ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
September 3,
1981
CITY OF QUINCY,
)
)
Petitioner,
v.
)
PCB 81—30
ILLINOIS ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
)
AGENCY,
)
Respondent.
OPINION AND ORDER OF THE
BOARD
(by J
.
D. Dumel le):
On February 26, 1981 the City of Quincy (Quincy)
filed
a petition for variance from Rules 403,
404(a), and 408(a)
of Chapter
3:
Water Pollution to allow the discharge of water
treatment sludges from its Outlet 002 and to allow discharge
to the Mississippi River of infiltrated sand present
in
the
raw water suction well.
Such relief
is an extension of that
granted by the Board on December 13,
1979 in PCB 79—202
(37
PCB 25).
That variance expired March 1,
1981.
The present
variance request seeks to have the expiration date extended
to March
1, 1983.
Hearing was properly waived and none was
held.
On May 28,
1981 the Illinois Environmental Protection
Agency
(Agency)
filed a recommendation that the variance be
granted subject to certain conditions.
Quincy has been operating a water treatment sludge
disposal
system pursuant to NPDES Permit No. IL0037591 and the Board
variance
(PCB 79-202).
The variance allowed sludge waste
consisting of sand, alum,
lime,
and silt to be discharged
without
treatment through Outlet 002 into the Mississippi River.
The water treatment plant
(WTP)
serving Quincy is located
on the east shore of the Mississippi at Front and Maine Streets.
Mississippi
River water is taken in through two 36—inch intake
lines into
a screened intake well.
This water is then treated,
resulting in an accumulation of sludge.
Quincy has spent over
$1.4 million to achieve compliance with NPDES standards for
discharge, hut has experienced difficulty with sludge removal
from the raw water settling basin.
This is due to excessive
amounts of sand
(7 to
9 feet deep),
rocks, silt and floating
debris which results in extreme difficulty in pumping through the
sludge transfer pumps.
Under the PCB 79—202 compliance schedule,
these pumps were timely replaced by open impeller pumps.
However, attempts to withdraw and pump large quantities of
sand
on a daily basis from the primary settling basin have
—2—
been perodically unsuccessful and have resulted in blockages
and extreme abrasive wear on the impellers.
This noticeably
reduced the carrying capacity of the sludge transfer pipeline.
In its petition Quincy has requested to be allowed to pump
the sand from the raw water suction well back to the Mississippi
via its outfall.
However, on March 27,
1981 Quincy applied for a
construction permit for a submersible pump to remove that sand.
On May 4,
1981 the Agency issued the permit.
As
a result,
that
sand will be discharged back to the Mississippi directly
and
such
variance relief for the outfall
is no longer necessary.
Instead,
the solids will be gravity settled, the supernatant will be
recycled to the intake, and the solids removed to the city
landfill.
As indicated in Ex.
6 of the petition, six months will
be needed to install this equipment
(See Answer
22).
This,
however, will not entirely solve Quincy’s difficulties.
Since the sludge disposal system became operational
in May
of 1979, approximately 400,000 cubic yards of water treatment
sludge have been stored.
This
has completely filled one of
the
two sludge holding beds which were to be used for this purpose.
Quincy has requested grant funding for an estimated $800,000
needed for purchase of dewatering and land application equipment
that will be required to remove the water treatment and wastewater
sludges from the holding basins to assure adequate future storage
capacity.
This grant application is currently under review.
tinder present operations, both lime and alum sludges are
generated.
Apparently, there is no difficulty with transporting
the lime sludge to the second water treatment basin,
and this
is currently being done.
At present rates the second basin
can accept the lime sludge for 1.9 years prior to its reaching
capacity.
The alum sludge cannot be handled in
the
same
manner for two reasons:
first,
the sand problem prevents
the transport of that sludge; and second,
even
if
it could
be transported, mixing of the alum and lime sludges would. make
them unsuitable for land application.
Thus,
the hoped for
ultimate disposal would be precluded.
It therefore appears that variance is needed to allow
the discharge of sand, alum, and silt for a six month period
and that an eighteen month variance
is needed for the discharge
of alum and silt.
By the end of this period, the lime sludge
should be susceptible to land application and the alum sludge
could be dewatered and landfilled.
Since there is no apparent reason why these improvements
cannot proceed simultaneously, the Board will grant variance
for final compliance until March
1,
1983.
The Board finds that the environmental impact should
be
small,
given the large dilution provided by the Mississippi.
However, as the Agency notes, spreading the discharges over
43—288
—3—
a minimum of seven days in relatively equal proportions rather
than on one or two days should minimize the impact on
the
River.
considering the minimal
impact on the environment,
the
absence of a feasible alternative solution,
and the past
good faith efforts at compliance, the Board finds that denial of
variance would cause an arbitrary and unreasonable hardship.
This Opinion constitutes the Board’s findings of fact
and
conclusions of law in this matter.
ORDER
1.
It is hereby ordered that the City of Quincy be granted
a variance from Rules 403,
404(a),
408(a) and Rule 914 of
Chapter 3:
Water
Pollution Regulations until March
1,
1~)133,
subject to the following conditions:
a.
Quincy shall provide a compliance schedule consistent
with information already contained in its petition to
the Agency within 60 days of the date of this Order;
b.
Quincy shall discharge the sludge from outfall 002
over a minimum of seven days in equal proportions
to
reduce the impact of the load on the Mississippi River;
c.
Quincy shall submit all plans and specifications
for the sludge dewatering and handling facilities and
apply for all necessary permits from the Agency wit~in
180 days of the date of this Order;
d.
Quincy shall re—apply for its NPDES Permit within
60 days of the date of this Order; and
e.
Within 45 days of this Order, Quincy shall execute
and forward
to the Illinois Environmental Protection
Agency,
PWS Enforcement Programs and DWPC, Compliance
Assurance Section, 2200 Churchill Road,
Springfield,
Illinois 62706,
two copies of certificates of
acceptance and agreement to he bound to all terms and
conditions of this variance.
This 45-day period shall
he held in abeyance for any period this matter
is
beinj~
appealed. The form of the certificate shall he as
follows:
43—289
—4—
CERTIFICATION
I,
(We) __________________________________
,
having
read the order of the Illinois Pollution Control Board in
PC3
81—30,
dated
___________,
understand and accept the said order,
realizing that such acceptance renders all terms and conditions
thereto binding and enforceable.
Petftioner
By:
_____________________
Title
Date
-.
____________
____
2.
The Agency is hereby granted authority to issue
the
NPDES
Permit for discharge from Outfall 002 in a manner consistent
with the terms of this Order.
IT IS SO ORDERED.
I, Christan
L. Moffett, Clerk of the Illinois Pollution
Control Board, hereby certify that the above Opinion and Order
was adopted on the ~
day of
___________
~,
1981 by
avoteof
~•(
.
I
Christan
L. Moffett, clerk
Illinois Pollution Control Road
43—290