ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
January
23,
1992
IN THE MATTER OF:
JOINT PETITION OF THE VILLAGE
)
PCB 85-212
OF MORTON
AND THE ILLINOIS
)
(Combined Sewer
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
)
Overflow Exception)
FOR EXCEPTION TO COMBINED SEWER
OVERFLOW REGULATIONS
ORDER OF THE BOARD
(by R.C.
Flertial):
This matter comes before the Board upon filing by the
Village of Morton (“Morton”)
on November 27,
1991 of a motion to
modify Board Order.
On January 8,
1992 the Illinois
Environmental Protection Agency
(“Agency”)
filed a response
requesting that the motion be granted.
On January
9,
1992 the
Board issued an order noting that facts asserted in the motion
are not of record and were not supported by affidavit as required
by the Board’s procedural rules.
On January 21,
1992 Morton
filed
an affidavit attesting to the facts at issue.
Pursuant to the joint petitioners’ request,
the Board on May
9,
1986
(69 PCB 417) granted Morton an exception to the Board’s
combined sewer overflow regulations.
Among the requirements
associated with that grant was chlorination of excess flows
at
Morton’s Plant
2,
as found
in condition 1(a):
a.
The Village shall provide excess flow treatment at
Plant
2 for all excess flows reaching the plant,
consisting of primary treatment followed by
chlorine contact,
including flow measurement and
sampling
.
.
.
(69 PCB 422, emphasis added.)
Petitioners now request that the chlorination requirement be
deleted.
All other conditions
of the grant
of exception have
been met.
The petitioners observe that other actions taken under the
grant of exception have caused the volume of overflows at Plant
2
to be lower than originally expected.
They also observe that the
receiving stream, Prairie Creek,
is of the nature that
disinfection of the excess overflows is of questionable benefit
and could even have an adverse effect on the stream.
The Agency
adds that complying with the chlorination requirement appears to
be technically infeasible and that the cost of the constructing
the necessary facilities would outweigh the benefits.
129—253
—2—
The Board has observed that chlorination
is a practice that
must be applied selectively and involves
a weighing of the
relative risks to human health and the physical environment.
(e.g.,
In the Matter of: Amendments to Subtitle C: Water
Pollution.
Fecal Coliform and Seasonal Disinfection
(June .30,
1988), R85—29,
90 PCB 635.)
More recently,
in a situation
similar in many particulars to that faced by Morton, the Board
found that the chlorination of CSOs should not be practiced by
the City of Jacksonville.
(In the matter of: Petition of the
City of Jacksonville for ad-lusted standard from 35
Ill. Adm.
Code
306.305(b)
(August
9,
1990), AS 90—1,
114 PCB 137).
In view of these considerations,
the motion to modify
condition 1(a)
of the Board’s grant of exception in this matter
by deleting the phrase “followed by chlorine contact”
is hereby
granted.
IT IS SO ORDERED.
I, Dorothy N. Gunn,
Clerk of the Illinois Pollution Control
Board, ~ereby certify
at the above Order was adopted on the
~
day of
~
,
1992,
by a vote
of
Illinois
Control Board
129—254