ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
    January 17,
    1974
    )
    VILLAGE OF ASHLAND
    )
    )
    )
    v.
    )
    PCB 73-426
    )
    )
    ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
    )
    )
    MR. GARY L.
    SUDETH, appeared on behalf of the Village of Ashland
    MR.
    DELBERT HASCHEMEYER, ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL, appeared on
    behalf of the Environmental Protection Agency
    OPINION AND ORDER OF THE BOARD
    (by Mr. Dumelle):
    The Village of Ashland
    (“Ashland”)
    filed a Petition for
    a Vaiiance on October
    5,
    1973
    to allow the Village
    to open burn
    landscape waste.
    On October 11, 1973 the Board ordered Ashland
    to amend its variance petition within 35 days detailing the costs
    involved to rent or purchase
    an air curtain destructor,
    the cost
    to use an approved sanitary landfill,
    and the cost
    to use
    a
    chipper
    (Village of Ashland
    v.
    EPA,
    PCB 73-426).
    The Environmental
    Protection Agency
    (“Agency”)
    filed
    a Recommendation to grant the
    variance subject
    to certain conditions
    on November 16,
    1973.
    On December 13,
    1973 Ashland
    filed a Motion for Reconsideration
    citing
    the Agency’s Recommendation
    to grant
    the variance.
    The
    Board,
    on January
    3,
    1974,
    granted Ashland’s Motion and docketed
    the variance petition for decision.
    Ashland has waived the 90-day
    decision period.
    Ashland
    is
    a Village of 1,100 people
    and
    is
    located in Cass County,
    Illinois.
    Ashland requests
    a variance
    from Section 9c of the Environmental Protection Act
    (“Act”)
    and
    Rule 502 of Chapter
    2 Part
    5 of the Regulations of the Pollution
    Control Board
    (Air Regulations).
    Ashland requests this variance
    to allow
    it
    to dispose, by open burning,of landscape waste accumulated
    by Ashland from residences and streets
    as
    a result of ice storms
    in the winter of 1972-73.
    Ashland
    is prohibited from disposing
    of landscape waste because the
    wastes were not generated on Petitioner’s
    premises
    as required by Rule
    503
    (c)(l) of the Air Regulations.
    Ashland seeks
    to burn approximately 900 cubic yards of
    landscape
    waste consisting of trees
    and tree
    limbs.
    The Agency calculates
    that Ashland’s Variance Petition is
    to burn approximately 149 tons of waste.
    The Agency states
    that
    an air curtain destructor would cost approximately $6,400.
    The
    nearest landfill
    is approximately
    30 miles from Ashland.
    Ashland
    10
    —
    ~81
    -2-
    collected and hauled the landscape waste
    to the east edge of
    town where
    it has stockpiled the material in
    a location that
    is
    not adjacent to any residence.
    According to the Agency,
    a chipper
    would be suitable for the small material but not for the larger
    logs.
    The Board finds
    that
    to require Ashland
    to purchase an
    air curtain destructor or haul the material
    to
    the nearest landfill
    would work an arbitrary and unreasonable hardship on the Village
    of Ashland when compared to the amount of environmental damage
    to occur from the one
    time
    event.
    The above Opinion constitutes the Board’s findings
    of facts
    and conclusions of
    law.
    Mr.
    Seaman dissents.
    ORDER
    The
    Illinois Pollution Control Board hereby grants the
    Village
    of Ashland a variance until April
    17,
    1974
    to allow the
    open burning
    of landscape waste specified in Ashland’s Variance
    Petition subject to the following conditions:
    1.
    The Village of Ashland shall open burn the landscape waste
    only when the wind
    is
    from the northeast or northwest and
    when the wind speed
    is between
    5 and 25 miles per hour;
    2.
    The Village of Ashland shall notify:
    Illinois Environmental
    Protection Agency, Region III Office,
    4500 South Sixth Street,
    Springfield,
    Illinois 62706
    (telephone 217/786-6892) when
    such. open burning
    is
    to be conducted;
    3.
    The Village of Ashland shall
    comply with each of the
    17
    applicable
    conditions contained in Standard Conditions,
    attached to
    the Variance Petition as Exhibit 8~when conducting
    the open burning.
    IT
    IS SO ORDERED.
    Mr.
    Seaman
    dissent~~
    I, Christan
    L. Moffett, Clerk of
    the Illinois Pollution Control
    Board, hereby certify the above Opinion and Order were adopted on the
    jJ~~~dayof January, 1974 by
    a vote of ___________________________
    ~~PII~
    ~
    ~~stan
    L. Moffett, 9~rk
    Illinois Pollution Co~i(rolBoard
    10 —682

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