ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD

July 20,

1978

GENERAL TELEPHONE COMPANY

OF ILLINOIS,

Petitioner,

v.

)

PCB 78—165

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY,

Respondent.

OPINION AND ORDER OF THE BOARD

(by Mr. Young):

This matter comes before the Board on a Petition filed

on June

5,

1978, by the General Telephone Company of Illinois

(General) for a variance from Rules

203(c)

,

402 and 404(f)

all of Chaoter

3:

Water Pollution, of the Board’s Rules

and Regulations,

as those rules apply to phosphorus.

The

Environmental Protection Agency filed a Recommendation on

July

6,

1978, which recommended that the variance be

granted for a period of five years,

subject to certain

conditions.

No hearing was held in this matter; General

waived hearing in their Petition and on July 13,

1978,

agreed to accept the conditions recommended by the Agency.

The treatment facility for which the variance is re-

quested serves an office, warehouse and construction

personnel reporting center located near Marion,

Illinois,

and is designed to serve 48 office and

78 transient con-

struction personnel

(Pet. p2).

Petitioner alleges that

design average flow, consisting entirely of domestic type

wastes,

is

0.0036 MGD

(Pet.

p2)

and that the estimated daily

discharge of phosphorus will be 0.06 pounds per day which

is discharged to a ditch tributary to Little Crab Orchard

Creek which empties into Crab Orchard Lake

(Pet.

p2,

4).

The sewage treatment facility consists of dual septic tanks,

dual septic tank effluent pumps, dual intermittent sand

filters,

chlorinator and chlorine contact basin,

and dual

effluent discharge/recirculation pumps

(Pet.

p3).

Because the concentration of phosphorus in Crab Orchard

Lake exceeds the standard of Rule 203(c), the application of

Rules

203(c)

and 402

to the facility would establish a

phosphorus effluent concentration limitation of 0.05 mg/i on

the facility.

General concludes that removal of phosphorus

to a concentration of 0.05 mg/l is almost impossible

(Pet.

p3); the Agency believes that such removal

is technically

feasible but economically unreasonable

(Rec. p3).

31-121

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—2—

General states that the cost to comply with the existing

regulations in this small

facility would be extremely high,

citing

a capital cost of $8,000.00 and annual operating costs

of

$11,400.00, which they believe would constitute an arbitrary

and unreasonable hardship in view of the insignificant contribu-

tion

to Crab Orchard Lake

(Pet.

p3-’4).

The Board is familiar with the oroblems facing dischargers

in meeting the 0.05 mg/l phosphorus limitation.

City of Hoopeston,

PCB 76—234,

24 PCB 441; Southern Illinois University at Edwards-

yule,

PCB 77-111,

25 PCB 775; Valley Water Company,

Inc., PCB

77—146,

25 PCB 289.

In those,

and a number of other cases,

the Agency and

the

Board have recognized that

it is not economically reasonable

for the petitioners

in those

cases

to comply with an effluent

concentration limitation of 0.05 mg/i for phosphorus.

In

further recognition of this difficulty,

the Agency has petitioned

the Board

in R76-l

for aopropriate amendments to the phosphorus

effluent limitations and water quality standards of Chapter

3.

If the amendments proposed in R76-l were adopted without change,

General would not be required

to provide equipment for phosphorus

removal at this facility.

Based upon the foregoing,

the Board will grant

to General

the same measure of relief during the pendency of R76-l granted

to other petitioners facing similar problems because of the

application of Rules

203(c)

and 402.

The Board will dismiss

the request for variance from Rule 404(f)

as unnecessary since

the grant of relief

from Rule

203(c) would remove any phosphorus

water quality violation from consideration for

a Pfeffer exemption

under Rule 404(f) (ii).

Pursuant to Rule 914, the Board will direct the Agency

to

modify the Petitioner’s NPDES permit consistent with the Opinion

and Order herein.

This Opinion constitutes the Board’s findings of fact and

conclusions of law in this matter.

ORDER

1.

General Telephone Company of Illinois

is granted

a

variance for the operation of its Marion,

Illinois, wastewater

treatment plant from Rules

203(c)

and 402 of Chapter

3:

Water

Pollution Rules and Regulations regarding phosphorus until

July 20,

1983, subject to the following condition:

a)

This variance will earlier terminate

upon

adoption by the Board of any modification

of the existing phosphorus water quality

standards and effluent limitations and

General shall comply with such revised

regulations when adopted by the Board.

31~122

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—3—

2.

The Petition for Variance from the phosphorus

requirement of Rule 404(f) of Chapter

3

is hereby dismissed.

3.

Petitioner, within

30 days of the date of this Order,

shall request Agency modification of the NPDES permit for

this facility to incorporate all conditions of the variance

set forth herein.

4.

The Agency, pursuant to Rule 914 of Chapter

3,

shall

modify Petitioner’s NPDES permit consistent with the conditions

set forth

in this Order.

5.

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 stayed during judicial

review of this variance pursuant

to Section

31 of the Environ-

mental Protection Act.

The form of said certification shall

be

as follows:

CERTIFICATION

I,

(We)

,

____________________________ having read

the Order of the Pollution Control Board in POD 78-165,

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, hereby certify the

a ove Opinion and Order were

ado

ed on the~O~ day of

________________,

1978 by

a vote

of

___.

(hristan

L.

Moffett

Illinois ,Pollution Con~ol Board