ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
    September 16, 1971
    PATRICIA DEVELOPMENT CORP.
    v.
    )
    PCB 71—161
    ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
    Joseph D. Astrachan of Waukegan, Illinoi~s, for Patricia Development
    Corporation
    Frederic Prillaman of Springfield, for the Environmental Protection Agency
    Opinion of the Board (by Mr. Currie):
    Petitioner seeks a variance to allow the connection of 23
    new homes (a twenty-fourth was dropped at the hearing, R, 2) to
    sewers tributary to overloaded treatment plants in the North Shore
    Sanitary District. We grant the petition as to eighteen of these
    homes, for reasons given below.
    This petition concerns a group of homes to be built under a
    federal mortgage assistance program for persons of less than
    abundant means. Present living conditions for the potential home-
    owners are generally quite unsatisfactory, as illustrated by the
    following examples:
    This fatherless family consisting of a mother and ten (10)
    children whose ages range from 1 1/2 and 17 years. They
    are presently living in very cramped and squalid quarters
    where they moved as a temporary home until their home is
    completed. Their only income is what is provided by the Aid
    of Dependent Children Act of the State of Illinois.,
    They have been harassed by the landlord who wants their
    quarters for another.
    (Attachment #1 to petition).
    This family with 12 children whose ages range from 1 year to
    17 years old live in a 4 room shack at the rear of a lot in
    North Chicago. Their quarters are squalid, with poor toilet
    facilities, In as much as Mr. McKissick has been ill whereby
    he cannot keep employment their sole source of income has
    been the Aid to Dependent Children Act.
    . . .
    (Attachment
    #5 to petition)
    .
    Five of these homes were under construction at the time the
    ban was imposed, and thirteen other buyers had already entered into
    commitments to purchase CR. 3), thus abandoning the search for
    2
    46~
    alternative quarters and increasing the hardship that they would
    suffer if denied their new homes now. As to all these eighteen
    homes we believe ample hardship has been shown to justify a variance
    under the principles of our decision in McAdams v. EPA, #71-113
    (August 13, 1971), in which the petitioner had made his commitment
    and had no place else to go. We note that in cases not involving
    such extreme social hardship we have insisted on even greater ac-
    tivity in reliance on the ability to connect, such as the commence-
    ment of construction. E.g., Wagnon v. EPA,
    #
    71-85 (July 19, 1971).
    The remaining five homes, however, not only were not under
    construction at the date of the ban, but no contracts for their
    construction had been entered into; anything done toward their
    construction was undertaken after the ban was imposed. Much as
    we sympathize with the people who would greatly benefit if they
    could build these homes, we believe the line must be drawn some-
    where to avoid open—ended increases in the pollution of Lake Michigan.
    Persons not committed at the time of the sewer connection ban were
    on notice that they must look elsewhere to build new homes. Though
    homes within the District may be more convenient for these people,
    we think some consideration must be given to locating new homes in
    areas where there are adequate sewage treatment facilities. In
    light of the possibility of constructing comparable homes with
    similar federal assistance elsewhere, we cannot open the door to
    the building of new homes even for the needy where the contract
    to build was not signed at the date of the ban.
    We note that in granting this variance in part we are authorizing
    the discharge of additional inadequately treated sewage to Lake
    Michigan, a body that ought to be given very special protection
    against degradation because of its incomparable recreational and
    other values. While many of the potential new homeowners in this
    case are already living in the District, this does not mean there
    will be no increase in discharges; for, as shown by the first quotation
    above, the quarters they now occupy will in most cases at least
    be taken over by others. Nor is it persuasive that Illinois con-
    tributes only a relatively small percentage of the total discharge
    to the lake. That other states too have a good way to go does
    not justify our failure to do whatever we can, and the evidence is
    overwhelming that Illinois sources are at least a principal cause
    of the closing of the beaches in Lake County. It is because of
    the gravity of our problem with Lake Michigan that we insist on a
    very substantial showing of hardship before granting any permission
    for new sewer connections. The present condition of the Lake is
    deplorable; we must make it a firm policy to keep it from getting
    worse before it gets better, in the absence of the most extreme
    hardships, as have been shown with regard to 18 homes in the
    present case.
    2 —
    470
    ORDER
    The petition for variance is hereby granted in part, to
    permit the connection of eighteen homes that were under contract
    before March 31, 1971, to sewers tributary to treatment plants
    in the North Shore Sanitary District, as described in the record.
    In other respects the petition is denied.
    I, Regina E. Ryan, Clerk of the Pollution Control Board, certify
    that the Board adopted the above Opinioz~this 16
    day of
    September
    ,
    1971.
    2
    — 471

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