ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD

May 22, 1975

SHELL OIL COMPANY,

Petitioner,

v.

)

PCB 75-90

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY,

Respondent.

DISSENTING OPINION (by Mr. Dumelle):

There are two unanswered questions which bear upon this

proceeding. First, what is the “airshed” affected by the

particulate from Shell (in the legal sense) and second, what

is that airshed in the physical sense if no clear legal

guidance appears?

The Metro East area of Illinois, of which Roxana (and

Shell) is a part, is in the Metropolitan St. Louis Interstate

Air Quality Control Region which includes Madison, St.

Clair, Bond, Clinton, Monroe, Randolph and Washington counties

in Illinois. It also includes St. Louis City, and St.

Charles, St. Louis, Franklin, and Jeffersoyi counties; all in

Missouri.

Are these areas the “legal airshed” to which we apply

the standards of Train v. NRDC, et al (43 USLW 4467)? If

the particulate standards are violated anywhere in this

region, as for example, in Granite City, are we then constrained

from granting a variance?

There is no dispute that the primary (health-related)

ambient air quality standards for particulate are violated

at Granite City. In 1974, the most recent report of the

Illinois Environmental Protection Agency as submitted into

the record by the Petitioner on May 20, 1975 showed the 1974

preliminary data for Granite City as follows:

Granite City (6 stations)  All above primary

standard (100,93,86,l58,etc.)

17

—

157

—2—

3The national primary standard for particulates is 75

ug/m as an annual geometric mean. Thus, Granite City (for

the four stations for which data are given) is respectively;

33, 24, 15 and 111 over the standard. How much the

other two stations are over the standard is not known in

this record. Thus we have four clear violations of a health-

related ambient air~quality standard. In addition, East St.

Louis, with 89 ug/m~, and Cahokia Mounds Park, with 111

ug/m3, are respectively 19 and 48 over the standard.

Granite City has a population of 40,440; East St. Louis

has 69,996; and Cahokia has 20,649. Thus 131,085 persons

that we know of from this record are subjected to unhealthy

air in the Illinois portion of this Air Quality Control

Region (AQCR). Whether there are any other particulate

violations in the remainder of the Illinois portion is not

known. Nor is it known whether any violations exist on the

Missouri side. The record is silent in presenting air

quality data for the entire AQCR.

A careful reading of Train v. NRDC fails to show any

mention of the need, if any, to meet ambient air quality

standards in an entire AQCR. Again, we just do not know. A

presumption can be made that the AQCRs exist for some purpose

and that these are the “legal airsheds” within which air

standards are to be met. But we have no guidance here and

simply must wait for further developments, either via court

decisions or from Congressional action.

We then must look to the “physical” or “meteorological

airshed”. If the air coming from Roxana and flowing southerly

into Granite City, et al, via various trajectories, is 72

ug/m3 (as measured at Wood River) or 69 at Alton or 66 at

Collinsville, then very little margin exists for the industries

and other sources in and near to Granite City, East St.

Louis and Cahokia to discharge particulate without violating

the 75 ug/m3 national standard. A community of heavy industry,

such as Granite City, must have relatively clean air coming

to it if its own discharges are not to overwhelm health-

related standards.

This record gives no inkling as to whether Granite

City, East St. Louis and Cahokia are in the same meteorological

airshed as Roxana and Shell. Knowing the frequent inversion

conditions of the American Bottoms and. the channeling effects

of the bluffs it would be my opinion that they each contribute

to each other’s pollution problems. Here again the record

is silent on this important point.

The Board 1 ~ ranted air variances until July 31, 1975

feeling that th~ te  ~ ~missible under Train. I would

17

— 158

—3—

have granted such a short variance to Shell in light of

their good faitiielforts. They would then have had enougii

time to present meteorological experts to discuss physica’

airshed aspects. Theycould also piesent legal argument c

the applicability of the AQCR bound ries to their situatio~.

In a variance case, the burden is upon the petitioner.

The Metropolitan St. Louis Interstate Air Quality

Control Region is probably the most thoroughly studied

such region in the United States. The 8-volume U.S. Public

Health Service “Interstate Air Pollution Study” by J.D.

Williams, G. Ozolins, J.W. Sadler, and J.R. Farmer, was

issued in May, 1967 and might possibly provide answers to

the “physical airshed” question raised earlier. Unfortunately,

this study was not entered into the record of this case.

And the “Metromex” and “RAPS” studies now in progress in

this same area may have additional findings to supplement

the 1967 study.

I respectfully dis

I, Christan L. Moffett, Clerk of the ~I1linois Pollutiu~.

Control Board, hereby certify the above Dissenting Opinion was

submitted on the /~~e1 day of 

___________________,

1975.

Christan L. Moffett,/  k

Illinois Pollution ~  ol Board

in this cause.

e

—

159