ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL
BOARD
September
2,
1982
IN TUE MATTER
OF:
PROPOSAL
FOR
RULEMAKING
FOR
CHAPTER
6:
)
R8:1-~6
PUBLIC WATER
SUPPLY REGULATIONS OF
)
R8i~28
THE ILLINOIS
POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
Adopted Rule0
~~a1Oinipn~
FINAL
OPINION
OF
THE BOARD
(by
I.
G.
Goodman):
The
Board~s
authority
and
regulations
concerning
public water
supplies
are
premised
on
two
state statutes:
the
Environmental
Protection
Act,
Ill.
Revs
Stat.,
ch~, 111½, Sections
1001
et
~.,
and
“An
Act
to
Regulate
the
Operation
of
a
Public
Water
Supply,”
Ill.
Rev.
Stat,,
ch.
:111½,
Sections 501 et
~
(“Act’s
and
“Certified Operators
Act,~
respectively).
On September
4,
1981,
both statutes were
amended by P,A. 82~393.
Effective
January
1,
1982, this law changes
the
definition of a public
water
supply
(“supp1y~’),
limits which supplies can be required
to
chlorinate,
and
relaxes
the requirements
that
a supply retain a certified
public
water
supply
operator,
On
November
24,
1981,
the
Illinois
~vironmenta1
Protection
Agency
(~Agency”) proposed
amendments necessary to
conform
the
Board~s
Chapter
6:
Public
Water
Supplies
with
this
new
legisla-
tion,
The
Agency~sproposal
also
included some
corrections
to
minor errors
appearing in the current
regulations.
The Board
docketed
this proposal as R81~28and
ordered hearings set,
Shortly
thereafter,
the
Board
requested
that the Agency
submit
a codified
version
of
Chapter
6
pursuant to the
Illinois Admin-
istrative
Procedure
Act,
Section
1007,
incorporating its
proposed
changes,
The same
was
received by the Board
on January 19, 1982,
Public
hearings were held on January 27,
1982 in
Springfield
and on
February 8,
:1982 inChicago.
To the extent
possible~the
contributions
by
the
public
at the first hearing have been
incor-
porated into
the Board~sOrder.
No
public participants
were pre-
sent at the
second hearing.
Economic hearings
are not necessary
in
this
rulemaking,
the
Department of
Energy
and
Natural
Resources
having issued a
Declaration of
Negative
Impact
Statement
pursuant
to
Section
4(d)(4)
of ~An Act
in relation to natural
resources,
research
data
collection and environmental studies”
(Ill.
Rev.
Stat.,
ch.
96½,
par.
7404,
1979
as
amended,
The Board
acknowledges
the
assistance of Marili McFawn
in
drafting
this Opinion and for serving as hearing officer,
48~129
2
In both the Certified Operators Act and the Act,
the defini-
tion of public water supply has been amended,
While the physical
description of a public water su~p1y,i.e., mains, pipes, wells,
etc., has been retained,
the definition now depends on how many
service connections or persons serviced, rather than the number
of lots serviced or to he serviced,
The new definition also
created two categories of a public water supply.
A public water
supply is now either a “community water supply” or a “non-
community water supply.”
When a public water supply is the former,
the scope
is expanded
to
include not only the number of existing
service connections, but
also
the number of connections intended.
Alternatively, the definition can be based on the number of resi-
dents serviced.
The definition of a “non-community water supply”
is couched in the negative.
If a public water supply is not a
“community water supply,” then
it is a “non—community water supply.”
Considered collectively, these legislative amendments make the
scope of the Illinois regulatory scheme for water supplies the
same as that found
in
the federal Safe Drinking Water Act,
42
U.S.C.
300(f)
et seq.
The amendments distinguishing the two categories of public
water supplies exclude non—community supplies
from
their provi-
sions.
Therefore,
the Board no longer has jurisdiction over
non-community supplies for
the
purpose of the Certified Operators
Act or the Act.
Accordingly, Section 601.102,
Applicability, has
been added to Chapter
6.
This section makes clear that Chapter 6
does not apply to those public water supplies classified as non-
community water supplies.
chapter
6 no longer requires a Repealer.
Former Rule 102,
Repeals, provided for
the
transition from the Department of Pub-
lic Health rules to Board regulations for public water supplies.
With the adoption of Chapter
6 in November,
1974, this transition
is
long past
and the rule now unnecessary;
it is repealed in its
entirety.
As amended, Section 17(b) of the Act requires that the Agency
grant exemptions to qualifying community water supplies from “any
mandatory chlorination requirement of the Board.”
The Board had
such a chlorination requirement,
former Rule 305, which has been
retained in the codified version of Chapter
6 at Section 604.104.
This Section now also lists qualifying criteria for community
water supplies seeking exemption from chlorinating the drinking
water.
A community water supply can qualify for such an exemption
in one of two ways.
First,
an exemption is automatically granted
if a community water supply
buys all its water from a regulated
supply which chlorinates and the supply seeking exemption regular-
ly monitors sufficient chlorine residuals
in its own distribution
system.
The
second means
is for the supply to submit a written
request to the Agency and satisfy eight statutory criteria.
These criteria have been adopted by the Board at Section 604.403.
48-130
3
Five of these criteria are self—explanatory, while three
require some further explanation.
Subsection
(c) of Section
604.403 requires that
the
community water supply~sraw water
source not be subject
to
contamination,
To
fully
understand
the
implications
of
this
criteria,
it
must
be
read
in
conjunction
with Section
604.501(e)
and
the
Chapter’s
new
definition
of
“confined geologic
formation.”
It
is clear that the requesting
supply’s raw water source
must
be groundwater, specifically
protected.
Subsection
(d)
requires that the supply not have a
history of persistent
or
recurring contamination.
This
is
the
same language used in the
statute.
Definitions of “Persistent
Contamination” and
“Recurring
Contamination”
are
included
in
this rulemaking to specify which sampling histories prohibit
a
supply an exemption
from
chlorination.
The last criteria
requiring explanation
is
found in Section l7(b)(6) of the Act,
and now in Section
604.403(f).
What
is meant by and what would
be approved by the Agency as an “active program” to educate con-
sumers on preventing contamination is contained in former Rule 314,
now Section 605.112.
The Agency had been instructed therein to
adopt Technical Policy Statements about approving cross—connection
control programs.
These same guidelines are now to be followed
by supplies seeking exemption from chlorination to satisfy the
“active program” requirement.
Once the exemption from chlorination is obtained,
it can only
be lost if the supply continually fails to sustain any of the
qualifying criteria,
According to the Act and Section 604.104(c),
when this occurs the supply must immediately initiate chlorination.
This language is not intended to imply that the supply must pro-
vide stand—by chlorinating equipment.
It should be recognized
that if during the interim between loss of the exemption and
chlorinating public health is endangered,
the supply is required
by statute and elsewhere in Chapter
6 to take the necessary steps
to alert its consumers of the danger, e.g., issue a boil order.
Formerly,
the Certified Operators Act required that all
regulated public water supplies retain the services of a certi-
fied public water supply operator, properly qualified under that
act.
The new statutory amendments relax this mandate,
Now
certain public water supplies and those in the category of com-
munity water supplies can instead retain a registered person in
responsible charge.
Furthermore, those public water supplies
categorized as non—community supplies need neither a certified
operator or registered person in responsible charge.
These
statutory changes have been reflected in Part 603, Ownership
and Responsible Personnel.
The Certified Operators Act sets out the type of public water
supplies automatically granted such an exemption and the conditions
under which public water supplies and community water supplies can
seek such an exemption,
Chapter 6 has not been amended to include
these criteria, the Act itself has been referenced instead.
48-131
4
Chapter
6 at Section 603.103, Registered Person in Responsible
Charge, does require that those supplies not statutorily exempted
request this status from the Agency.
If such a supply qualifies
under the statute, the Agency is then to issue a written exemption.
Supplies receiving written exemption or automatically exempted
must then file a signed statement with the Agency identifying its
registered person in responsible charge.
That person must also
sign this statement.
In addition to the amendments pertaining to Certified
Operators,
Section 603, Owners and Responsible Personnel, is
reorganized to make clear the three initial responsibilities each
public water supply must meet,
even before permitting and actual
operation and maintenance is considered.
Each supply must be
organized and under the auspices of an actual owner or organized
body; each supply must retain a certified operator or registered
person in responsible charge;
and each supply must file and keep
current forms with the Agency identifying its ownership and
responsible personnel.
Apart from those amendments statutorily required, rules
pertaining to the Agency placing supplies on restricted status
have been added at Section 602.106.
The Agency disagreed with
their inclusion in this Chapter
(R.48,
49).
No public comments,
other than the Agency’s,
were received on this issue either at
the hearings or in writing, despite the fact that such comments
were solicited by the Board.
These rules are being included for
two reasons.
First, the Agency is currently placing supplies on
restricted status pursuant to its authority under §39 of the Act,
in an effort to forewarn supplies of their deficiencies.
Although
commendable, this may be insufficient notice to such supplies.
By providing rules for this practice in Chapter
6,
all supplies
should now be equally notified that it
is
a permanent part of the
Agency’s permitting authority and issuance.
Secondly, such a
rule provides supplies so affected Board review of the Agency’s
decision in this area.
The Board recognizes that such a program has broader impli-
cations.
Potential development in the area serviced or to be
serviced by the supply can be affected by the imposition of
Restricted Status, which in turn may affect the economic and
sound environmental growth of the community.
Since the effect
of such rules extends beyond simply permitting public water
supply facilities, it is necessary that the Board clearly
authorize the Agency to conduct such a program.
Once adopted,
Section 4(g)
of the Act which mandates the Agency to conduct
those permit programs “as may be established by this Act or
regulations adopted thereunder” provides the legal basis for
the Restricted Status program.
The Agency argued that it requires the flexibility to repeal
this program should it become financially or otherwise unable to
5
continue it,
The
Board,
however,
intends
that the Chapter
6 per-
mitting program now evolve to include a system which notifies
the supplies and persons serviced of the potential inadequacies
and violations of the supplies.
It is properly within the Board’s
authority to require such an aid to assure the continuous sanitary
quality, mineral quality,
or adequacy of public water supplies
throughout the State,
As stated at the outset, the Agency proposed minor changes
to Chapter
6 to correct
typographical
errors,
to update statutory
references, and to clarify a number of ambiguities existing in the
regulations.
These changes have been adopted,
along with changes
necessary to chapter 6’s codification,
However, two minor changes
require brief explanations.
The Agency proposed reducing the
number of bacteriological
samples required from supplies servicing
populations of 100 or less,
The reduction from two samples per
month to one was requested by the Agency to relieve its labora-
tory’s workload
(R.47)
arid
to
make the Board’s requirement con-
sistent with that of the National Interim Primary Drinking Water
Regulations
(R.21).
This change is reflected in Section 605.102.
Secondly, the Agency proposed specifying that representative
samples of finished water for bacteriological analysis be taken
from the supplies’ distribution system.
Since it also is in
accordance with the National Interim Primary Drinking Water
Standards
(R,21)
it is accepted and found at Section 605,101(a).
The Agency proposed ten additional definitions for Chapter
6.
Five of these were adopted by the Board and relocated along with
the definitions which were retained to the end of Chapter
6.
However, the other f:Lve proposed were not adopted because the
terms did not appear in Chapter
6, were already defined in the
Statutes,
or
were
explained
within
the
applicable
rules.
The
Board also deleted six existing definitions:
community water
supply, engineer, non—community water supply, operational testing,
safe, and Standards,
The definitions of community and non—
community water supply were deleted because they are defined
in both applicable statutes,
“Standards”
was deleted because it
does not appear anywhere in chapter
6.
The remaining terms were
removed because their meanings are contained within the provisions
of Chapter
6,
Similarly,
language which did not constitute rules,
but rather provided introductory remarks, has been deleted from
Chapter 6 by this rulemaking,
e.g.,
Former Rule 101, Authority
and former Rule 102, ~
To summarize,
this rulemaking was initially intended to
amend the Board’s regulations to conform with the statutory
changes of P,A, 82~~393.That was accomplished.
It has also
provided
a
vehicle
for the Chapter
6 to be corrected, refined,
and codified.
It should now provide the Board, the Agency, the
owners, official custodians, operators and responsible personnel
revised and simplified regulations by which to exercise their
responsibilities involving public water supplies.
48-133
6
I,
Christan L. Moffett, Clerk of the Illinois Pollution
Control ~
hereby certify that the above Opinion was a~opted
on the
•~L
day of\
~
,
1982 by a vote of
_______
Christan L. Mo fe t~j311erk
Illinois Pollution Control Board
48-134