RECEIVED
CL~K~S
OFFICE
JAN
17 2002
BEFORE THE ILLINOIS POLLUTION
CONTROL
~
ILUNOIS
Pollution Control Board
IN THE
MATTER OF:
PROPOSED AMENDMENTS TO
AMMONIA NITROGEN STANDARDS
35
III.
Adm. Code
)
)
R02/7
NOTICE
OF FILING
TO:
Illinois Environmental Protection Agency
1021 North Grand Avenue East
P.O. Box 19276
Springfield,
IL
62794-9276
Office ofthe Attorney General
Division Chief ofEnvironmental Enforcement
188 West Randolph Street
Chicago, IL
60610
Division ofLegal Counsel
Illinois Environmental Protection Agency
1021 North Grand Avenue East
P.O. Box
19276
Springfield, IL
62794-9276
PLEASE
TAKE NOTICE
today that I have filed with the Clerk ofthe Illinois Pollution
Control Board the Proposed Rule and Statement ofReasons and Motion to Waive Signature
Requirement, a copy
ofwhich is herewith served upon
you.
Dated:
January
17, 2002
Roy M. Harsch
Sheila H. Deely
GARDNER, CARTON & DOUGLAS
321 North Clark Street
Suite3400
Chicago, Illinois
606 10-4795
(312) 644-3000
Respectfully submitted,
Illinois
Association ofWastewater Agencies
One ofIts Attorneys
THIS FILING IS SUBMITTED ON RECYCLED PAPER
RECEIVED
BEFORE
THE
ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL
BOAR~L~!~
OF~1CE
IN
THE
MATTER OF:
)
JAN
1
7
2002
PROPOSED AMENDMENTS TO
R 02-
~
AMMONIA
NITROGEN STANDARDS
)
/
35
III. Adm. Code
)
)
MOTION TO
WAIVE
SIGNATURE
REQUIREMENT
The Illinois Association of Wastewater Agencies (“IAWA”), by its attorneys Gardner
Carton & Douglas, moves to waive the signature requirement to file a Petition for Rulemaking in
Section 102.200 ofthe Board’s regulations.
IAWA
is
seeking to amend the rules governing
ammonia, contained in regulations
at Sections 302.212, 302.213, and 304.112.
In support,
IAWA states as follows:
1.
IAWA is a member group consisting of 98 members, ofwhich
55
are agency
members.
The agencymembers themselves employ hundreds ofindividuals to administer the
wastewatertreatment systems in this
state.
IAWA exists to
support administrators and managers
ofwastewater collection and treatment agencies in the State ofIllinois.
IAWA exists and acts
only due to the concurrence ofgroup members with vital and shared interests in issues governing
wastewater treatment.
2.
Amendment ofthe ammonia regulations is a priority of members, and IAWA has
been working with its members and the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (“Illinois
EPA”) to propose workable regulations in line with U.S. EPA requirements for ammonia
water
quality.
IAWA believes it has the concurrence ofthe Illinois EPA with its proposal.
3.
-
Because ofthe nature ofIAWA’s status as a member organization,
IAWA
seeks
to waive the requirement for signature.
To require a member organization like IAWA to àbtain
signatures for a petition would present an added expense
and
burden to IAWA that is
duplicative
and
unnecessary in light ofits
status.
WHEREFORE,
IAWA moves the Board to waive the signature requirement for its
proposal to amend the
ammonia
regulations.
Resp
tfully submitted,
(~::sssoc1o:tat~encies
Richard 3. Kissel
Roy M. Harsch
Sheila H. Deely
GARDNER,
CARTON & DOUGLAS
321 North Clark Street
Suite 3400
Chicago, Illinois
60610-4795
(312) 644-3000
CH02122141638.1
BEFORE
THE
ILLINOIS POLLUTION
CONTROL BOA~!~CYED
CL~3~K~S
~WFlCE
IN THE MATTER OF:
)
JAN
1
7
2002
PROPOSED AMENDMENTS TO
)
R 02-
1’
~3
SIAfE
OF 1LUNO~S
AMMONIA NITROGEN STANDARDS
)
/
Pollution
Control
Board
35111. Adm. Code
)
/
)
PROPOSED RULE
AND
STATEMENT OF REASONS
The Illinois Association ofWastewater Agencies (“IAWA”), by its attorneys Gardner
Carton &
Douglas, and pursuant to 35
Il. Adm.
Code
102.200, submits this Statement ofReasons
in support of its proposal to
revise the regulation governing discharge of ammonia.
IAWA is proposing changes to regulations governing ammonia based
on a new National
Criteria Document (“NCD”) for ammonia issued by the United States Environmental Protection
Agency (“U.S. EPA”) in
1999.
The NCD is intended to provide guidance to
States and Tribes
authorized to establish water quality standards under the Clean Water Act (“CWA”).
The CWA
requires states to revise water quality standards withinthree years ofU.S. EPA’s adoption of
new criteria.
33
U.S.C.
§
13 13(c).
The regulatory proposal to amend the ammonia rules is
submitted contemporaneously with this
Statement ofReasons.
1.
Existing and
Proposed Ammonia
Regulations (Section 102.202(a))
Rules
governing discharges of ammonia are found at Section 302.212, Total Ammonia
Nitrogen, which sets out the applicable general water quality standards for total ammonia
nitrogen.
This Section contains the general water quality standard for total ammonia of 15 mg/L.
This section also contains standards for un-ionized ammonia, with calculations to
determine
acute and chronic standards.
Section 302.2 13 contains a provision that was intended to allow
relief to the regulated community from the general water quality ammonia standards using a
concept called Effluent Modified Waters.
Section 304.122 contains the general effluent standard
governingtotal ammonia nitrogen.
Specific standards for Lake Michigan, which are unaffected
by this proposal, are found at Section 302.535.
Finally, Part 355
currently contains the
implementation rules adopted by Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (“Illinois EPA”) to
allow specific determination of water quality based effluent standards, including those standards
that were intended to allow relief to the regulated community from the more stringent general
ammonia standards.
IAWA does not propose any change to the general water quality standard for total
ammonia nitrogen.
IAWA proposes to change both the acute and chronic general use water
quality standards
for un-ionized ammonia to reflect changes
in theNCD for ammonia.
In
addition, IAWA has added a calculation for sub-chronic ammonia.
Those changes are contained
in the r~gulations-found•
at- Section
-302.2-12~-IAWA-prop&ses-to-repeal the rule allowing alternate
standards forEffluent Modified Waters, as the attempt to provide relief to the regulated
community using this concept has not proven workable.
That rule is found at 302.213, and
references to effluent modified waters are also contained in Section 304.122 governing general
effluent standards for total ammonia nitrogen.
IAWA has submitted a copy ofthe revised rules
with underscoring and redlining
to indicate changes from the ammonia rules currently in effect.
IAWA’s proposal will also affect Section
355,
which contains the implementationrules adopted
by the Illinois EPA.
Exhibit 1.
The current draft ofthese rules is submitted with this proposal to
the Board for informational purposes.
Exhibit 2.
Based on discussions with the Illinois EPA, it
is IAWA’s understanding that Illinois
EPAwill proceed with the rulemaking for these draft
rules.
2
2.
Statement of Reasons
Statement ofFacts
(Section 102.202(b))
In December 1996, after much debate and
comment by interested parties, the Board
amended its regulations as they related to ammonia.
R94- 1(B).
These regulations were
substantially modified from the original proposal ofthe Illinois EPA, submitted to the Board in
February
1994.
IAWA was an active participant in the hearings and worked with the Board and
the Illinois EPA to
promulgate water quality regulations governing ammonia that would be
workable for its members.
For a more complete discussion of the historical context and basis for
these regulations, please see Inthe Matter of Triennial Water Quality Review Amendments to
35
Ill. Adm.
Code 302.202, 302.212.
302.213, 304.122, and 304.301, R94-1(B) (Dec.
19,
1996).
The rulemaking was based on U.S. EPA’s then current NCD for ammonia, “Ambient
Water Quality Criteria for Ammonia”, issued in 1984.
The standards enacted by the Board were
quite stringent and had several components.
The General Use water quality standard for total
ammonianitrogen was leftunchanged from its
original enactment of 15 mg/L.
For un-ionized
ammonia, however, the Board replaced the standard with four separate standards.
The un-
ionized standards
differed for acute and chronic discharges and varied further for summer or the
winter months.
Recognizing the uncertainty of implementation and the potential for unachievable
standards that might result, the Board attempted to allow a relief mechanism by giving the
Illinois EPA the authority to implement a new concept called Effluent Modified Waters
(“EMWs”), which could be granted for the chronic standard governing un-ionized ammonia.
See 302.2 13.
EMW relief had certain conditions that appeared rather stringent, but IAWA, the
Illinois EPA,
and theBoard believed the relief to be workable.
3
The conditions on EMW relief, and indeed the entirety ofthe mechanism, and the Illinois
EPA’s implementation rules have turned out to make relief impractical to
seek and impossible
to
obtain.
To IAWA’s knowledge, no party has obtained relief using the EMW provision.
Smce this rulemaking, U S
EPA has reissued its NCD for ammonia, which has
substantially changed the science for determining ammonia standards.
See
1999 Update of
Ambient
Water Quality Criteria for Ammonia.
The updated NCD
constitutes U.S. EPA’s
scientific recommendations regarding ambient concentrations of ammonia that protect freshwater
aquatic life.
The standards continue to
protect aquatic life based on acute and chronic effects of
ammonia.
Just as for other wastewater treatment bodies nationwide, amendment of the ammonia
standards is a priority ofIAWA and its members.
IAWA has therefore
taken the lead in moving
to amend the Board’s ammonia standards to conform with revised criteria ofU.S. EPA.
IAWA
has been working closely with the Illinois EPA to draft rules that are workable for IAWA’s
members and acceptable to the Illinois
EPA.
The proposed rulemaking reflects close to a year of
consultation and revision.
IAWAbelieves that it has the Illinois EPA’s concurrence with the
proposed
amendmentsL
IAWA is not the first party to
seek amendment ofamnmoniaregulations in light of the
Update.
The Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission (“ORSANCO”), which is an
interstate commission representing eight states (including Illinois) and the federal government,
sets water quality standards for the Ohio River and its tributaries.
The proposal ofIAWA is
substantially like that ofORSANCO.
ORSANCO’s adopted rules are attached as Exhibit
3.
4
