ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
March
8,
1973
DONALD
R.
GREGG
and
ROSE
M.
GREGG,
Petitioners,
vs.
)
PCB
72—362
ENVIRONMENTAL
PROTECTION AGENCY,
Resoondent.
Burton
Sapoznick,
Attorney
for
Petitioners
Dennis
R.
Fields, Assistant Attorney General
for the EPA
OPINiON
ANI) ORDER OF
THE
BOARD
(by Mr.
Henss)
Petitioners Donald and Rose Gregg own
a thirty bed nursing
home which
is currently located at East Dundee,
Illinois.
The
:~tateof Illinois has ordered Petitioners
to close the East
Dundco facility by January
1,
1975 since
it does not meet
fire
an~safety requirements
for
a nursing home.
Petitioners desire
to
build
a
new nursing home
in the Village of Carpentersville,
Illinois
to house
118
patients.
The
new
facility
will
be
valued
in excess of $i,000~O00.
Mr.
and Mrs.
Gregg were unable
to
obtain permission
to connect
to the Carpentersville
sewer and
therefore,
filed this Petition for Variance from Title III
Section
12(c)
Environmental
Protection
Act.
The
Statute
prohibits
the
sewer
connection
in
the
absence
of
an
EPA
permit.
The
parties
have
stipulated
that
the
EPA
would
deny
Petitioners
a
sewer
connection
mermit
and
ask
that
we
regard
this
case
as
both
a Petition for Variance and an Appeal from
a permit denial.
According to the testimony,
Petitioners have for
a number of
years planned
to build
a new nursing home facility.
The
land
in Carpentersville was purchased some eight years ago and prepar—
ations have proceeded through the survey,
soil borings,
clearing
of trees and the filling of
some low areas
on the property.
Petitioners also obtained
the necessary
zoning change from the
Village
of Carpentersville for
the construction
of
a nursing
home and obtained
the Certificate
of Need from
the Illinois
Department of Public Health stating that the facility was needed
in
this community.
Petitioners have paid in excess
of $15,000
to date including
$2,000 toward the architect’s fee.
Architectural
plans
have
been completed
and
a statement for
services in the
U
U
U
U
7—209
U
—2—
amount of $67,359 submitted by the architect to Petitioners.
On August 2,
1971 the Village Manager of Carpentersville
wrote a letter certifying “that the municipal water and sewer
services are available and adeciuate to serve the nursing home
proposed by Donald Gregg at 118 Northwestern Avenue”.
This
letter was used by Petitioners for the purpose of obtaining
financing for the project.
The adequacy of the Carpentersville sewer system has
apparently been the subject of
a long series of correspondence
between the Village, the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency
and its predecessor the Sanitary Water Board.
The parties
stipulated that four letters represent the EPA policy regarding
the granting of permits for sanitary sewer extensions
in the
Village of Carpentersville.
These letters, dated December 22,
1967;
June
1,
1970; August 30, 1971 and March
22, 1972 were
never introduced into evidence.
The Agency did
say, however,
that they were opposed to the issuance of
a permit for this
sewer connection.
The Carpentersville sewage plant was designed to treat an
average daily flow of 3.5 million gallons
arid meet the standards
of
20 mg. per liter bio-chemical oxygen demand and 25 mg. per
liter suspended solids.
The average flow during 1972 prior to
the hearing was 5.1 million gallons per day and the effluent
at the sewer outfall consistently failed to meet the Standards
for BOD and suspended solids.
The conclusion
is that the
effluent exceeded Standards because of overloaded conditions
at
the treatment plant.
Petitioners’ witness testified that the nursing home
effluent would be 7,046 gallons per day, that this would constitute
.1
of the flow to the sewage treatment plant and would have
a
negligible influence on the plant.
This same argument,
of
course, could be made for other applicants.
Acceptance of such
an argument would mean loss of State power to upgrade sewage systems.
The Village of Carpentersville at the time of the hearing in
December 1972 was preparing final plans for a
$3.5 million expansion
of their
sewage treatment plant and sewer system.
The Carpentersville
voters have approved the issuance of bonds in the amount of $750,000
as the local share of the construction cost.
The availability
of
Federal and State funds will not be known until the final plans are
submitted to the State.
The project completion schedule shows the
start of construction in May 1973 and completion of construction in
September 1974.
If this construction schedule can be met it appears
that the
Carpentersville facility will be meeting State standards prior to
the December 1974 deadline for vacating the East Dundee nursing home.
7
—
210
—3—
There is no assurance,
however,
that the construction
schedule can be met.
This will not be known for several months.
Once the construction begins on the sewage treatment plant we
will have no objection to the commencement of construction on
the nursing home facility.
Sewer hookup would be delayed until
the completion of the sewer expansion program.
We do not want
to authorize a connection to
a seriously overloaded sewage treat-
ment plant and system.
It would be appropriate, however,
for
the two projects to proceed together, so that no time is
lost in
effecting
the sewer connection when the plant and sewer system can
accept the extra load.
Because the Carpentersville sewer and plant expansion has not
yet been approved, and funds are not yet available so that construction
may begin in May 1973, we are compelled to deny the issuance of a
permit.
In any event, we would not grant
a variance from Title III
Sec.
12(c)
of the Act since
that Statute, providing for a State
permit program,
is an essential part of the pollution control plan
of the State of Illinois.
This issue
is properly raised by appli~
cation
to
the Environmental Protection Agency for issuance of
a
permit.
Upon the denial of that permit an anpeal may be made to
this Board.
Although we deny the variance and deny the permit appeal we
do by this Opinion indicate to both parties that nursing home
construction should proceed along with the construction of the
new
sewage treatment facilities.
This may be
taken into consideration
in
any future permit proceedings.
ORDER
It is ordered that:
1.
The Petition for Variance be and it
is hereby
denied.
2.
The issuance of a permit for Petitioner to connect
to the Carpentersville sewer is hereby denied with-
out prejudice,
however,
to Petitioner’s right to
apply to the EPA for such permit when the Carpentersville
sewer construction
is underway.
I, Christan
L. Moffett, Clerk of the Illinois Pollution Control
Board, hereby certify the above Opinion and Order was adopted
this
t4’~..dayof March,
1973 by
a vote of
3
to
O
7— 211
I