ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
March
28, 1972
DEERE
& COMPANY
v.
)
PCB 71—353
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
Opinion of the Board
(by Jacob D.
Dumelle)
Deere
&
Company
(Deere)
filed
a petition for variance on
November
8,
1971 asking the Board to allow its gray-iron foundry
located
at the John Deere Plow
&
Planter Works,
501 Third Avenii~,
Moljne,
Illinois
to oDerate
in violation of
air oollution reaulations
until December
31,
1972 at which
time air pollution control equipment
would be fully installed and operational.
The company,
at the time
it submitted its amended ACERP
in 1968, had planned to close the
foundry and
two other implement factory foundries
by December
1972.
The company’s original ACERP submitted in April of
1968 outlined
a
program of retirement
for the foundries by December
1973 and after
further study the closing date was advanced to December
1972.
The
ACERP included the proviso that “If future planning should find it
desirable
to indefinitely continue the operation of any one of the
existing gray iron foundries beyond the dates indicated for closing,
then
equipment will be installed which will meet
the emission Stan-
dards.”
The company now asks us
to approve
its exercise of its option
to continue operation of its gray-iron foundry
at the John Deere
Plow
& Planter Works.
On March
13 Deere submitted
a Motion to Grant the Variance
Without Hearing.
Based on the sworn statements of
the company and
the favorable recommendation of the Environmental Protection Agency
we grant the requested variance subject to the conditions enumerated
in the attached order.
In its motion the company detailed the circumstances of the
inadvertence which caused the delay in filing this petition for
variance.
Although the formal petition for variance was not
a
timely filing the company had in fact been proceeding
for some
time
with
its plans to control the foundry emissions and had kept the
EPA
fully informed of its plans.
Until sometime after
the filing of
the variance the company was proceeding on the basis that it was
operating under
a valid ACERP covering the foundry.
Deere was sub-
sequently informed by the EPA that,
under the precedent of EPA v.
Commonwealth Edison Co., PCB
70-4, February
17,
1971, all ACERPs
4
~O9
approved under the old Air Pollution Control Act would
expire one year
after the effective date of the Act.
The Commonwealth
(PCB
70-4)
case
therefore declared that all
holders of approved compliance programs
must seek
extensions after July
1,
1971.
The company was informed
on October 29,
1971 that a variance should
be filed and they
1~romptly
did so.
The foundry
has two cupolas which have
a process rate of 18,750
pounds per hour each.
Both are presently equipped with wet cap
collectors stated to be operating at an efficiency of about 50
(weight)
Only one cupola is operated at any
given time with emissions estimated
at
29 pounds per hour.
The present standard limits emissions
to
about
18 pounds per hour.
Without the wet caps and with
no other
control the emissions are estimated to be
58 pounds per hour.
The company plans to control the foundry emissions with a
bag—house collection system from which the emission rate of parti-
culate matter will be
3 pounds per hour.
Prior to passing into
the bag—house the cupola off-gases will pass through an afterburner
where any residual combustibles will be incinerated.
Installation of
the afterburners and other “in—line” equipment is scheduled for the
month of July when the tactory is shut down.
Some time after the
installation
is required to start up and “de—bug” the control system.
It is our hope that in this instance as in several earlier situa-
tions Deere will be able to complete its pollution control project
before the scheduled operating date of December 31, 1972.
As a condition to the grant of this variance we shall require
the posting of a security in the amount of $20,000 to assure the
satisfactory completion of the job.
We have little or~noinformation
in the record to guide us in setting the amount of the bond in this
case although we are confident that the cost of control
is very
considerably in excess of the figure we have
set.
Nonetheless $20,000
may be as appropriate as any amount since the compliance program is
well advanced and heading toward completion.
The rationale of setting
the bond in the approximate amount of the cost of the control project
is not apt in this case.
The security shall be conditioned upon the
operation of the foundry with inadequate control facilities after
December 31,
1972.
This Opinion constitutes the Board’s findings of fact and
conclusion of law.
4
110
ORDER
The Board hereby grants
a variance to Deere
& Company to allow
the discharge of particulate matter from the John Deere Plow
&
Planter Works gray—iron foundry in excess of the limits prescribed
by
the
existing rules and the Environmental Protection Act.
This
variance is granted to allow Deere
&
Company to acquire and install
air pollution control equipment to meet the particulate discharge
limitations.
This variance shall extend until December 31,
1972 and
is subject to the following conditions~
1.
Deere
& Company shall post with the Environmental Protection
Agency on or before April 20, 1972 a bond or other adequate
security in the amount of Twenty Thousand Dollars
($20,000)
and in such form as
is satisfactory to the EPA, which sum shall
be forfeited to the State of Illinois in the event the foundry
shall be operated after December 31,
1972 without adequate
air pollution control equipment.
2.
Deere
& Company shall not increase the intensity of its
foundry emissions during the period of the variance.
I, Christan L. Moffett, Clerk of the Illinois Pollution Control
Board, hereby certify the Board adopted the above Opinion and Order
on the ~Lday
of March,
1972 by a vote of
~-
O
C ristan L. Moffét~7C1erk
Illinois Pollution Control Board
4—
111
.
.