ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD

November 8,

1973

)

VILLAGE OF GRAYSLAKE

)

)

)

V.

PCB

73-308

)

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

)

)

MR.

LAWRENCE DUNLAP OF OVERHOLSER, FLANNERY,

DUNLAP, AND GRAHAM,

appeared on behalf of the Village

of Grayslake.

MR. LEE CAMPBELL, ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL, appeared on behalf

of the ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY.

OPINION AND ORDER OF THE BOARD

(by Mr. Dumelle)

The Village of Grayslake filed

a Petition for Variance on

July 30,

1973.

The Agency filed

its Recommendation to deny

the variance petition on August

30,

1973.

Petitioner

filed a

Waiver

of the ninety day

decision period on October

2,

1973.

Hearing was held on September 27,

1973.

The petitioner owns

and operates

a secondary sewage treatment

facility,

located in Lake County.

This facility has a design BOD

loading

of 9,040

P.

E.

Petitioner’s treatment facility includes

2 package activated sludge units and a trickling filter.

Secondary

treated effluent flows

to

a 2-cell, polishing pond and is chlorinated

prior to being discharged

to the Avon-Freemont Drainage Ditch, an

intermittent stream which flows

into Third Lake,

a recreational

Lake,

located approximately

2 miles downstream from the treatment plant

outfall.

Third Lake discharges

to Mill Creek,

a tributary of the

Des Plaines

River.

Petitioner in its Amended Petition for Variance seeks

an

extension until December 31,

1975

to comply with the requirement

of Rule 203(c), 404(f),

406, and 602 of Chapter

3 of the B~ardts

Rules and Regulations governing

Water Pollution.

Petitioner alleges

that

a preliminary engineering analysis

indicated that requisite sewage treatment plant upgrading would

cost an estimated $172,300

(assuming that present ammonia nitrogen

removal efficiency is

adequate).

Petitioner anticipates only

10—35

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minimal improvement in water quality in

the Avon-Freemont Drainage

Ditch and Third Lake

if timely compliance with appreciable water

pollution standards

is achieved consequently, Petitioner contends

the cost of such compliance

in the absence of appreciable results

could cause an

imposition of an arbitrary

and unreasonable hardship.

The Agency recommended that the Board dismiss

as premature

the Petition for Variance from Rule 404(f)

and 602

as being pre-

mature because the Board

in adopting Rule 409 of Chapter

3 extended

the compliance date of any effluent standard required

on December 31,

1973 to December

31,

1974.

The Board agrees

and therefore orders

that the Petitioner request for

a variance from Rule 404(f)

and 602

be dismissed

as premature.

Petitioner’s request

for a variance from

Rule 406 until December 31,

1975,

is

also premature and therefore

dismissed because

the effective date of Rule

406

is December 31,

1977.

The only remaining

issue

is

a variance from Rule

203(c) which

states”that phosphorus

shall not exceed 0.05 mg/i

in any lake or

in any stream at the point where

it enters any lake.”

Water samples

taken at Petitioner’s outfall and at

a point below the outfall showed

phosphorus

levels

of

2.35 and 1.27 mg/i of phosphorus.

Water samples

taken at the outfall of Third Lake showed a phosphorus

level of

0.13 mg/i.

This

level

is

above the limit set by Rule

203(c)

(R.

88,

9-27-73).

Petitioner has estimated that

0.1 mg/l

of phosphorus

is

contributed from agricultural runoff on

an annual basis.

Citizen

testimony from the Acting Village Engineer of the Community of Third

Lake showed that

the Lake experienced an algae problem

(R.

123,

9-27-73).

Grayslake

is said to have agreed in the past

to provide

money for the control by the Village of Third Lake,

of algae present

in Third Lake

(R.

123, 92773).

Spraying

for algae

control

is

said

to have produced a two-foot thick layer of dead algae

at

the

bottom of the Lake

(R.

123,

9-27-73).

Phosphorus

and other nutrients

from such dead algae would

tend

to be re-introduced into Third Lake

by normal breakdown of the algal cells.

Mr. Eugene Theios, Director

of the Division of Environmental Health of Lake County Health

Department, testified that

the algae present in Third Lake did not

constitute

a health problem

(R.

135,

9-27-73).

He further testified

that a delay in two years of removing the phosphorus

discharges

from

the Third Lake would not have any additional

or different affect

than

it has had in the past two years

(R.

139,

9-27-73).

Mr.

Leckman, Petitioner’s

consulting engineer, testified that

he estimated the cost for phosphorus removal

to be approximately

$55,000

(R.

92, 9-27-73).

Petitioner

is currently undertaking

actions which will

lead

to

an agreement with

the Lake County

Public Works Department

to enable the diversion of Petitioner’s

sewage by means of a proposed interceptor sewer from the existing

sewage treatment plant to the North Shore Sanitary District proposed

Gurnee Treatment facility.

Completion of the proposed Gurnee

10—36

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Treatment Plant

is scheduled for January

1,

1975.

Completion of

the interceptor

sewer

is scheduled for December 31,

1974.

In the

event

that the Gurnee Treatment Plant

is not completed by January

1,

1975, Petitioner should be able

to discharge its treated effluent

into

the interceptor sewer.

This would allow Petitioner

to by-pass

Third Lake and discharge directly into the Des Plaines River which

has

a higher allowable phosphorus

limit

(R.

107,

9-27-73).

The

Board finds

that such

a delay

in compliance with Rule 203

(c)

would

not result in significant degradation of Third Lake providing

the

projected completion date

for the interceptor sewer

system and the

Gurnee Treatment Plant are not substantially delayed from the above

dates.

This Opinion constitutes

the Board’s findings

of facts

and

conclusions

of law.

ORDER

The Illinois Pollution Control Board hereby grants

to the

Village of Grayslake

a variance from Rule

203(c) until November

8,

1974.

The Board dismisses without prejudice Petitioner’s

request

for variances from Rules 404(f),

406,

and 602

as premature.

I,

Christan L. Moffett, Clerk of the Illinois Pollution Control

Board, hereby certify the above Opinion and Order were adopted on the

~

day of November,

1973 by a vote of _______________________

~

Illinois Pollution

ntrol

Board