ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
July
12,
1973
RIDGEVIEW DEVELOPMENT COMPANY
)
v.
)
PCB
73-158
)
)
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
)
)
OPINION AND ORDER OF THE BOARD
(by Mr. Dumelle)
A petition for a variance
to connect
a subdivision in Monticello,
Piatt County,
to the sewage system was filed April 18,
1973.
Public
hearing was held June
8,
1973.
The Agency recommendation filed May
23,
1973
is for denial.
Ridgeview was granted
a “construction only” sanitary sewer permit
on March
30, 1972 but a year later, April
2,
1973 was denied an opera-
ting permit.
The development contains
70 lots but the petition states
that not more
than
30
lots are likely to be sold
in a year and not
more
than
15 lots will be sold in the four months from the date of
filing
Forward.
The Agency’s recommendation points out that the permit denial
was made because of poor operation of the existing sewage plant and
hydraulic overloading due
to infiltration.
Data supplied by the
Agency show average monthly flows
to the plant
from 697,000 gpd up
to 1,810,000 gpd compared to the design average
flow of 476,000 gpd
for the period August 1972 through February
1973.
In this same period,
bypassing
is
said to have occurred 79 times.
A new sewage treatment plant
is under construction by the City
of Monticello
to give
a design average flow of 1,000,000 gpd.
Testimony
at
the hearing indicated that the sewage plant was 98
completed on
June
8,
1973
(R,
15).
Mr.
John W. Mitchell,
the engineer for both
Ridgeview and Monticello, testified that
the enlarged sewage plant
could handle 2,000,000 gpd with full treatment by utilizing a polishing
lagoon and an addit:ional 2,000,000 gpd would get primary treatment
and chlorination
(R.
20).
He felt that
the addition of the entire
development to the sewage system would not have
a measurable
effect
upon its operation
(R.
24).
8—491
-2-
Ridgeview’s hardship is that $238,000 has been invested in the
development.
Interest costs
at
7
amount to about
$17,000 per year
on this investment.
We cannot tell
from this record what hardsh:ips
are being imposed upon the environment.
No effluent data from the
sewage plant are presented except for the May 1973 monthly sheet.
Effluents
for BOD5 ranging from
23 mg/l to 139 mg/i
are listed with
an apparent average of 55 mg/i.
The latter figure
is far in excess
of the 10 mg/i given
as the plant standard
(R.
21).
Similarly,
neither the Agency nor the petitioner provide any comments about the
receiving stream’s condition.
We do not know its dissolved oxygen
level
nor whether it
is septic or pure
as
the legendary mountain
stream.
Ridgeview argues
that
85 residences and a mobile home park of
55 homes have been permitted to connect
to the sewer system since
November 16, 1971 and that the residences,
at
least, might have been
built upon its lots instead of elsewhere.
This
is
not
a persuasive
argument because
the Ridgeview development was not completed apparently
until
the April
2,
1973 denial
of the operating permit.
The record
does show the disturbing fact of the permit being issued by
the
Illinois Department of Public Health for the mobile home park on
November 29, 1971 just
13 days
after the sewer extension ban by
the
Agency.
The record
is not clear
as
to whether this resulted from
a
communications breakdown between the two agencies
or whether
a ioop-
hole exists in the Agency’s sewer ban powers through which mobile
home parks
can receive permits.
We welcome further input from the
Agency on this point for informational purposes.
Mr.
Charles
N.
Finson, president of Ridgeview, stated that
it was
not probable that even 15
lots would be sold
in the remainder of 1973
and that these might be
in actual use 90 days
after being
sold with
an occupied house newly built upon them
(R.
35-36).
The Agency engineer, Abraham
II.
Louclermilk,
Jr., testified
that shock loads
from local industry might be still
a problem and
could “wipe out”
the biological
growths on the trickling filter and
affect the activated sludge plant
as well
(R.
42-3).
Thus the situation boils down to
a newly expanded sewage plant
fed by
a leaky sewer system and receiving intermittent industrial
shock loads with no performance data yet available.
Tinder these circumstances we cannot grant the variance for the full
70
lots in the development.
We
grant
the variance for the lots which
are expected to be sold in 1973,
namely 15, without prejudice
to
a
refiling of a variance for the balance of the lots after six months
operating experience has been achieved with
the enlarged sewage
treatment plant.
Should the Agency be
satisfied with the plant’s
operation it can of course lift its own ban and further proceedings
will not be necessary.
8— 402
-3-
We urge both petitioner and the Agency to do
a better job
of
carrying their respective burdens
of proof with respect
to environmental
damage.
And we especially urge the City of Monticello
to accelerate
its sewage infiltration correction program and to adequately control
its industrial
dischargers.
This opinion constitutes the Board’s findings of fact and
conclusions
of
law.
ORDER
Variance
is
granted to permit the connection of not more than
15 single family residences to
the sanitary sewer.
A petition for
add:it;ional connections may be filed after six months operating data
are available
on the enlarged sewage treatment plant.
IT
IS SO ORDERED.
I, Christan L. Moffett, Clerk of the Illinois Pollution
Control Board, hereby certify the above Opinion and Order were
adopted on the
,
day of July,
1973 by
a vote of
/—~
~
~
Christan L. Mo~fett,~c~~rk
Illinois Pollution Co~t~olBoard
8
—
493