ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
July 12,
1979
MAPLE HILL NURSING HOME,
INC.,
Petitioner,
v.
)
PCB 79—105
ILLINOIS ENVIRONMENTAL
PROTECTION AGENCY,
Respondent.
OPINION AND ORDER OF THE BOARD
(by Mr. Werner):
This matter comes before the Board on a Petition for
Extension
of Variance filed on May 11,
1979 by Maple Hill Nursing Home,
Inc.
(“Maple Hill”) requesting an extension of its prior variance
(PCB 77—202)
from Rule 404(f) (ii)
of Chapter
3:
Water Pollution
Control Regulations.
On June 19,
1979,
the Illinois Environmental
Protection Agency (“Agency”)
filed its Recommendation.
The Agency
recommended that the Petition for Extension of Variance be granted
for a period of two years,
subject to various conditions.
Maple
Hill has waived its right to a hearing,
and no hearing has been held.
The Petitioner operates a nursing home in Long Grove, Illinois
which has a sewage treatment plant consisting of a comminutor and a
two cell lagoon.
The design capacity of this sewage treatment plant
is 15,000 gallons per day.
The facility currently discharges
effluent into Buffalo Creek which exceeds the limitations of
10 mg/i of BOD5 and 12 mg/i of suspended solids set by Rule 404(f) (ii)
of the Board’s Water Pollution Control Regulations.
Because the nursing home is
located 2—1/2 miles from the nearest
sanitary sewer connection,
it would cost Maple Hill over $184,000
to construct a private sewer line for this distance
(i.e.,
2—1/2 miles).
Alternatively,
it would cost the Petitioner over $150,000 to upgrade
its present treatment plant.
However, the Lake County Department of
Public Works is planning to construct an interceptor sewer along
Route 53 which will come within 1/4 mile of the Petitioner’s sewage
treatment facility.
It will cost the Petitioner approximately
$15,000
to connect to this planned interceptor
sewer.
Originally, when the Board granted Maple Hill a variance in
1977,
it was believed that the construction of the interceptor
sewer would begin in a relatively short period of time.
However,
35—63
—2--
construction of the interceptor sewer by the Lake County Department
of Public Works has not yet started and probably won’t begin until
1980.
(Rec.
2).
Thus,
the Petitioner has requested an extension
of its prior variance.
In support of this request, Maple Hill has
submitted an engineer’s report stating that,
since the issuance of
its NPDES permit, there has been
“no increase in the population
demand for which the plant was designed.”
(See: Exhibit B of the
Variance Extension petition filed May 11, 1979).
At the present
time, Maple Hill is submitting partially completed operating reports
instead of the discharge monitoring reports required by its NPDES
permit and by the Board Order in PCB 77-202.
However, the Petitioner
has promised to contact its former engineers and rectify this
situation.
(Rec.
3).
After evaluating all the facts and circumstances of this case,
the Board finds that the denial of the extension of this Variance
would constitute an arbitrary and unreasonable hardship.
It would
not be appropriate to require Maple Hill Nursing Home,
Inc. to
choose either currently available, costly, alternative method of
compliance, when connection to the planned Lake County interceptor
sewer in the near future will provide an economically reasonable and
environmentally sound solution to this situation.
Accordingly, the
Board will grant the requested variance extension for a period of
two years, subject to certain conditions which are delineated in
the Board’s Order.
This Opinion constitutes the Boardts findings of fact and
conclusions of law in this matter.
ORDER
The Petitioner, Maple Hill Nursing Home,
Inc.,
is hereby
granted an extension of its prior variance from Rule 404(f) (ii)
of
Chapter
3:
Water Pollution Control Regulations for its sewage
treatment plant until July 12,
1981, subject to the following
conditions:
1.
Petitioner shall not exceed the design capacity of the
existing treatment plant of 15,000 gallons per day.
2.
Petitioner shall submit discharge monitoring reports as
required by its NPDES permit.
3.
Petitioner shall operate the existing treatment facility
as efficiently as possible.
4.
Petitioner shall obtain the necessary permit for the
sewer to be installed between the facility and the
interceptor and shall connect to the interceptor sewer as
soon as possible.
--
‘~
I.
—3—
5.
The variance will terminate when connection is made
and operation is possible.
6.
Within forty-five
(45)
days of the date of this Order,
the Petitioner
shall submit to the Manager, Variance Section,
Division of Water Pollution Control, Illinois Environmental
Protection Agency,
2200 Churchill Road, Springfield, Illinois,
62706, an executed Certification of Acceptance and Agreement
to be bound to all terms and conditions of the variance.
The
forty-five day period herein shall be suspended during any
judicial review of this variance pursuant to Section 41 of
the Illinois Environmental Protection Act.
The form of said
certification shall be as follows:
CERTIFICATION
I,
(We),
having read
the Order of the Illinois Pollution Control Board in
PCB 79-105, understand and accept said Order, realizing
that such acceptance renders all terms and conditions
thereto binding and enforceable.
SIGNED
TITLE
DATE
IT IS SO ORDERED.
I, Christan L. Moffett,
Clerk of the Illinois Pollution
Control Board, hereb~’certify t
above Opinion and Order were
adopted ~
the
/c~1b~
day of
__________________,
1979 by a
vote of
~p
m
~ii~
Christan L. Moffett/,~~~rk
Illinois Pollution Con~o1 Board
35—65