ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL F~OARD
May
14,
1981
CITY OF EAST PEORIA,
)
A r4unicipal Corporation,
Petitioner,
)
v.
)
PCB S1—36
ILLINOIS ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
AGENCY,
Respondent.
OPI~IIONAND ORDER OF THE BOARD
(by J.D.
Durnelle):
On March
5,
1981 the City of East Peoria
(City) filed
a petition for variance from Rules 501(c) and 602(b)
of Chapter
3:
Water Pollution as they relate to seven lift stations and
seven manholes tributary to its wastewater treatment plant
#1
(WWTP*1) and two manholes tributary to its wastewater
treatment plant #2
(WWTP#2).
On April
15,
1981 the Illinois
Environmental Protection Agency (Agency) filed
its recommendation
to grant the variance request, subject to conditions.
That
recommendation was filed ten days late and was accompanied
by
a motion to allow the late filing.
That motion is hereby
granted.
Hearing was waived and none was held.
The City requests variance to allow
it to bypass sewage
flows
from numerous
lift stations and manholes
in the event
of excessive flows due to wet weather or failures of the lift
station pumps, and to abstain from monitoring such flows.
This
relief is essentially
an extension of
a variance granted
in PCB 79—224
(February
21,
1980;
37 PCB 407).
The City’s sanitary sewer system is subject to sev2re
infiltration and inflow during wet weather.
This has caused
problems with basement backups.
Manholes 27,
30,
41, Mabee
Avenue and Cracklewood Court are equipped with high-level
overflows, while manholes
44 and 64 are pumped by City personnel.
~ll of these manholes are on the sewer system tributary to
Plant
#1.
Discharge from manholes 27 and 30
is to Cole Creek,
discharge from manholes
41 and 44
is to Dry Run Creek, discharge
from Mabee Avenue and Cracklewood Court is to Kerfoot Creek,
and discharge from
manhole
~4 is to an unnamed ditch.
Each
oe these streams
is tributary to Farm Creek, which is in turn
tributary to the Illinois River.
The Twin Oaks Court and
Crestarms Court high—level manhole overflows are on the sewer
system tributary to Plant
*2.
Both overflows discharge to
~ckerman Creek, which is tributary to Farm Creek.
4 1—429
—2—
There are a total
of twelve lift stations tributary
to
Plant
#1,
and two lift stations tributary to Plant
#2.
Seven
of the twelve lift stations tributary to Plant
#1 have a high—
level overflow.
Discharges
from these
lift stations are to
Kerfoot Creek.
None of the lift stations tributary to Plant
~2 are equipped with a high-level overflow.
The City was issued NPDES Permit No. 1L0028576 for Plant
~l on October 21,
1977, with an expiration date of March
1,
1979.
This permit allows discharges from six of the seven
lift stations which are the subject of this variance request
(the Pebble Court Lift Station is the exception),
subject to
the condition that these by—passes are monitored daily, when
discharging, by grab samples for BOD, suspended solids, and
fecal coliform.
The seven manhole overflows are not permitted.
The City was issued NPDES Permit No. 1L0046205 for Plant
#2 on June
22,
1977,
with
an expiration date of September
30,
1981.
The two manhole overflows are not permitted.
The City
is currently conducting a Sewer System Evaluation
Survey as part of its construction grants program.
Its priority
number is 862.
Therefore, the City should be eligible for
Step II funds, but not immediately
for Step III.
Current
~rohlems
will
not be solved until all construction is completed.
The
City
alleges that this should take 23 months after receiving
Step II funding.
Total
costs for improvements is estimated at $2.5 million.
The City does not have the financial capacity to fund the project
without state or federal assistance.
Also,
the locations
of several
of the overflow points
(into ravines or storm sewers)
makes
it nearly impossible to monitor all such overflows.
Further, given that the pollutants
are released at a time of
high
dilution, the environmental impact is slight.
Therefore,
the
Board finds that denial of the variance would result in
an
arbitrary and unreasonable hardship.
The variance granted in PCB 79—224 was conditioned upon
the City studying the feasibility
of installing visual alarr~
lights on lift stations and securing a portable source of
emergency power for the lift stations,
Since the City has
begun installation of
such alarms and will allegedly complete
such installation by the fall of
1981,
the variance herein
shall be conditioned upon completing such installation.
The
portable source of emergency power is now available.
The City
shall continue
to operate its plants in
a manner consistent
with
the settlement of the enforcement action against it (PCB 78—263;
March
5,
1981).
Finally,
the variance will be granted for a period of
two years.
While the City has not requested any specific
length of time,
completion of construction should take 23
months.
The Board notes that the Agency has recommended that
the
variance be
limited to one year and that the Tazewell
41—430
—~—
County Health Department has indicated that “every effort should
be made to see that these health threats are corrected at an
early date.”
The Board agrees.
However, there has been no
allegation that the City has been dilatory
in its pursuit of
funding or that the 23—month timetable
is unrealistic. There
appears to be little to be gained by requiring the City
to come
before the Board one year from now to ask for another variance.
This Opinion constitutes the Board’s findings of fact and
conclusions of law in this matter.
ORDER
The City of East Peoria is hereby granted a variance from Rules
501(c)
and 602(h)
for a period of two years until May
14,
1983,
subject to the following conditions:
1.
the City shall operate and maintain its lift stations
and manholes
so as to minimize any possible overflows
or pump failures.
2.
The City shall install a high—level alarm system at
each of its lift stations by November
1,
1981.
3.
Within 45 days of the adoption of this Order,
the City
of East Peoria shall execute and forward to the
Illinois Environmental Protection Agency,
2200
Churchill Road, Springfield, Illinois 62706
a
Certification of Acceptance and Agreement to be bound
to all terms and conditions of this Order.
The 45 day
period shall be held in abeyance during any period this
matter
is being appealed.
The form of
said
certification shall be
as follows:
CERTIFICATION
I
(We), __________________________having
read and fully
understanding the Order of the Illinois Pollution Control Board
in PCB 81-36 hereby accept said Order and agree to be bound by
all
of the terms and conditions thereof.
SIGNED
TITLE
DATE
IT
IS SO ORDERED.
41—431
—4—
I,
Christan L.
Moffett, Clerk of the Illinois Pollution
Control Board,
hereby certify that the above Opinion and Order
was adopted on the
~
day of
~
,
1981
iDy
a vote of
~
.
~
••~:~~~-
~
~
~
Christan L. Moffett, Clerk
Illinois Pollution Control Boar~i
41—
L~
32