ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD

December 20, 1977

VILLAGE OF RAYMOND,

)

Petitioner,

v.

)

PCB 77—226

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY,

Respondent.

OPINION AND ORDER OF THE BOARD

(by Mr. Young):

This matter comes before the Board on a variance petition

filed on September

8,

1977, by the Village of Raymond requesting

relief from Rules 203(c),

402,

and 404(c) (iii)

for the wastewater

discharge of their Raymond Sewage Treatment Plant.

The Petitioner

waived hearing on October 12,

1977.

On November

7, 1977,

the

Agency filed a Recommendation in favor of granting a variance

from Rules

203(c)

and 402 provided that Petitioner adhere to

certain conditions,

The Petitioner seeks this variance from the phosphorus

limitations in order to obtain a lagoon exemption under Rule

404(f) (i) of Chapter

3.

The Village of Raymond operates a

sewage treatment facility with a design capacity of 100,000 GPD

which receives a daily flow of 89,300 gallons

(Pet. p1,

2).

The

Raymond treatment facility consists of primary settling and

sludge digestion in an Imhoff tank followed by conventional

trickling filter and final settling.

In 1971, Petitioner upgraded

the treatment plant with a tertiary lagoon system and chlorination

facilities

that requires the above-mentioned exemption

(Pet.

p3).

The effluent from the treatment plant

is discharged into

the West Fork of Shoal Creek which flows into Lake Lou Yaeger.

This lake also serves

as

a public water supply source for the

Village of Litchfield.

Since the plant discharges to Illinois

waters,

it is subject to the limitations of Rule 203(c) which

provide that phosphorus

(as P)

shall not exceed 0.05 mg/i in

any stream at the point where it enters any reservoir or lake.

In addition, Rule 402 requires that no effluent shall alone or

in combination with oti~ersources cause a violation of any appli-

cable water quality standard.

The Petition indicates

that the

phosphorus concentration in the West Fork of Shoal Creek near

the point of entry into Lake Lou Yaeger

is 0.76 mg/i

(Pet. p3).

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The Agency states in their Recommendation at page

3 that

phosphorus

from the Raymond STP amounts

to approximately 5.5

of the total phosphorus entering Lake Lou Yaeqer, and further

maintains that complete elimination from the Raymond plant

effluent would not significantly change the phosphorus con-

centration in the lake.

At present, Petitioner has no realistic

plan for providing phosphorus removal equipment to comply with

the regulatory limit except it has studied the construction

and operating costs for meeting an interim 1.0 mg/i level for

phosphorus.

In either instance, Petitioner submits

that the

costs of compliance would impose an arbitrary and unreasonable

hardship upon the Village of Raymond

(Pet.

p4,

5).

The Board is familiar with these conditions and has regu-

larly granted similar relief in the past.

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 other cases, the Agency and the Board have

recognized that it is economically impractical for the petitioners

to comply with the current phosphorus limitation of Chapter

3.

In addition,

the Agency has petitioned the Board in regulatory

proposal R76-l for appropriate amendments

to the Water Pollution

Regulations which would modify the existing phosphorus effluent

and water quality standards.

The Board finds that Petitioner would suffer an arbitrary

and unreasonable hardship if required to meet the existing 0.05

mg/i standard.

Petitioner will be granted

a variance from

Rule 203(c)

and 402 for five years or until the Board adopts a

regulation change under R76—l, whichever occurs first subject

to the conditions of the Order.

This Opinion constitutes the Board’s findings of fact and

conclusions of law in this matter.

ORDER

1.

The Village of Raymond is granted a variance for the

operation of its sewage treatment plant from Rules

203(c)

and

402 of Chapter

3:

Water Pollution,

of the Board’s Rules and

Regulations regarding phosphorus until December

20, 1982,

subject

to the following condition:

a)

This variince will earlier terminate upon

adoption by the Board of any modification

of the existing phosphorus water quality

standards and effluent limitations and the

Village shall comply with such revised

regulations on adoption by the Board.

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482

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b)

In the event that grant funds

become

available during the period of this

variance,

the Village shall incorporate

in any design

anD

specification adecuate

provision

for the installation of eq-uip-

ment for the removal of phosphorus which

will provide

the best practicable treatment

technology for the removal•ofphosuhorus

over

the life of the works.

2.

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 condjtionsof

the variance.

The

forty-five day period herein shall not run 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 Cont±oiBoard

in

PCB 77-226,

understand and accent said Order,~

realizing that such

acceotance renders all terms and

conditions thereto

TITLE

IT

IS

SO ORDFRED.

I, Christan L. Moffett, Clerk of the ~Il1inois Pollution

Control Board, hereby certify

the aboveOpinion and Order were

adopted on the

~9~’j~

day of

~

,

1977 by a vote

of~~-O

~

(I~J

Illinois ~olliition Control Board

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