ILLINOIS POLLUTION
CONTROL
BOARD
October
30,
1975
ELTRA
CORPORATION,
WOODSTOCK
DIE
CASTING DIVISION,
Petitioner,
v.
)
PCB 75—208
ENVIRONMENTAL
PROTECTION AGENCY,
Respondent.
Mr.
Jack
A Green appeared on behalf of Petitioner.
Ms. Kathryn Sheehan Nesburg, Environment Protection Agency
Counsel,
appeared on behalf of Respondent.
OPINION AND ORDER OF THE BOARD
(by Mr. Goodman):
This
matter
comes before the Pollution Control Board
(Board)
upon the petition of the Woodstock Diecasting
Division of Eltra Corporation
(Woodstock)
for variance
from
Rule 205(f)
of the Air Pollution Regulations.
On
May 22,
1975,
the Board ordered Petitioner
to amend
its
petition
to include the criterion required by the United
States
Supreme Court Opinion of Train
v. NRDC,
43 USLW 4467.
An
amended petition was filed with the Board on July
7,
1975.
on
September
15,
1975,
the Environmental Protection
Aqency
(Agency)
filed its recommendation that the relief
souqht by Woodstock be granted.
A hearing was held September 25,
1975.
Petitioner operates a manufacturing facility in Woodstock,
Mchenry
County,
Illinois.
The facility produces zinc and
aluminum
die castings for large automotive manufacturers.
In
its
processes, Woodstock produces 38,000,000 pounds of
zinc castzngs and 4,000,000 pounds of aluminum castings
primarily
in the form of car grills and moldings.
Petitioner
seeks
variance
for
its
spray
painting
and
coating
operations.
Approximately 31,076 gallons of paint and 97,465
gallons
of
solvent
are
used
annually.
Woodstock
plans to comply with Rule 205(f)
by converting
to
exempt solvents,
Indeed~.Petitioner will have converted
no exempt solvents by Octoben 31~ 1975.
Penltloner
states
tha~:
~t is not unnsuai for its
customers
to
specify
the type of paint,
the paint source and
19—143
—2—
operating conditions under which the paint
is applied.
Convincing its customers of the need to develop alternative
paints and solvents was a slow and arduous task.
This,
coupled with
the
general
scarcity
of exempt solvents
in the
past,
caused
Petitioner
to
fail
to
comply
with Rule 205(f)
which
was
effective
December
31,
1973
(R15,
19,
23)
*
Petitioner
has
also had difficulty developing an exempt gray
primer
with proper adhesive properties
(R22-3).
Petitioner states
that denial
of
this
variance
would
cause unreasonable
and
arbitrary
hardship
in
that
it
would
be forced to shut down,
losing $10,000,000
in sales and
laying off of 300 people.
However,
as the Agency aptly
points out, the denial of
a variance
is not,
in and of
itself,
a shutdown order.
Mobil Oil v. EPA, PCB 73-562,
ABC_Great
Lake,
Inc.,
v.
EPA,
PCB
72-39,
Forty-Eight
Insulations,
Inc.
v.
EPA, PCB
73-478.
Attached to the Agency Recommendation
is
the
data
from
a temporary monitoring site in McHenry County.
The Agency
monitored ambient ozone concentrations
from August
1 through
4,
1975.
This
data shows that the one hour ambient air
quality
standard
of
0.08 ppm ozone was exceeded twice in
those three days~
Rule 312 of the Air Pollution Regulations
requires that said standard not be exceeded more than once
per year.
The Board finds
that
Woodstock
has
shown
the
necessary
hardship, and has an adequate compliance plan to merit the
granting of a variance.
However, pursuant to the Train
decision,
supra, the Board must deny the relief sought as
ii~ir as
it concerns a variance beyond July
31,
1975,
the
attainment date
for the primary ambient air quality standard
for photochemical oxidants.
The information before the
Board shows that this standard is being violated in McHenry
County and
Petitioner
has
failed
to
show
that
it
is
not
contrnbutinq
to
this
failure,
Therefore,
the
Board
will
crant
Petitioner
variance
from
Rule
205(f)
of
the
Air
Regulations
until
July
31,
1975.
This
Opinion
constitutes
the
Board~s
findings
of
fact
and
conclusions
of
law
in
this
matter.
Mr.
Dumelle
concurs.
ORDER
in
is the Order
of
the
Board
that
Woodstock
Diecasting
Division
of
Eltra
Corporation
be
granted
variance
from
19— 144
—3—
Rule
205(f)
until July
31,
1975,
for
its
Woodstock,
Illinois,
spray painting facility.
IT IS
SO
ORDERED.
Mr.
Young
abstained.
I,
Christan
L. Moffett, Clerk of the Illinois Pollution
Control Board, hereby certify the above Opinio
a
d Order
were adopted
on
the
~3&’~
day of
______________
1975 by a vote of~3-~
*
Christan L. Moffett~
k
Illinois Pollution C
ol Board
19
—
145