ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
    August 8,
    1991
    VILLAGE OF BENSENVILLE,
    )
    )
    Petitioner,
    PCB 91—66
    v.
    )
    (Variance)
    )
    ILLINOIS ENVIRONMENTAL
    )
    PROTECTION AGENCY,
    )
    )
    Respondent.
    CONCURRING OPINION
    (by J.D. Dumelle):
    The Bensenville petition in Paragraph 33 speaks of the need
    to do water main looping to eliminate dead ends and to
    install
    large diameter mains
    to obtain increased flows.
    (~
    Attachment
    2).
    All of these improvements to a water system can be done now
    without a variance from restricted status.
    Thus
    the
    only
    hardship
    might
    be
    that
    new
    development
    is
    pending.
    But that is alleged only in general terms
    in Paragraph
    32.
    No specific developments are mentioned at all.
    Benesenville’s radium levels are given as 18.2 pCi/i according
    to the IEPA Recommendation (p.4).
    The cancer risk at the
    5 pCi/i
    standard
    is l-in—14,300 over a lifetime.
    The cancer risk at 18.2
    pCi/i
    is about 1—in—3,950.
    That is an extremely high risk and
    about 250 times higher than the usual l—in—1,000,000 risk used to
    set limits for chemical exposure.
    In late 1991 Benesenville will probably begin to receive Lake
    Michigan water.
    Full service may occur during 1992.
    Thus any new
    development
    (and
    none has been
    alleged)
    would probably not
    be
    constructed and inhabited until the low—radium water is
    in use.
    The Illinois Department of Nuclear safety in its “Background
    Document on Radium in Drinking Water” of August 25,
    1986 filed in
    R85-14 stated on
    p.
    5,
    ...Radium
    uptake,
    i.e.,
    fraction
    of
    radium
    absorbed and
    transferred to the
    bone,
    also
    appears to vary with age and calcium intake.
    Muth
    and Globe1
    found
    an
    age dependence
    of
    radiuin—226 concentration
    in human bone that
    coincided
    with
    periods
    of
    rapid
    skeletal
    growth.
    They
    believed
    that
    during
    these
    periods of rapid growth
    (0-1 yr and 10-16 yr)
    it
    was
    probable
    that
    radiuiu-226
    was
    incorporated
    into
    the
    hydroxylapatite
    crystals, a component of the bone matrix, with
    minimal
    discrimination
    against
    calcium,
    125—27
    resulting in a higher concentration of radium-
    226.
    They concluded that the lower intake of
    calcium per person per day in Germany explains
    their
    finding
    of higher
    transfer
    of
    radium
    from the diet to the skeleton
    (“Age Dependent
    Concentration of Radium—226 in Human Bone and
    Some
    Transfer
    Factors
    from
    Diet
    to
    Human
    Tissues”;
    Health
    Phys.
    44,
    Suppl.
    1,
    113—
    121).
    Parks
    and
    Keane
    suggest
    that
    younger
    people have an increased risk per unit intake
    of
    radium because of greater bone formation
    rates and a higher initial retention of radium
    (“Consideration
    of
    Age-Dependent
    Radium
    Retention in People on the Basis of the Beagle
    Model,”
    Health Phys.
    44,
    Supp.
    1,
    103—112).
    In
    addition,
    the very
    young
    have
    a
    longer
    potential
    latent
    period
    (Advisory Report
    on
    the
    Health
    Effects
    of
    Ra-226
    in
    Drinkinc~
    Water,
    1978).
    Calabrese points out that the
    gastrointestinal absorption
    of pollutants by
    young children
    is
    significantly higher than
    absorption by adults.
    A marked sensitivity of
    children
    to
    the
    toxic
    effects
    of
    ionizing
    radiation has been reported
    (Pollutants
    and
    High—Risk
    Groups:
    The Biological
    Basis
    of
    Increased
    Human
    Susceptibility
    to
    Environmental
    and
    Occupational
    Pollutants,
    1978).
    It thus appears that children up through age
    16 are most at
    risk from radium in drinking water.
    A
    ~ewoi~
    be to
    have them use low-radium wal
    J cob D. Dumelle,
    P.E.
    oard Member
    I, Dorothy N.
    Gunn,
    Cl rk of the Illinois Pollution Control
    Board,
    hereby
    certify jhat
    the abov~~
    Concurring
    Opinion
    was
    submitted on the
    /(~‘
    ‘-
    day of
    ~6”~-
    ~‘
    c
    /
    ,
    1991.
    Ddrothy M.
    Gu1)z~~’Clerk
    Illinois Pol1~ftionControl Board
    125—28

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