ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
July 12,
1979
CITY OF EFFINGHAM, HARRY WARD, COLLINS,
)
INC., REALTORS, MARIE BLOENER, MR. AND
MRS.
LEONARD JENNINGS AND PAUL FEARDAY,
Petitioners,
v.
)
PCB 79-91
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY,
Respondent.
OPINION AND ORDER OF THE BOARD
(by Mr. Young):
This matter comes before the Board on
a Petition for
Variance filed on April
23,
1979,
by the City of Effingham,
Illinois and others seeking relief from Section 39 of the
Environmental Prot’~ctionAct and Rule 962 of the Pollution
Control Board’s Ru1e~ and Regulations,
Chapter
3:
Water
Pollution Regulations.
The petition requests the variance
to operate
a newly constructed sanitary sewer extension for
five buildings in the City of Effingham.
The variance is
necessary since the City’s present sewage treatment plant is
biologically overloaded.
No hearing was held in this matter;
hearing was properly waived
in the petition.
On June
7,
1979,
the Board allowed the late filing of a
recommendation
from
the
Environmental
Protection Agency that
the variance petition be denied.
Upon receipt of the adverse
Agency recommendation, the Petitioners,
in lieu of requesting
a hearing pursuant to Procedural Rule 406(b),
submitted a
Response to the Variance Recommendation
under Procedural Rule
406(a), which acknowledged
two
errors
in reporting the
Effingham sewage treatment plant’s discharge monitoring reports.
In addition,
the Petitioners submitted other documents
to
clarify the facts pertinent
to this variance proceeding.
After
rcviewinq the Petitioners’
response,
the Agency filed an Amended
Variance
Recommendation
on
June
22,
1979,
advising
the
Board
that
the
information
as
amended
was
sufficient
to
warrant
a
favorable
recommendation
for the Petitioners’
request for relief.
35—59
—2—
According to th?se pleadings read
as
a whole, the Petitioners
have requested relief
so that five establishments near the
Henrietta-Fayette Street intersection
in Effingham may discharge
their sewage to a recently constructed sewer extension of the
Effinyharn sewer system.
The buildings include:
a gasoline
service station, 1200
W. Fayette;
a machine shop, 1204 W.
Fayette;
a complex at 101 S. Henrietta providing space for a
T.V. and appliance store,
an electronic service shop,
a
finance company and two apartments;
a real estate office,
111
S.
Henrietta;
and a complex
at 201,
203 and 205 5. Henrietta
housing a sports supply store, a furniture store, and a vacant
business unit.
While
the sewer extension was originally con-
structed to accept an average daily flow of
2700 gallons, the
combined flow of these establishments
is calculated to be
approximately 13 P.E.
or 1300 gallons per day.
(Pet.
1,
2;
Pet. Resp.
3).
Under current conditions,
the health department records
indicate that four of the five buildings discharge
to septic
tanks which are deemed inadequate by approved standards of
the
1974 Illinois Private Sewage Licensing Act and Code
(Ill.
Rev.
Stat.,
1977,
Ch.
111 1/2,
par.
116.301 et seq.).
The fifth
structure,
the gasoline service station, was cut off from City
sewer service when
its connection was destroyed during
a road
construction project.
According to Michael F. Blair, Director
of Environmental H~alth of the Effingham County Health Depart—
ment,
the treatment systems identified in this petition have
been discharging inacequately treated sewage thus creating a
detriment
to public health.
(Pet.
2,
3, Exh.
C; Pet. Resp.
4).
Review of the record indicates that while the Effingham
treatment facility is on restricted status, the City of Effingham
has undertaken measures
to expand and upgrade its treatment
facility under federal construction grants program.
Upon last
review,
in American Development Corporation, PCB 77-296,
29 PCB
431
(March
30,
1978),
the City of Effingham had completed the
Step
I facilities planning and the Step
II design plans, but
Step III construction grants were delayed due
to lack of available
federal funds.
Currently,
the City of Effingham has received
the necessary Step III grants monies for construction of a
sewage treatment plant and an excess flow facility.
Expected
completion dates
for each project are October 12, 1980,
and
July
1,
1981, respectively.
(Pet.
4, Exh.
D;
Pet. Resp.
1,
2;
Exh.
E).
Until completion of this construction program,
the City
of Effinqham must rely on a sewage treatment plant which has
been on restricted status since February 20,
1976.
The current
Effingham treatment plant consists of a trickling filter facility
with a permitted
loading capacity of 1.75 MGD.
On June
20, 1977,
the City was issued
an NPDES permit which required that the
effluent concentrations not exceed 10 mg/l BOD5 and
12 mg/i
60
—3—
suspended solids, but an Enforcement Schedule Compliance Letter,
accompanying
the permit, allows 40/60 BOD/SS on a 30-day average
and 60/90 BOD/SS on
a 7-day average.
According
to discharge
monitoring reports, the Effingham facility
is currently meeting
the revised limitations of its NPDES permit despite periodic
daily flow rates well
in excess of its 1.75
NGD
design capacity.
(Rec.
2,
3).
The Agency’s Variance Recommendation
as amended stated that
the
sewer extension would discharge to the recently enlarged
Robbin Hill Lift Station in Effingham, which should be able to
accept a small increment of 1300 GPD without causing or
contributing
to sewer problems downstream from the new extension.
It is the Agency’s belief that in light of the health problems
which will persist until the Petitioners are properly connected
to the Effinqham sanitary sewer,
the request for relief should
be granted.
(Am.
Rec.
3).
In view of the record before us, the Board finds that the
Petitioners would suffer an arbitrary and unreasonable hardship
if required to improve their systems to current Department of
Public Health standards until the City of Effingham is relieved
of its restrictive status.
The Petitioners will thereby be
granted
a variance from Rule 962(a)
of Chapter
3
to allow
operation of the newly constructed sanitary sewer extension for
the five buildings named
in this petition.
The Board will, how-
ever,
dismiss the petition for relief from Section
39 of the
Act;
a variance from the aforementioned rule provides sufficient
relief for issuance of the necessary operating permit.
This Opinion constitutes the Board’s
findings of fact and
conclusions of law in this matter.
ORDER
1.
The Petitioners, City of Effingham, Harry Ward, Collins,
Inc., Realtors,
Marie Bloemer, Mr. and Mrs. Leonard Jennings and
Paul Fearday,
are hereby granted a variance from Rule
962(a) of
Chapter
3:
Water Pollution Regulations,
to connect the buildings
denominated in the petition and the Board Opinion to the Fayette
Avenue sewer extension which discharges into the Effingham sewer
system.
2.
The Petition for Variance from Section
39 of the
Environmental Protection Act is hereby dismissed.
3.
Within forty-five
(45) days of the date of this Order,
each of the Petitioners shall submit to the Manager, Variance
Section, Division of Water Pollution Control,
Illinois Environ-
mental Protection Agency,
2200 Churchill Road,
Springfield,
Illinois,
62706,
a~iexecuted Certification of Acceptance and
Agreement to be boinc~to all terms and conditions of the variance.
35—61
—4—
The forty-five day period herein shall be stayed during judicial
review of this variance pursuant
to Section 41 of the Environ-
mental Protection Act.
The form of said certification shall be
as follows:
CERTIFICATION
I,
(We)
,
____________________________
having read
the Order of the Pollution Control Board
in PCB
79-91,
understand and accept the said Order, realizing
that
such acceptance renders
all terms and conditions thereto
binding and enforceable.
SIGNED
TITLE
DATE
IT IS SO ORDERED.
I, Christan
L. Moffett, Clerk of the Illinois Pollution
Control Board, hereJ~certify the above
pinion and Order were
adopted on ~he
!I~’
‘
day of
_______________,
1979,
by
a vote of
~S’..O
Christan L. Moff~
Clerk
Illinois Pollution
ontrol Board
35—62