ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
June 28, 1977
CENTRAL
ILLINOIS PUBLIC SERVICE
)
COMPANY
(Grand Tower Power Station),
)
)
Petitioner,
)
)
v.
)
PCB 77—74
ILLINOIS ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
AGENCY,
Respondent.
MR.
THOMAS
L.
COCHRAN,
SORLING,
NORTHRUP,
HANNA,
CULLEN
AND
COCHRAN,,
APPEARED
ON BEHALF OF PETITIONER;
MR.
STEVEN
WATTS,
ASSISTANT
ATTORNEY
GENERAL,
STATE
OF
ILLINOIS,
APPEARED
ON
BEHALF
OF
RESPONDENT.
OPINION AND ORDER OF THE BOARD
(by Mr.
Goodman):
Central Illinois Public Service Company
(CIPS)
is before the
Board alleging the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency
(Agency)
improperly denied an operating permit for CIPS’
ash storage ponds
at the Company’s Grand Tower Power Station in Jackson County,
Illinois.
Hearing was held in this matter on May
3, 1977; no public
conunent has been received by the Board.
This case
is apparently an outgrowth of a prior Board case,
PCB 74-145,
in which CIPS appealed the Agency’s denial of operating
permits for the ash ponds at three of its power stations including
the Grand Tower Power Station.
In PCB
74-145
the Board ordered the
Agency to issue permits for the other two power stations but upheld
the Agency’s denial in the case of Grand Tower stating in paragraph
three of the Board’s Order “Petitioner fails to satisfy the trace
amounts test for contaminants other than suspended solids at Grand
Tower because of insufficient information.
The Agency’s denial of a
permit at Grand Tower is thereby upheld.”
In the instant proceeding
the Agency sent two denial letters to CIPS stating in one that the
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bottom ash pond no longer required a separate permit since it had
been connected to the fly ash pond and in the other that the fly
ash pond application would require Board action with regard to
whether or not sufficient information was presented to allow the
Board to rule on the trace amounts question of the Grand Tower
Plant as referenced in PCB 74-148.
The record in PCB 74—148 was
incorporated by stipulation of the parties at the hearing herein.
The Agency in this case has apparently taken the position that
the Board Order in PCB 74-148 demands that the Board pass on the
sufficiency of the application with regard to trace amounts of con-
taminants.
Although the Board disagrees with this Agency position,
the case being before us, we shall make the determination requested.
From the record it appears that the Agency Engineer who reviewed the
application feat that CIPS did not supply information concerning the
intake and raw waste water effluent concentration for parameters
that could have been added through the process.
It was his opinion
that he needed to know the amounts of these contaminants in the in-
coming water in order to evaluate whether or not more than an inci-
dental addition of trace amounts of these materials were added by
CIPS.
This information was necessary, the Engineer felt, under Rule
401(b), background concentrations, which allows trace additions of
contaminants above the incoming level notwithstanding violation of
effluent standards.
However,
in this case information contained in
the application indicates that the effluent standards of Part IV of
the Regulations were not exceeded; therefore, there was no need to
invoke the provisions of Rule 401(b) (Agency Record, Exhibit
3).
There is nothing in the Agency record or in the transcript which
would lead the Board to believe that CIPS adds any pollutant to its
discharge which has not been surveyed and determined to be within
regulatory limits.
Noting that the Agency’s denial letter of
February 14,
1977 with respect to the fly ash pond Log No.
3277-77
states, “Information provided in your resubmittal application does
satisfy all other items in our denial letter of February 5,
1973 for
this subject project”, the Board finds that CIPS is entitled to an
operating permit for the Grand Tower Power Station fly ash storage
pond pursuant to its application dated January 12,
1977.
This Opinion constitutes the findings of fact and conclusions of
law of the Board in this matter.
ORDER
It is the Order of the Pollution Control Board that an
operating permit be issued to Central Illinois Public Service
26
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—3—
Company for its Grand Tower Power Station fly ash storage pond
pursuant to the Company’s January 12,
1977 application therefor.
The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency shall issue said
permit within 60 days of the date of this Order.
I, Christan L.
Moffett, Clerk of the Illinois Pollution Control
Board3 hereby certify the above Opinion and Order were ado ted on the
___________day of
~
,
1977 by a vote of
~
Illinois
Pollution
Board
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