filed an Amended Petition
with the additional information requested by the August
3,
1978, Board Order.
On November
22,
1978, the Environmental
Protection Agency filed
its recommendation which supported
relief from the phosphorus requirements of Rule 203 (c)
but recommended that the variance from Rule 203(f) (ammonia
nitrogen) be dismissed because Petitioner was exempt from
the ammonia nitrogen requirements.
No hearing was held
in this matter; hearing was waived by the Petitioner.
Petitioner owns and operates
a wastewater treatment
facility in Pesotum,
Illinois,
serving the Hen House
Restaurant,
a gasoline service
station and a gift shop which
generates a hydraulic loading estimated at 3500 gallons per
clay.
According to the Amended Petition, Petitioner’s
wastewater treatment facility includes a grease trap for
the restaurant waste followed by separate septic tanks for
the restaurant and the gasoline station—gift shop wastewater.
The effluent from both septic tanks is combined in a
recirculation chamber, circulated through a sand filter and
finally disinfected before discharge to a grass
swale which
flows into the Hayes Branch via an unnamed road side ditch
(P.
1; Am.
P.
1,
2).
Since the Hayes Branch
is tributary to the Charleston
Reservoir,
Petitioner’s discharge
is subject to the Rule
203(c)
and 402 phosphorus standards of Chapter
3.
The Hen
House treatment facility would also be required to meet the
32—159
—2—
ammonia nitrogen requirements had not the Board provided
relief for small dischargers of ammonia nitrogen in R77—6,
our most recent revision of Chapter
3.
According to
Rule 402.1(a),
the Petitioner and other dischargers with
daily ammonia nitrogen loads of less than
60 pounds are
exempt from the ammonia nitrogen requirements
in Chapter
3 until after July
1,
1982.
Returning to the phosphorus requirements
in Chapter
3,
Rules
203(c)
and 402 prohibit any discharge from causing
or contributing to a violation of the 0.05 mg/l phosphorus
water quality standard in any lake or in any stream at the
point of entry into the lake.
In this case,
Petitioner
claims that compliance with the numerical
standards for
phosphorus would impose an unbearable and unnecessary
financial hardship.
To support this position,
the Hen
House Restaurant has evaluated land application and chemical
treatment as alternative methods of disposal.
The Petitioner
claims and the Agency does not dispute that use of either
alternative
is cost prohibitive
(P.
1).
The Board is familiar with the problems facing
municipal dischargers in meeting phosphorus
standards.
City of Hoopeston, P03 76-234,
24 PCB 441;
Southern Illinois
University
at Edwardsville, PCB 77-111,
25 PCB 775; Valley
Water Company, Inc., PCB 77-146,
25 PCB 289.
In those and other cases, the Agency and the Board
have recognized that
it is economically impractical for the
petitioners
to comply with the current phosphorus limitation
of Chapter
3.
In addition, the Agency has petitioned the
Board
in regulatory proposal R76-l for appropriate amend-
ments to the phosphorus effluent and water quality standards
of the Water Pollution Regulations.
The Board finds that Petitioner would suffer an
arbitrary and unreasonable hardship if required to meet the
existing 0.05 mg/i
standard.
Petitioner will be granted a
variance from Rules
203(c)
and 402 for five years or until
the Board adopts a regulation change under R76-1 whichever
occurs first.
The Board will direct the Agency to issue a new NPDES
permit consistent with this Order pursuant to Rule 914 of
Chapter
3 and to include interim effluent limitations as
may be reasonably be achieved through the application of
best practicable operation and maintenance practices in
the existing facilities.
32—160
—3—
This Opinion constitutes the Board’s findings of
fact and conclusions of
law in this matter.
ORDER
1.
The Hen House Restaurant
is granted
a variance
for the operation of its wastewater treatment plant from
Rules 203(c)
and 402 of Chapter
3:
V’ater Pollution Rules
and Regulations regarding phosphorus until November
30,
1983, subject
to the following condition:
a)
This variance
will
earlier terminate
upon adoption by the Board of any
modification of the existing phosphorus
water quality standards and effluent
limitations and the Petitioner shall
comply with such revised regulations
when adopted by the Board.
2.
Petitioner, within
30 days of the date of this
Order,
shall request
from the Agency an NPDES permit which
incorporates all conditions of
the
variance set forth herein.
3.
The Agency, pursuant to Rule
914
of Chapter
3,
shall issue a new NPDES permit consistent with the conditions
set forth in this Order including such interim effluent
limitations as may reasonably be achieved through the appli-
cation of best practicable operation and maintenance practices
in the existing facilities.
4.
Within forty—five
(45)
days of the date of this
Order, the Petitioner shall submit to the Manager, Variance
Section, Division of Water Pollution Control, Illinois
Environmental Protection Agency,
2200 Churchill Road,
Springfield,
Illinois,
62706,
an executed Certification of
Acceptance and Agreement to be hound
to all terms and condi-
tions
of the variance.
The forty-five day period herein
shall be suspended during judicial review of this variance
pursuant to Section
31 of the Environmental Protection ~ct.
The form of said certification shall be as follows:
CERTIFICATION
I,
(We), ________________________
having read
the Order of the Pollution Control Board in PCB
78-185, understand and accept said Order, realizing
that such acceptance renders all terms and condi-
tions thereto binding and enforceable.
SIGNED
TITLE
32-161
DATE
—4—
IT IS SO ORDERED.
I, Christan
L. Moffett, Clerk of the Illinois Pollution
Control Board,
hereby certify the ahoy
Opinion and Order were
adopted ~n the
~
day of
~
,
1978 by a
vote of
~*‘O
Christan L.
Moffe
lerk
Illinois Pollution
trol Board
32— 162