ILLIt~OISPOLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
March 21, 1984
THE METROPOLITAN SANITARY DISTRICT
)
OF GREATER CHICAGO,
Petitioner,
v.
)
PCB 84—16
ILLINOIS ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
)
AGENCY,
Respondent.
OPINION AND ORDER OF THE BOARD
(by B.
Forcade):
This matter comes before the Board upon a February 9, 1984
petition for variance filed by The Metropolitan Sanitary District
of Greater Chicago
(“Sanitary District”).
The petition seeks a
variance from the effluent standard for fecal coliform in 35
Iii.
Adm. Code 302.406 and the water quality standards of 304.121.
The variance would apply to the Sanitary District’s Calumet,
Northside, West—Southwest and Lemont sewage treatment plants.
Each of these plants discharge into secondary contact waters and
each is equipped with chlorination facilities.
On March 15,
1984
the Sanitary District filed
a motion to expedite Board decision
on the grounds that contractual commitments would be required to
be made on March 22,
1984.
That motion is hereby granted.
HISTORY
Calumet Plant
The Calurnet Sewage Treatment Works is located at 400
E.
130th
Street, Chicago,
Illinois and discharges 220 MGD to the
Little Calumet River,
This plant has been operating without
chlorinating its effluent since the Board
issued a variance on
July 14,
1983
(PCB 83-72).
The variance was for the period from
August
1,
1983 to March 31,
1984g.
In this petition, the Sanitary District requests a variance
covering the period from April
1,
1984 to December 31,
1984.
During 1981 when the rule changes in R 77—12, Docket
D, were
pending in the Illinois Pollution Control Board, the Calumet
Sewage Treatment Works was approved by the United States Environ-
mental Protection Agency and the Illinois Environmental Protection
Agency for a
180 million dollar expansion program under Contract
77—284--2P and other related contracts.
During this project the
regular chlorination units will have to be taken out of service
57-227
2
for approximately 100 days.
Temporary arrangements for chlorin-
ation will have to be made during the interim unless a variance
is granted. The contract for the work provides that the contractor
is to provide interim chlorination if necessary.
The contract
price is to be reduced by $8,400 per day if chlorination is not
required. This could amount to as much as $840,000 over 100 days
(PCB 83—72).
In July,
1983,
the Sanitary District notified the contractor
that the Board had granted the variance and directed the contractor
to submit the date when the bypass of the chlorine contact tank
would begin.
At the time of the filing of this petition the
contractor had not yet begun the initial bypass (Pet.
p.
5).
West—Southwest Plant
The West—Southwest Sewage Treatment Works is located at 5901
W. Pershing Road,
Stickney, Illinois.
The plant has a design
capacity of 1,200 MGD and discharges into the secondary contact
waters of the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal.
In this petition,
the Sanitary District requests a variance covering the period
from April
1,
1984 to December 31, 1984.
By a letter dated January 20,
1984, K.A. Steel advised the
District that it would be removing a tank leased to MSD for the
storage of sodium hypochiorite at the West—Southwest STW.
The
letter advised that K,A, Steel had other requirements for that
tank and would remove it during the last week of January,
1984.
The tank in question had been utilized by the contractor and the
Sanitary District for the storage of chemicals necessary to
chlorinate the effluent discharge from the treatment works,
On
January 30, 1984,
K.A,
Steel removed the tank,
forcing the Sanitary
District to use another tank on that location for emergency
storage of sodium hypochlorite
(Pet.
p.
6).
Lemont Plant
The Lemont Sewage Treatment Works is located at 13 River
Street,
Lemont, Illinois,
The plant has a design capacity of 1,6
MGD and discharges into the secondary contact waters of the
Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal,
In this petition, the Sanitary
District requests a variance covering the period from April
1,
1984 to December 31,
1984
(Pet.
p. 7).
Northside Plant
The Northside Sewage Treatment Works is located at 3500 West
Howard Street,
Skokie,
Illinois,
The plant has a design capacity
of 333 MGD and discharges into the secondary contact waters of
the North Shore Channel,
In this petition, the Sanitary District
requests a variance covering the period from April
1,
1984 to
December 31,
1984
(Pet,
p. 7),
57-228
3
FACTS
This variance request is unique because of the appeal status
of the Board’s effluent and water quality regulations pertaining
to fecal coliform.
Prior to November of 1982,
35
111. Mm.
Code
304.121 limited effluent fecal coliform to 400 per 100 ml.
Further, those effluents could not cause or contribute to viola-
tion of the secondary contact and indigenous aquatic
life water
quality standard of Section 302.406.
In R 77—12, Docket D,
October 14,
1982,
6 Ill.
Reg.
13750,
November
4,
1982,
the Board
revised fecal coliform regulations, deleting the secondary contact
fecal coliform watcr quality standard and modifying the effluent
standard.
On November 16,
1982 the Attorney General of Illinois
filed an appeal
in the First District Court of Appeals,
People v.
Illinois Pollution Control Board,
456 N.E.
2d
909.
At the Attorney
General’s request the First District issued a stay of the Board’s
Order on February
1,
1983.
On November 15,
1983, the First
District rendered its decision, affirming in part, reversing in
part the Board’s Order.
On January 31,
1984, the Illinois Supreme
Court granted the Illinois
Environmental Protection Agency
(“Agency”)
leave to appeal, which stays entry of the mandate of
the First District.
Thus, the First District’s February
1,
1983
stay order remains in effect as do the Board’s old fecal coliform
regulations.
In R 77—12, Docket D the Board deleted the fecal coliform
water quality standard for secondary contact and indigenous
aquatic life waters.~ The First District affirmed that action:
“The only waters
in Illinois designated by the
Board as ‘secondary contact and indigenous aquatic
life waters~are those waters into which the Metro-
politan Sanitary District discharges its effluents.
(35 Ill.
Adm. Code sec.
303.441,)
The Attorney
General does not dispute this designation.
In
secondary contact waters,
7contact with the water
is
either incidental or accidental and
***
the proba-
bility of ingesting appreciable quantities of waters
is minimal,
~
(35
Iii. Mm. Code sec. 301.380.)
The Attorney General has not argued and we find no
evidence in this record that the deletion of fecal
coliforrn as a water quality standard for secondary
use will affect the purposes for which secondary
waters are used.
Consequently we find no error in
that portion of the Board’s order which repealed
section 302.406,
the fecal coliform indicator for
secondary contact and indigenous aquatic life waters.
As a result of this conclusion, disinfection of fecal
coliform bacteria will no longer be required of
secondary contact and indigenous aquatic life waters.”
Supra, at 912—913.
57-229
4
That portion of the First District’s decision which affirmed
deletion of the secondary contact fecal coliform standard has not
been challenged in the Supreme Court.
However, that standard
remains in effect as a result of the stay,
The First District
reversed the Board’s decision to modify the fecal coliform effluent
standard of Section 304.121.
ENVI RONMENTAL
CONS EQU ENC ES
To
support
its
variance
petition,
the
Sanitary
District
prepared a report on fecal coliform densities downstream of the
discharges from the four facilities subject to this variance
(Ex.
1).
That report compared fecal coliform densities when all four
plants were chlorinating with periods when three were chlorinating
but Calumet was not.
That report,
and an additional report
prepared by Dr. Charles
N.
Haas of the Illinois Institute of
Technology
(Ex.
2) conclude there is no statistically significant
difference
in downstream fecal coliform values, with or without
chlorinating
except
in
the
immediate
proximity
of
the
discharge.
Additionally, there was testimony that residual chlorine may harm
downstream aquatic
life,
HARDSHIP
In
the
absence
of
a
variance
the
Sanitary
District
must
contract
not
later
than
March
31,
1984
for
additional
chlorination
supplies estimated to cost $1.6 million
(Pet, ¶ 7),
Additionally.
the Calumet plant is undergoing expansion which requires bypassinn
the chlorine contact tank
(Pet.
p.
8,
¶ d)
and the West—Southwest
plant has been forced to replace
a leased sodium hypochiorite
storage tank with an emergency storage tank
(Pet.
p.
6,
¶ c),
These alterations in the chlorination process may present hazards
to contractors and employees that would be eliminated or minimized
by this variance.
CONCLUSION
Due to judicial approval of the concept of deleting chior—
ination for secondary contact waters,
the weight of evidence
showing no downstream increase in fecal coliform, and the financia~
and safety hardship from continued chlorination the Board
finds
that the denial of variance would impose an arbitrary or unrea-
sonable hardship.
The Board will grant the
9 month variance
requested by the petitioner, on the assumption that the additional
year variance recommended by the Agency is merely a typographical
error.
The Board notes,
however, that this variance may not have
been needed if the Sanitary District had moved the Supreme Court
to modify the First District’s stay order for those issues not
being challenged in the Supreme Court.
57-230
5
This Opinion constitutes the Board’s findings of fact and
conclusions of law in this matter.
ORDER
The Metropolitan Sanitary District of Greater Chicago is
hereby granted a variance from 35
Ill. Adm, Code 302.406 and
304.121,
subject to the following conditions:
1.
The variance shall expire on December 31,
1984.
2.
The variance shall apply only to sewage t~eaLmenLplant
discharges from the Calumet,
Northside, West—Southwest and Lemont
sewage treatment plants.
3.
During the period of this variance, Petitioner shall
conduct water quality monitoring
to determine the impact of the
cessation of chlorination, specifically including monitoring at
Locport and Morris three
times per week,
4.
Petitioner shall make the results
of all sampling
available to the Agency.
5.
Within
45 days of the date of this Order,
The Metro-
politan Sanitary District of Greater Chicago shall
execute a
Certificate of Acceptance and Agreement to be bound to all terms
and conditions of the variance.
Said Certification shall be
submitted to
the Agency at 2200 Churchill Road,
Springfield,
Illinois
62706.
The forty—five day period shall be held in
abeyance during any period that this matter is being appealed
The form of the certificate shall
he
as follows:
CERTIFICATE
I,
(We), _________________________,
having read the
Order of the Illinois Pollution Control Board
in PCB 84—16, dated
March 21,
1984, understand and accept said Order, realizing that
such acceptance renders all terms and conditions thereto binding
and enforceable.
Petitioner
Authorized Agent
Title
57-231
6
Date
IT
IS
SO
ORDERED.
Board
Chairman
J,D. Dumelle concurred.
I, Christan
L.
Moffett, Clerk of the Illinois Pollution
Control Board, hereby certify that the above Opinion and Order
was adopted on the
LI~
day of
_________
___,
1984 by a vote of
,
J~i~J~rn
~
Christan
L.
Mo~f~1t,
Clerk
Illinois
Pollution
Control
Board
57-232