ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
March
6,
1980
ENVIRONMENTAL
PROTECTION
AGENCY,
Complainant,
PCB
79—59
JAMES
RALSTON,
Respondent,
MS.
MARY E.
DRAKE,
ASSISTANT
ATTORNEY
GENERAL,
APPEARED
ON
BEHALF
OF
THE
COMPLAINANT.
MR.
JAMES
RALSTON
APPEARED
PRO
SE,
OPINION
AND
ORDER
OF
THE
BOARD
(by
Dr.
Satchell):
This matter comes before the Board
upon a
complaint filed
on
March
19,
1979 by the Environmental Protection Agency
(Agency).
The comolaint alleges violations of Section 12(a)
of
the Environ-
mental Protection Act
(Act)
and Rules
203,
401 and 403 of Chapter
3:
Water Pollution
(Chapter 3).
Count III apparently was meant
to allege a violation of NPDES provisions
of Section
12(f)
of the
Act and Chapter
3; however,
the count
is deficient in information
and will be dismissed.
A hearing was held on December 12,
1979.
At the hearing a statement
of stipulated facts was presented to
the Board,
Respondent owns and operates
a farm which
is located approx-
imately two miles north of the Village of Hettick, Macoupin County,
Illinois.
Respondent raises hogs and cattle at his
farm.
Respond-
ent raises approximately 200 to 300 hogs
in a confinement facility
and about 350 head of cattle are raised on
a three acre lot direct—
ly north and northwest of the Ralston
farm,
Mr.
Ralston also has
1500 acres of cropland,
Adjacent
to the hog confinement facility is a ravine which
flows
to a tributary of Solomon Creek.
The ravine and the trib-
utary of Solomon Creek flow intermittently and are,
along with
Solomon Creek, waters of the State of Illinois.
Hog manure from
the confinement facility is stored in
a pit located under the
slatted floor of the facility at Respondent~s farm,
During the day on July
5,
1978 the Respondent~semployee,
at
the direction of Respondent, pumped approximately 15,000 gallons
of hog manure from the pit located under the floor of the con-
finement facility to the ravine.
On July
7,
1978 a former Agency
37—451
—2—
insoector, Bruce Goff,
investigated Respondent’s
farm.
Mr. Goff
made observations, took
photographs
and
collected
samples.
Mr.
Goff observed
where
the
manure
had
been
pumped
and
stream
con-
ditions
downstream.
The liauid hog manure, which had been pumped into the ravine,
flowed down one side of the ravine and ended up in the tributary
of Solomon Creek.
At one point on the tributary the manure was
about six inches deep.
The tributary was completely filled for
about 100 yards.
It is about 1800 yards from the point where the
manure entered the tributary from the ditch to the point where
the tributary feeds into Solomon Creek,
Upstream from the tributary, Solomon Creek was in good con-
dition.
The water was clear and the stream bottom contained sand
and gravel.
At a point approximately ten yards upstream of
Solomon Creek’s confluence with the tributary water samples showed:
COD
14
mg/l
NH3-N
.1 mg/i
In the tributary itself samples showed:
COD
224,800
mg/i
NH3—N
37,000
rng/l
Just above to the tributary’s entry to Solomon Creek on July
7,
1978 there was only a trickle of
flow.
There were no manure solids
but the flow was very turbid and had a strong odor of hog manure.
Samples taken at this point showed:
COD
3217
mg/l
NH3-N
360
mg/i
Downstream of the confluence after approximately two or three yards
the stream bottom did not have sludge deposits or bacterial growth.
At
a point approximately fifteen yards downstream of the conflu-
ence samples showed:
COD
25
mg/i
NH3-N
.8 mg/i
By the time Solomon Creek reaches a Township Road Bridge north of
Hettick the stream apoeared to be in good condition with clear
water and a sand and gravel bottom.
A water sample showed NH3
as
.6 mg/l.
‘37—452
—3—
The hog manure has been and will be washed out of the ditch
and go to the tributary of Solomon Creek whenever there is a
significant amount of rainfall.
This results in greater loads
of pollution in the waters of Illinois.
The stipulation provides that on July
5,
1978 all of Respond-
ent’s cropland was in crops and it had been a wet spring
so he had
disposed
of the hog manure
in the ravine.
Commercial disposal
companies charge $.07 per gallon of waste
to dispose of liquid hog
manure.
It would have cost Respondent
$1050 to dispose of 15,000
gallons of liquid manure if he had hired
a commercial disposal
company to dispose of it.
The Board finds that Respondent has violated Section 12(a)
of
the Act and Rules
203,
401 and 403 of Chapter
3.
The samoles from
the tributary show ammonia nitrogen greatly in excess of the stan-
dard 1.5 m~/l.
There was also unnatural sludge or bottom deposits,
odor and unnatural cc~1oror turbidity
in the tributary and for a
short distance in Solomon Creek.
A heavy rainfall could greatly
increase the degree of the violations.
In considering the factors
of Section 33(c)
of the Act the Board notes that the ravine and
the tributary were heavily polluted with the potential for even
further pollution with rainfall,
Downstream in Solomon Creek the
water became clear again.
As stated in the stipulated
facts, other
economical means
of disposal were available
to Respondent.
Cer-
tainly Respondent’s hog raising operation
is of economic importance
and value.
Clearly the value
is less when water pollution results.
The location of Respondent’s farm is not in issue.
The Agency in its closing argument asks that the $1050 cost
of commercial disposal be considered
as the amount saved by Re-
spondent and thus the amount of penalty.
However, Respondent did
have other cheaper means available with planned disposal on his
farm.
Resoondent admits dumoing the waste hut states that he
thought
that
placing
the waste a half a mile from the main stream
would not cause harm.
Respondent states that he will refrain from
this method of disposal
in the future.
The Board
finds that a
penalty of $300 will be sufficient to aid the enforcement of the Act.
This Opinion constitutes the Board’s findings of fact and
conclusions
of law
in this matter.
ORDER
It is the Order of the Pollution Control Board that:
1.
James Ralston
is found to be in violation of Section
37—453
—4—
l2(a~ of the Environmental Protection Act and Rules
203,
401
and
403
of
Chapter
3:
Water
Pollution.
2.
Within thirty-five days of the date of this Order,
Respondent shall, by certified check or money order
payable
to the State of Illinois, pay a civil penalty
of $300 which is
to he sent to:
Illinois Environmental Protection Agency
Fiscal
Services
Division
2200 Churchill Road
Springfield, Illinois 62706
Mrs. Anderson abstains.
I, Christan L.
Moffett,
Clerk of the Illinois Pollution
Contrdl
Board,
he
~by
certify
the
above
Opinion
and
Order
were
adopted
on
the
T~
day
of
___________,
1980 by a vote of
Illinois Pollution
trol Board
37—4 54