ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
    May 9, 1986
    LAKE COUNTY PUBLIC WORKS
    )
    DEPARTMENT, VERNON HILLS W1~TER
    )
    SUPPLY SYSTEM,
    Petitioner,
    V.
    )
    PCB 86-35
    ILLINOIS ENVIRONMENTAL
    PROTECTION AGENCY,
    )
    Respondent.
    DISSENTING OPINION (by J. D. Durnelle):
    My reasons for dissenting lie in the grant by the majority
    to the lifting of restricted status for the two residential
    developments (c) and (e). See majority Opinion, p. 2.
    These new residences will expose their residents, which
    could well include babies, young children, and old people to
    drinking water radium levels above the State and National health—
    based levels.
    The office buildings and the shopping plaza would not result
    in such 24—hour—a—day and 7—day—a—week exposure and I would have
    voted for their construction.
    What is the risk from radium in drinking water? The Federal
    Register of August 14, 1975 (Vol. 40, 153, p. 34325) gives it as
    “between 0.7 and 3 fatal cancers annually per million exposed
    persons.” Note the key word “annually.” Because, it is an
    annual risk the Agency’s assertion of “no significant health risk
    for the time period of this
    ...
    variance” is flawed.
    The combined radium levels in the Vernon Hills water system
    are 9.4 pCi/i or 88 over the 5.0 pCi/i standard. Applying this
    factor to the fatal cancer incidence rate given above results in
    a range of 1.3 to 5.6 cases annually per million exposed persons.
    The two new subdivisions here at issue total 130 housing
    units. Using three persons per unit, the new population exposed
    will be 390. Each year of exposure to the high radium in the
    drinking water brings with it a 1—in—300,000 chance of a fatal
    cancer to any one person on the average.
    69.459
    —2—
    Finally, since it will realistically take seven or more
    years to bring Lake Michigan water to Vernon Hills the odds of a
    fatal cancer in this new group of exposed residents becomes about
    l—in—50,000 (allowing one year for the actual construction of the
    new homes) over the six year period.
    The risk of cancer from the radium in this drinking water is
    finite and real. I would have allowed the variance only for the
    non—residential construction.
    acob D. Dumelle, P.E.
    Chairman
    I, Dorothy M. Gunn, Cle of the Illinois Pollution Control
    Board, hereby certify that the above Dissenting Opinion was filed
    on the
    /6t~ day of
    ~
    1986.
    7/
    II
    ~7
    ~.
    Dorothy M. G’unn, Clerk
    Illinois Pollution Control Board
    69.460

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