ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
    January 17, 1974
    JOHN and
    JAMES
    GIBBS,
    Petitioners
    VS.
    )
    PCB 73—472
    ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY,
    Respondent.
    Louis R. Gentili, Attorney, on behalf of Petitioner;
    Lee A. Campbell, Assistant Attorney General, on behalf of
    the Environmental Protection Agency.
    OPINION AND ORDER OF THE BOARD (by Mr. Seaman):
    On November 6, 1973, Messrs. John and James Gibbs,
    residents of Highland Park, County of Lake, Illinois,
    filed their Petition for Variance seeking permission for
    a sewer connection tributary to the Clavey Road sewage
    treatment plant of the North Shore Sanitary District.
    The subject building is located in the Sunset Manor
    Subdivision, Highland Park, Illinois, and is presently
    served by a septic system. Said building houses Trans—World
    Travel, Inc., which employs approximately fifteen (15)
    persons.
    Petitioners allege that the septic tank system serving
    the commercial establishment is malfunctioning, particularly
    after heavy rainfall, thereby causing inconvenience to not
    only the fifteen (15) employees but also
    to
    their customers.
    Petitioners indicate that their establishment1s washroom
    facilities cannot be used for several days after a heavy
    rainfall and that the odors emanating therefrom during that
    period are most annoying and embarrassing. Employees and
    customers are often required to use the toilet facilities
    of a beauty parlor located next door to the subject premises,
    which facilities are connected to a North Shore Sanitary District
    sewer.
    Petitioners have submitted a copy of a letter from the
    Lake County Health Department advising Petitioner to seek
    a hardship variance in order to connect to an existing sanitary
    sewer. This recommendation was based upon an inspection by
    10 —701
    —2—
    the Lake County Health Department which indicated that the
    soil in Petitioner’s locale had been stripped and filled,
    making it very unsuitable for septic tank systems.
    The Pollution Control Board has granted variances
    in cases such as the present one where a petitioner has
    shown that a public health hazard exists in regard to the
    operation of a septic system and this health hazard cannot
    be eliminated through improved maintenance ‘r relatively
    minor repairs of the system. (See e.g. Elsa J. Miller v.
    Environmental Protection Agency, PCB 73-43; James Clark
    v.
    Environmental Protection Agency, PCB 73-37; Winsor v.
    Environmental Protection Agency, PCB 71-334; and Robert J.
    Bartell
    v.
    Environmental Protection Agency, PCB 72-382.)
    Petitioners have adequately shown that the septic system
    cannot be repaired so as to operate effectively and that the
    present operation of the system constitutes a public health
    hazard requiring immediate remedy.
    This Opinion constitutes the findings of fact and
    conclusions of law of the Board.
    ORDER
    IT IS THE ORDER of the Pollution Control Board that
    Petitioners, John and James Gibbs, be granted variance to
    connect the commercial building located on Lot 10 in Sunset
    Manor Subdivision,
    Highland
    Park, Illinois, to the existing
    sanitary sewer tributary to the Clavey Road sewage treatment
    plant of the North Shore Sanitar District.
    The Board further orders that the North Shore Sanitary
    District substract Petitioner~s population equivalent from the
    total population equivalent granted to the District in
    North Shore Sanitary District v. EPA, PCB 73-134.
    iT IS SO ORDERED.
    I, Christan L.
    Moffett, Clerk of the
    Illinois Pollution
    Control Board, ce~tify that
    ~he
    above Opinion and Order was
    thUs
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