ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD

February 16, 1978

URBANA AND CHAMPAIGN SANITARY

DISTRICT,

)

Petitioner,

)

PCB 77—271

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY,

Respondent.

Mr. J. C. Ermentrout appeared on behalf of the Petitioner.

Mr. John Van Vranken, Assistant Attorney General, appeared

on behalf of the Respondent.

OPINION AND ORDER OF THE BOARD (by Mr. Young):

On October 17, 1977, the Urbana and Champaign Sanitary

District submitted a variance petition requesting relief

from certain regulations of Chapter 3: Water Pollution

Control Regulations. The Petition was amended on November

14, 1977. In particular, the District seeks a variance

from Rules 402, 404(f) (ii), 405, and 409(a) as each applies

to the discharges from the Southwest and Northeast Treat~

ment Plants, from the sewage treatment bypass restrictions

in Rules 403, 602(c), and 602(d) (1), and from Rule 602(b)

as it

pertains to sanitary sewer overflows. The Petitioner

requests the Board to condition the granL of the variance

by ordering abatement

of

all violations for which variance

is sought by June 30, 1981, or until the completion dates

specified in the approved Facilities Plan, the applicable

NPDES permits and the Enforcement Compliance Schedule Letters

issued by the United States Environmental Protection Agency

to the District. A hearing was held in Champaign, Illinois,

on January 9, 1978, in which Petitioner and Respondent stipu-~

lated to facts and responded to certain criticisms of the

abatement order (R. p7-23).

The District owns and operates a Southwest and a North-

east sewage treatment plant which are presently in compliance

with USEPA standards for secondary treatment. Effluent from

the Southwest plant is discharged into Copper Slough, an

intermittent

stream tributary to the Kaskaskia Ditch. The

Northeast plant discharges

into the Saline Branch Drainage

29—219

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Ditch which has a 7-day lO-’year 

low flow of 2,4 cfs, Other

sewage treatment 

plants in the facilities planning area

include (1) the Village of Savoy 

treatment works, on restricted

status, 

which 

discharges into an unnamed, intermittent stream

tributary 

to

the Embarass River and (2) the University of

Illinois-Willard Airport 

treatment plant (Pet, Exh. D, p172-3).

In accordance with the 

“Facilities Planning 

Report for

Urbana and Champaign Sanitary District” 

(hereinafter Facilities

Plan), the District will expand and

improve the Southwest and

Northeast treatment works 

to an average design flow of 5.9

and 17.3 MGD respectively; at peak 

capacity District facilities

could 

completely 

treat an estimated 86.2 MGD (Exh, D), When

this expansion is 

complete, the Village of Savoy and U. of I.

Willard treatment facilities will be discontinued and those

wastes will be transported by an interceptor to the Southwest

sewage treatment 

plant. Upon completion of this plan, the

District maintains that discharges from the District plants

will meet 

mg/i BOD5, 12 mg/l suspended solids, 1.5 mg/i

ammonia nitrogen, 1.0 mg/i phosphorus, and the 400/100 ml fecal

coliform limitations of the Chapter 3 Regulations. The District

also states that the plan will correct excessive infiltration

and overflow problems 

in

the

District~s sanitary sewer system

by June 30, 1979 (Pet. p22). 

Total cost for cotapietion of the

District’s Facilities Plan is

estimated at $33.8 million with

$25.3 million

to be provided from the federal grants program.

Therefore, the 

District must finance a balance of $8.5 million

or lose the federal 

grant (Pet. 

p4).

Petitioner claims that

an abatement 

order

and a variance from the above-mentioned

rules of Chapter 

are necessary 

secure financing 

and

to

complete construction

in

accordance

with the Facilities Plan

(Pet. p17, 20,

22, 26).

December 16, 1977, the Environmental Protection Agency

filed its Recommendation 

favorable to a variance grant from

Rule 

402

(ammonia nitrogen), 403, and 405 until June 30, 1981,

and from Rule 602(b) until June 

30,

1979. The Agency, however,

recommended that relief from Rules 404 (f) (ii), 409(a), 602(c)

and 602(d) (1)

should be dismissed as unnecessary (Rec. p5, 6,

7). The Board agrees 

that relief from Rules 409(a), 602(c),

and 602(d) (1) 

is not needed for, in this case, compliance dates

for correcting sewer overflows and treatment bypass problems

are presently established by regulation. Similarly, relief

from the Rule 404(f) (ii) 10/12 BOD5/SS effluent standard is

provided by 

regulation as long as Petitioner adheres to its

federal construction 

grant schedule.

In this regard, however,

the

District plants obtained interim relief from the 10/12

BOD/SS requirement through Enforcement Compliance Schedule

Letters which in effect revised the NPDES permits of the South-

west and Northeast plants setting BOD/SS interim limitations

29—220

at 20/25

and

25/30

respectIvely

for the duration of the con-

struction

grants prorram (Rec~ p2, 3;

Pet. 

Exh. G & H),

According 

to the ~gencv

Recommendation, the Urbana and

Champaign

Sanitary District, is 

violation 

of Rule 403

restrictions 

a7ai~ir-: offensive

discharges (Rec~ p7) 

;

it ~u.so

exceeds

the

400/LOU ml

fecal coliform standard 

in violation

of Rule

405 (Rec. p5’~ and the District’s revised ~PDES oer:nits

(Pet. Exh, G ~ H’~. In

addition, 

the

Agency 

claims that ci—

cessive

infi1Lr~itior& into sewers and sanitary sewer overflows

cause

violations 

‘~

Rile

602(h)

in the District’s sanitar’p

sewers

(Rec. p8)

s~o~cy grab samples indicate that District

plants

discharge ~ ~h ammonia nItrogen concentrations

which

the Agency

clair~

in violtion

of Rule 402 effluent stondards.

Rule 203 (f)

urcv~de~ that ammonia nitrcqen concentrations

(as

N) not exceed

1. i :n~/i 

in :r:L:~inois waters.

According to the

record, discharges

fr’ra

the

Southwest and Northeast plants

exceed

ammonia nitrogen water

quality 

standards in intermittent

and low

flow recei~inb

streams (Rec. p2, 3), and therefore

Petitioner

will recn ‘~e relief f~rorn ammonia nitrogen limliations

of Rules 

203(fl as w-~iLas RuLe 402,

the nast,

~Jìe board has held that where a denia

of a

variance

would resi ~ in the ineligibility

for federal cor~

struction

grant 

funting, an arbitrary and unreasonable hardship

would result.

Baoo~airctonaodNorma1

Sanitary

District,

PCB

76—52, 21

PCB 376 (li76).

Petitioner’s Step III grant ot funds

for construction 

in accordance with the

Facilities Plan was

approved

September 

1977.

The record intrca~es and.

the

Board finds that

the schedule

of construction nro~ si.

is

reasonable

and

will result in abate-

ment

of the exast~r- ‘uiolations when completed~ The Board further

finds that the s*’~

effauent 

limit.a:ions contained in the

Petitioner4s

.TPDES o~r.nits ale adequat.e and will not

be

exceeded

during the

period o~

c~nstruction 

the existing facilities 

are

maintained nrd 

o~er~t2d

in accordance with the permits and sound

practice. Tth

board w±ll therefore grant the Petitioner a

variance

fcr

its

Sort~’esu

aru Northeast sewage treatment ol 

ants

from Rules 

2e3(f~)

and

~O2 as ~hose rules apply to ammonia nitro-

gen, from

Rules 403 ~05, ar~l

602(h) until June 30, 1981, er 

such

earlier 

completion dates

specified 

the approved Facilities

Plan, the 

applicable brDES permits, and the

Enforcement Compliance

Schedule

Lettnrs issro3 h~

the dnited States Environmenta Pro-

tection Agency. 

The variance

is granted on the condition hat

the Petitioner 

abatE u

:esent ~riolations and achieve comth: ~nce

with 

Rules 

402, 403,

404(f) 

(ii),

405, and 602(c) on or bthore

June 

30,

1981( and ~citb

Rule 502(b) on or before June 

30~

1q79.

This 

Opanion crnstitutes the Board’s findings of fact and

conclusions 

of Ian ~n this

matter.

29--221

—4-.

ORDER

The Urbana and Champaign Sanitary District is granted a

variance from Rules 203(f) and 402 (as 

each 

applies to ammonia

nitrogen), from Rules 403 and 

405 of Chapter 

3: Water Pollution

Regulations until June 30, 1981, and from Rule 602(b) 

until

June 30, 1979, sublect to the following conditions:

1. The District shall abate its discharge of inadequately

treated sewage as required under Rules 

203(f), 

402, 404(f)(ii),

and 405 of Chapter 3: Water Pollution Regulations by making

the necessary improvements in accordance with the project com-

pletion schedule 

included in the USEPA 

prant (C17l568-03) con-

taining the following schedule:

(a) Completion of

construction by March 

31,

1981;

(b) Completion of start-up operations by

June 

30, 1981.

2. The District shall abate the discharge of inadequately

treated sewage from treatment 

plant bypasses as required 

under

Rules 403 and 602(c) 

of Chapter

3:

Water Pollution Regulations

by making 

necessary improvements in accordance with the project

completion schedule included in the USEPA 

grant (Cl7l568—03)

containing the following schedule:

(a) Completion of construction by March 31,

1981;

(b) Completion of start-up operations by

June 30, 

1981.

The District shall abate overflows from 

sanitary sewers

by making necessary 

improvements so as to comply with Rule 602(b)

of Chapter 3: 

Water Pollution ReguLations in accordance with

the project completion schedule containing the following schedule:

(a) Completion of plans and specifications

by June 30, 1978.

(b) Completion of construction by June 30,

1979.

4. The variances granted herein shall be effective condi-

tioned upon Petitioner remaining eligible for construction grant

funds.

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 Pro-

tection 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

29

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222

—5—

period herein shall be suspended during judicial 

review of

this vairance pursuant to Section 41 of the Environmental

Protection Act. The form of said certification shall 

be as

follows:

CERT IF ICAT ION

I, (We), __________________________

havLng read

the Order of the Pollution Control Board in PCB

77-271,

understand and accept said Order, realizing that such

acceptance renders all terms and conditions thereto

binding and enforceable.

IT IS SO ORDERED.

SIGNED

TITLE

DATE

I, Christan L. Moffett, Clerk of the Illinois Pollution

Control

Board, here~y certify the above Opinion and Order were

adopted

~n

the

~

day of 

1978 by ~

vote of ~

Illinois

Pollution

trol Board

—

223