ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
    November
    16, 1978
    GENERAL MOTORS CORPORATION,
    )
    Petitioner,
    V.
    )
    PCB 78—228
    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 August 23, 1978 by General Motors Corporation
    (“General Motors”)
    requesting an extension of its existing variance
    (PCB 76-205)
    from the Board’s water quality limit for fluoride of
    Rule 203(f)
    of Chapter
    3:
    Water Pollution Regulations for outfall
    002 at General Motors’ Central Foundry Division plant at Danville,
    Illinois to extend from September
    1,
    1978
    (the expiration date of
    General Motors’
    existing variance pertaining to fluoride at
    outfall
    002)
    through the conclusion of the regulatory proceeding
    now pending before the Board
    (R78-7)
    in connection
    with fluoride
    water quality at this outfall.
    On September 25,
    1978,
    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 five
    (5) years or until the Board reaches
    a final decision in R78-7, whichever occurs first
    (subject to the
    condition that the concentration of fluoride at outfall
    002 not
    exceed that which Petitioner has discharged previously).
    General
    Motors has waived its right to a hearing, and no hearing has been
    held.
    The subject of this Petition for Extension of Variance is
    General Motors’
    foundry in Danville,
    Vermillion County, Illinois
    which manufactures malleable and grey iron castings for the
    automotive industry.
    The unit processes employed by the foundry
    include:
    cupola melting,
    sand molding, and rough finishing and
    annealing of castings which are used in the production of intake
    manifolds, brake parts
    (master cylinders),
    transmission parts,
    and disc brake components for motor vehicles.
    General Motors’
    Danville operation produces approximately 1,500 tons per day of
    iron castings.
    32—127
    —2—
    In 1977,
    the average number of employees on General Motors’
    payroll at Danville was 2,310 people and the total 1977 payroll
    was $48 million dollars.
    General Motors Corporation spent $71.2
    million dollars in 1977 on goods purchased from Danville area
    suppliers for the Danville plant.
    Currently,
    the plant provides
    employment for more than 2,650 individuals.
    As indicated by the
    previously delineated
    figures, the Danville plant was a substantial
    factor in the $520.2 million dollar contribution by General Motors
    to the economy of the State of Illinois
    in 1977.
    General Motors’
    Danville plant is located in Vermillion
    County.
    The North Fork Vermillion River, and the discharges of
    the Danville Sanitary District and Lauhoff Grain Company,
    are
    located downstream.
    The plant currently draws approximately 11
    million gallons of water per day from the Vermillion River and
    discharges about 10 million gallons
    of water per day
    (the balance
    being lost
    in evaporation).
    The water is utilized in cupola shell
    cooling, cupola emission cleaning,
    slag sluicing, non—contact
    machine cooling and dust collecting.
    General Motors’
    operation has an industrial wastewater
    discharge at outfall
    002 which flows through an unnamed ditch
    to
    the Vermillion River.
    Outfall 002
    is one of three permitted
    industrial wastewater discharges at the Petitioner’s Danville
    property and constitutes the principle subject of this Petition.
    It is tributary to a ravine and stream which empty into the
    Vermillion River on the east side of the property.
    General Motors
    must currently meet the Board’s water quality limit of a maximum
    concentration of 1.4 milligrams/liter of fluoride at the point of
    its discharge into the unnamed ditch.
    However, General Motors
    cannot comply with the existing 1.4 mg/l fluoride water quality
    limit,
    at the point of discharge, when background river levels of
    fluoride are high.
    On June
    9,
    1977,
    the Illinois Pollution Control Board granted
    General Motors Corporation a variance from Rule 203(f)
    of the
    Board’s Water Pollution Regulations with regard to iron,
    lead,
    zinc, manganese,
    copper, cadmium,
    fluoride,
    and temperature
    (PCB 76—205).
    The Board also granted a variance from Rule 408(a)
    of Chapter
    3 with regard to iron,
    lead,
    zinc, manganese,
    fluoride
    and total suspended solids until September
    1,
    1978.
    The Board’s Order in PCB 76-205 incorporated the conditions
    and compliance schedule as stated in the “Stipulation” filed by
    the Agency and General Motors on May
    6,
    1977.
    Paragraph
    5,
    subpart
    (3)
    of that Stipulation required that General Motors
    32—128
    —3—
    forward to the Agency by December 31,
    1977,
    the results of a study
    concerning
    the relationship,
    if any, of General Motors’
    current
    and alternative process materials usage,
    or,
    if necessary,
    solid
    waste storage with fluoride levels at outfall
    002.
    The Agency
    received the report of that study on December 29,
    1977.
    Paragraph
    5,
    subpart
    (3)
    of the “Stipulation” further required that,
    if the
    aforementioned report showed noncomplying fluoride levels for 002
    at the time of submission of the report to the Agency,
    General
    Motors prepare legal or technical solutions for proposal to the
    Agency by March
    1,
    1978.
    Exhibit A of General Motors’
    petition
    is
    a copy of the Petition to Amend Regulations R78-7,
    filed August
    23,
    1978
    (i.e.,
    on its petition,
    Petitioner
    is seeking to amend Rule
    203.1 of Chapter
    3 as that rule applies to the level
    of fluoride
    at outfall 002).
    General Motors has requested an extension of its existing
    Variance from the Board’s water quality limit for fluoride at
    outfall 002 to extend from September
    1,
    1978
    (the expiration date
    of General Motors’ existing variance for this parameter and
    outfall)
    through the conclusion of the regulatory proceeding now
    pending before the Board in R78-7
    (i.e., the proposed site-specific
    amendment to the 1.4 milligram/liter
    fluoride water quality limit
    to allow fluoride levels in the ditch of up
    to
    5 milligrams per
    liter).
    In its Recommendation, the Agency indicated that it believed
    that,
    considering Petitioner’s compliance with the requirements of
    the previously mentioned Stipulation regarding fluoride,
    to require
    General Motors at this time to develop a treatment scheme to remove
    fluoride from outfall
    002 would constitute an arbitrary and
    unreasonable hardship in light of the regulatory change R78-7
    pending before the Board.
    (Agency Recommendation,
    p.
    3).
    Thus,
    the Agency has recommended that the Company’s Petition for
    Extension of Variance be granted for a period of
    5 years or until
    the Board reaches a final decision in R78—7, whichever occurs
    first
    subject to the condition that the concentration of fluoride
    at outfall
    002 not exceed that which General Motors has discharged
    previously.
    (Agency Recommendation,
    p.
    3-4).
    After carefully evaluating this matter,
    the Board finds that
    denial of the extension of this Variance would constitute
    an
    arbitrary and unreasonable hardship.
    It would not be appropriate
    to require General Motors
    to develop a treatment scheme to remove
    fluoride from outfall
    002.
    The pending regulatory change before
    the Board in R78-7 may also provide permanent relief.
    Accordingly,
    the Board will grant the Petitioner an extension of its existing
    variance(i.e., PCB 76-205,
    which expired on September 1,
    1978)
    from
    32—129
    —4—
    the Board’s water quality provisions of Rule 203(f)
    of Chapter
    3:
    Water Pollution Regulations as such rule
    is applicable
    to fluoride
    at outfall 002 at General Motors’ Central Foundry Division plant
    at Danville,
    Illinois until November
    16, 1983 or until the Board
    reaches a final decision in R78—7, whichever occurs first
    (subject
    to the condition that the concentration of fluoride at outfall
    002
    not exceed that which Petitioner has discharged previously).
    The
    Agency shall be required to modify Petitioner’s NPDES permit to
    conform with the Board’s Order in
    this matter.
    The Board also directs the Agency to modify General Motors’
    NPDES permit consistent with this Order pursuant to Rule 914
    to
    include interim effluent limitations
    as may reasonably be achieved
    through application of best practicable operation and maintenance
    practices at the existing facility.
    This Opinion constitutes the Board’s findings of fact and
    conclusions of law in this matter.
    ORDER
    1.
    General Motors Corporation
    is hereby granted an extension
    of its existing Variance from the Board’s water quality provisions
    of Rule 203(f)
    of Chapter
    3:
    Water Pollution Regulations as such
    rule is applicable to fluoride at outfall 002 at General Motors’
    Central Foundry Division plant at Danville,
    Illinois until
    November 16,
    1983 or until the Board reaches a final decision in
    R78-7, whichever occurs first,
    subject to the condition that the
    concentration of fluoride at outfall
    002 not exceed that which
    Petitioner has discharged previously.
    2.
    Petitioner, within 30 days of the date of this Order,
    shall request Agency modification of NPDES permit to incorporate
    all conditions of the variance set forth herein.
    3.
    The Agency, pursuant
    to Rule 914 of Chapter
    3,
    shall
    modify Petitioner’s NPDES permit consistent with the conditions set
    forth in this Order including such interim effluent limitations as
    may reasonably be achieved through the application of best
    practicable operation and maintenance practices in the existing
    facilities.
    4.
    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
    32—130
    —5—
    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 78—228,
    understand and accept said Order, realizing
    that such acceptance renders all terms and conditions
    thereto binding and enforceable.
    SIGNED
    TI
    TLE
    DATE
    IT IS SO ORDERED.
    I,
    Christan
    L. Moffett, Clerk of the Illinois Pollution
    Control Board, here~ycertify the above Opinion and Order were
    adopted on the
    /(p’’
    day of
    /)a-~4-4-~.~.i
    ,
    1978 by a
    vote of
    2-o
    Christan L. Moffe’J.çilerk
    Illinois Pol1ution’~~trolBoard
    32—13 1

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