THIS FILING IS SUBMITTED ON RECYCLED PAPER

Water Quality Standard

RECEIVED

CLERK’S

OFFICE

BEFORE THE ILLINUIStOLLUTION COINIROL BOARD

JUL

1 7

2002

THE MATTER OF:

)

PROPOSED AMENDMENTS TO

)

AMMONIA

NITROGEN STANDARDS

35 III. Adm.

Code

)

R02-19

)

(Rulemaking

—

Water)

STATE OF ILLIriQIS

Pollution

Control Board

TO:

Illinois Enviromnental Protection Agency

1021

North Grand Avenue East

P.O. Box

19276

Springfield,

62794-9276

Office ofthe Attorney General

Division Chief ofEnvironmental Enforcement

188 West Randolph Street

Chicago, IL

60610

See Attached Service List

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 of the Illinois

Pollution

Control Board

Public Comment of Michael Callahan

on Behalf of The Illinois

Assndationnf

Wastewater Agencies a copy of which is herewith served upon you.

Respectfully

submitted,

Dated:

July

17, 2002

Roy M. Harsch

Sheila H. Deely

GARDNER, CARTON & DOUGLAS

321

North Clark Street

Suite 3400

Chicago, Illinois

606 10-4795

(312) 644-3000

One of Attorneys for Petitioner0’

NOTICE

OF FILING

4~AC

THIS FILING IS SUBMITTED

ON RECYCLED PAPER

RECEIVED

CLERK’S

OFFICE

BEFORE THE

ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL

BOARDJUL

2002

IN THE

MATTER OF:

)

STATE OF IWNOIS

)

Pollution

Control Board

PROPOSED AMENDMENTS TO

)

R 02-19

AMMONIA NITROGEN

STANDARDS

)

III.

Adm.

Code

)

PUBLIC COMMENT

OF MICHAEL

CALLAHAN

BEHALF OF THE ILLINOIS ASSOCIATION OF WASTEWATER AGENCIES

On behalfof the Illinois Association of Wastewater Agencies (IAWA), I am hereby

providing comment on the First Opinion and Order of the Board in

the current ammonia nitrogen

rulemaking procedure, Docket R02-l9.

The IAWA appreciates the substantial

agreement of the

Board with

IAWA in both the interpretation of the USEPA

1999 Ammonia National Criteria

Document (NCD) and

the manner in which the NCD

should be applied to the water quality

standards of Illinois.

As the Board noted

its First

Opinion and Order, the IAWA advocates

the consideratinn

of the seasonal period of March through October as being the time during a ycarin which

the

waters of Illinois can be expected to contain early life stages of fish.

The presence of such early

life stages is recognized by the NCD

and accepted by IAWA as requiring addifiorrahprutectiuir

from ammonia beyond that required during the absence of such early life stages.

The overall

effect ofthis consideration of the seasonality of the proposed regulation is to effedively consider

the month ofMarch as

a warm season month as opposed to

its present considieratiorras awiriter

month.

This consideration extends seasonal protection from ammonia beyond that

existing

under the current regulation.

In its First Opinion and Order, the Board also recognized the

additional

fish early life stage ammonia protection advocated by IAWA through inciusicinof

Section 302.212(e) in the proposed regulation.

The intention of IAWA in

considering the

seasonal impact of ammonia was to

provide maximum cost beneficial protection

fish early life

stages.

Both the early life stage present period and

Section 302.2 12(e) were proposed with the

intention of providing this maximum potential protection.

The IAWA is grateful

for the Board’s

recognition and specific mention of this conservatism in the proposed regulation.

The JAWA continues to

support the repeal ofthe Effluent Modified Waters (BMW) as

proposed by the Board in its First Opinion

and Order.

The BMW concept was intended to be

procedure by which relief could be

extended to

the regulated community from extremely low

NPDES permit ammonia limits.

Regrettably, the contention which surrounded this concept

ultimately rendered it impractical.

The proposed standard should result in

few NPDBS permit

ammonia limits that are low enough to present attainability problems with existing technology.

The BMW concept is

therefore not needed with

the proposed regulation.

The Board has chosen to modify the original IAWA proposal in terms of the frequency of

sampling required to determine attainment with the chronic ammonia water quality standard.

Unfortunately, the modification made to the sampling requirements ofSection 302.212(c)(2)

the Board after Second

Hearing contains a mathematical conflict among the acute

standard, the

sub-chronic standard and the chronic standard.

Determination ofcompliance with the chronic

standard by one sampling within a thirty day period mathematically nullifies the acute

standard

and the sub-chronic standard.

The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (Agency) requested that the 30 day

average chronic standard sampling procedure be structured as proposed by IAWA.

Questions

arose during Second Hearing regarding this issue.

It was the opinion of IAWA at the conclusion

of Second Hearing that the issue had been substantially addressed by discussion at that time

and

that the Agency would

provide additional input to the Board further explaining its request.

The

IAWA did not thus subsequently

comment further on the matter.

As the Board has noted

in the First Opinion and Order, this request was madebythe

Agency to facilitate determination of compliance with the chronic standard within the framework

of the existing ambient water quality monitoring program.

The Board

has correctly noted the

correlation between the four day

sub-chronic standard and

the 30 day

chronic standard as

specified in the NCD.

The NCD was based on thirty days ofcompliance with the chronic

standard in conjunction with the four day consecutive sampling requirement ofthe sub-chronic

standard considered within the 30 day chronic period.

The chronic sampling frequency requested by the Agency in the regulation proposed by

the IAWA indicated four samples

collected over

a period ofat least 30 days.

This

proposal

allowed for two important considerations.

First, any 30 day period was thus

proposed to be

evaluated by

at least four non-consecutive samples thereby addressing the chronic and sub-

chronic relationship as established

in the NCD.

Secondly,

such a sample regime would

allow the

Agency to use its

ambient water quality monitoring network

sampling frequency ofsix

weeks to

determine long term chronic compliance.

This original proposal by the Agency and

IAWA

allowed the latitude for both a concerted

30 day

sampling frequency surrounding a four day sub-

chronic sampling

event if non-compliance were suspected while also

allowing

a long term

evaluation ofchronic compliance which could be addressed by the existing ambient water

quality monitoring program frequency.

In effect, two

different chronic assessment potentials

were established by the sampling procedure contained in the original proposal.

Since the Board issued its First

Opinion and Order in this matter the IAWA lrarftxrther

discussed the chronic standard averaging period with

the Agency.

The IAWA now understands

the Agency intends

to provide comment to the Board with

which it will advocate an outright

adoption ofthe thirty day average sampling period as presented

in the NCD.

The

JAWA concurs

with and

endorses this

action.

This modification of the original IAWA proposal should address

the concerns expressed by the Board in

its First Opinion and

Order.

However, the IAWA wishes to

propose a modification to the concept of the thirty day

chronic averaging period as described by the NCD that may be particularly helpful in addressing

the issues which have been raised in

this rulemaking procedure.

Hopefully, this proposed

modification will both assure water quality protection and facilitate the compliance assessment

ofthe ammonia standard.

The chronic and sub-chronic

relationship are intertwined as the Board

has noted.

The underlying concept of the two

standards maintains that the chronic standard

provides

long term (30 day) protection from ammonia providing that

the sub-chronic standard is

the maximum allowable average

short term ammonia exposure during the chronic exposure

averaging period.

The accompanying worksheet entitled Attachment A indicates the

mathematical nature ofthe relationship between the allowable chronic and

sub-chronic

concentrations.

Effectively, as shown by Attachment A,

Scenario

if the sub-chronic standard

is realized as a four consecutive day average (5.57 mg/I total ammonia), the remainder of the 26

days of the 30 day averaging period must be considerably less

than the allowable chronic

standard if the chronic standard were to be

considered independently from the sub-chronic

standard.

This difference

is indicated by comparison of the allowable 30 day chronic standardof

2.23

mg/I total

ammonia with

the allowable

26 day

average of 1.71

mg/I total ammonia.

The 30

day averaging of (1) a 26 day weighted component of 1.71

mg/I total ammonia and

(2) a 4

day

weighted component of 5.57 mg/I equal the allowable 30 day chronic standard of2.23

mg/l total

ammonia.

Conversely,

as the actual four day

exposure concentration decreases, the concentration of

the allowable 26 day

weighted component is allowed to increase and

yet maintain

overall

compliance with

the chronic standard.

This mathematical

effect is illustrated in

Attachment A,

Scenario 2.

If a four day sub-chronic exposure

averages 4.00 mg/I total

ammonia then the

allowable 26 day average becomes

1.95 mg/I total

ammonia.

The chronic value of 2.23 mg/I is,

however, conserved.

The mathematical relationship of4/30 and 26/30

is essential to the correlation of the

chronic and sub-chronic standard.

Attainment with

the sub-chronic standard during the chronic

averaging period is the component of the water quality standard established by the

1999 NCD

that Dr.

Sheehan indicated in his testimony provided additional ammonia protection beyond that

ofthe existing Illinois ammonia water quality

standard.

Consequently, the IAWA proposes that

the chronic water quality standard be determined by at least one

sample for each week of a

day chronic exposure assessment period in conjunction

with four consecutive days ofsampling

within

that chronic assessment period.

In determining the chronic attainment, the minimum of

four weekly samples are to be averaged with

the mean thus derived assigned a multiplier of

0.867 (i.e.

26/30).

The sub-chronic

four day average value is assigned a multiplier of0.133

(i.e.

4/30).

The weighted average thus determined must then comply with the chronic water quality

standard.

The IAWA suggests that the interaction of the chronic and sub-chronic standards

is not

optimally expressed by the original

format ofthe IAWA proposed regulation.

Therefore,

JAWA

proposes some wording changes

in the Board’s existing text and the addition of a fourth

paragraph to

Section

303.212(C) which

specifically defines the mathematical relationship ofthe

chronic and

sub-chronic standards.

The IAWA suggests the following language to modify the Board’s version ofSection

302.2 12(C)2:

The total ammonia nitrogen (in mg/I) must not exceed the chronic

standard (CS) except

in those waters in

which mixing

is allowed

pursuant to

Section 302.102 ofthis

part.

Attainment of the chronic

standard (CS) must be evaluated pursuant to

subsection (d) ofthis

Section by averaging at least four samples collected

at weekly

intervals or at other frequency distributions representative of a 30

day sampling period.

The sub-chronic standard, while defined as a function of the chronic standard,

is a third

independent concept

as presented in

the NCD.

Consequently, IAWA suggests the following

changes be

made to the Board’s modifications of Section 302.212(c)(3), whichsirengthenthis

autonomy ofthe sub-chronic standard:

total ammonia nitrogen (in mg/l) must not

exceed the sub-chronic standard except in

those waters

in which mixing

is allowed pursuant to Section 302.102.

Attainment

ofthe

sub-chronic standard must be evaluated pursuant to subsection (d) of this Section-by

averaging daily sample results

collected over four (4) consecutive days.

As mentioned previously, the IAWA suggests adding an additional paragraph (Sedinri

302.2 12(c)(4) which specifically defines the relationship between the chronic and

sub-chronic

standard:

Attainment ofthe chronic and

sub-chronic standards

shall be determined by evaluating a

sub-chronic

exposure pursuant to subsection

in conjunction withiR

chronic exposure pursuant to subsection (b) of this Section.

Such an

evaluation shall

allocate an

averaging weight of 0.133 (4/30) to

the sub-chronic four day

mean and an

averaging weight of 0.867 (26/30) to the mean ofthe remaining days assessed in the 30

day chronic averaging

period.

The 30 day average thus determined shall not exceed the

chronic standard.

This proposed modification

to Section 302.2 12(c) does not alter the actual

mathematical

relationship ofthe chronic standard with the sub-chronic standard from that originally proposed

to the Board by IAWA and contained in the NCD.

Rather, this proposed modification

specifically elucidates the manner in which the two

standards are to

be jointly considered.

The

IAWA believes that this lack ofdefined association between the two standards was the basis of

the Board’s concern that led

to the Board’s modification of Section 302.212(c)(2).

With the exception of the chronic standard sampling frequency issue, the IAWA finds the

Board’s First

Opinion and Order to be

a very acceptable resolution ofthe ammonia water quality

issue

for Illinois.

The IAWA

is very appreciative ofthe Board’s consideration to date with this

proposed regulation and remains available at the Board’s request

for additional information or

comment.

Attachment A:

Mathematical

Interaction of the

Proposed

Chronic and Sub-Chronic Ammonia

Given:

Temperature 20C

pH:

7.8

Acute Standard:

12.1

mg/I

Chronic Standard:

2.23

mg/I

Water Quality Standard

Sub Chronic Standard (2.23 mg/I) x 2.5

5.57

mg/I

Scenario

With

4 days averaging the maximum sub chronic concentration of5.57 mg/l total

ammonia, the

remaining 26 days of a 30 day chronic averaging period must be of such a concentration that

compliance exists with the 30 day chronic standard of 2.23 mg/I.

(~days

5.57 mg/I)

(26 days x

(22.28

days mg/I

(26 days x

____

mg/I)) /30

2.23

mg/l

____

mg/l)

(2.23 mg/I x 30 days)

26 days x

____

mg/I

(66.90 days mg/I)

(22.28 days mg/I)

____

mg/l

(44.62 days mg/l) /26 days

____

mg/l

1.71

mg/I

The daily average ofthe remaining 26 days of the chronic averaging period

in this example must

be less than or equal to

1.71

mg/I to

achieve compliance with the chronic water qualitystandard

of 2.23 mg/I.

Scenario 2:

If the 4 day sub-chronic

concentration averages 4.00 mg/I, the remaining 26 days of the 30 day

chronic averaging period can increase relevant to

Scenario

with

chronic compliance

maintained.

((4 days x 4.00 mg/I)

(26 days

____

mg/fl) /30

2.23

mg/I

(16.00 days mg/l)

(26 days x

____

mg/l)

(2.23 mg/I) x

30 days

26 days x

____

mg/I

(66.90 days mg/I)

(16.00 days mg/I)

____

mg/i

(50.90 days mg/l) /26

days

____

mg/l

1.96 mg/I

The reduction

in the sub-chronic 4 day

value from 5.57 mg/l

4.00 mg/I allows for an increase

in the mean of the remaining days in the chronic averaging period from

1.71

mg/l

1.96 mg/l.

CH02/22 I 97277.1

CERTIFICATE

OF SERVICE

The undersigned certifies

that a copy of the foregoing Notice of Filing

Public

Comment of Michael

Callahan on

Behalf of

The Illinois Association of Wastewater

Agencies were filed by hand

delivery with the Clerk ofthe Illinois

Pollution Control Board and served

upon

the parties to whom said Notice is directed by

first class mail, postage prepaid, by depositing in the

U.S. Mail at 321 North Clark Street, Chicago, Illinois

on Wednesday, July

17,

2002.

~iIa

Deely

HO 1/1223692 8

R02-19 Service

List

Ammonia Nitrogen

Standards

Mike Callahan

Bloomington Normal Water Reclamation District

P.O. Box 3307

Bloomington, IL

61702-3307

Larry Cox

Downers

Grove Sanitary District

2710

Curtiss Street

Downers

Grove, IL

60515

Dennis Duffield

Department ofPublic Works

921

Washington Street

Joliet,

60433

City of Joliet

Albert Ettinger

Environmental Law & Policy Center

Wacker Drive

Suite

1300

Chicago, IL

60601

Lisa M.

Frede

Chemical Industry Council

9801

Higgens Rd,

Suite 515

Rosemont, IL

60018

James

Harrington

Ross

& Hardies

150 North Michigan Avenue

Suite 2500

Chicago, IL

60601

Katherine Hodge

Hodge Dwyer Zeman

3150 Roland Avenue

Springfield,

62705

Dorothy Gunn

Clerk, Pollution

Control Board

100

West Randolph

Suite 11-500

Chicago, IL

60601

Richard Lanyon

Metropolitan Water Reclamation

District

100 East Erie

Chicago, IL

60611

Margaret P. Howard

Hedinger & Howard

1225

5. Sixth Street

Springfield,

62703

Robert A. Messina

Illinois Environmental

215

East Adams Street

Springfield,

62701

Regulatory Group

Tom Muth

Fox

Metro Water Reclamation District

682

State Route 31

Oswego, IL

60543

Irwin Polls

Metropolitan Water Reclamation District OfChicago

6001

West

Cicero, IL

60804

Marie Tipsord

Attorney, Pollution Control Board

100 West Randolph,

Suite 11-500

Chicago, IL

60601

Sanjay Sofat

Illinois Environmental Protection Agency

1021

North Grand Avenue East

Springfield,

62794-9276

Tim Bachman

Urbana/Champaign Sanitary District

1100 E. University Avenue -P.O. Box

669

Urbana, IL

61803

R02-19 Service List

Ammonia Nitrogen Standards

Jim Daugherty

Thom Creek Basin

Sanitary District

700 West End Avenue

Chicago Heights,

60417

Catherine

F. Glenn

Illinois Pollution Control Board

100W.

Randolph Street

Suite

11-500

Chicago, IL

60601

David Zenz

CTE Engineers

303

East Wacker Drive

#600

Chicago, IL

60601

Susan M.

Franzetti

Sonnenschein Natha & Rosenthal

8000 Sears Tower

Chicago, IL

60606

Deborah J. Williams

Illinois Environmental Protection

Agency

1021

Grand Avenue East

P0 Box

19276

Springfield,

62794-9276

Michael Zima

DeKaIb Sanitary District

P0 Box 624

DeKalb,IL

60115

CIIOI/12209948I