ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD

June

20,

1972

CONGREGATION AN ECHOD

v.

)

#

72—202

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

Preliminary Opinion

& Order of the Board

(by Mr.~Currie):

We dismissed an earlier petition by

this applicant seeking

a variance to connect to a Waukegan sewer on the ground that our

order of March. 2

(North Shore Sanitary District v. EPA,

#71—343)

has mooted

the issue by permitting additional connections because

of treatment plant improvements.

Congregation Am Echod v.

EPA,

#72—11

(April

4,

1972).

Th.e;present petition alleges that a

variance remains necessary because, despite improvements in the

treatment plant,

the sewer transporting the wastes

to the plant

is itself overloaded.

The Agency recommends that the petition be

granted because of hardship but confirms that the sewer has been

designated as “incapable of adequately transporting ~dditidna1

or new wastes.”

It is our responsibility to balance the hardships of a

variance denial against

tie

harm

that would occur if the variance

were granted.

We cannot intelligently do so on the present

re-

cord,

for we do not know the effect of adding the wastes- in

question

to an already overloaded

sewer.

If,

for example,

the

variance would mean raw sewage in somebody’s basement,

a very

great hardship indeed would be required to justify a grant.

We

therefore postpone decision pending receipt of additional

information from the parties

as to

the

adverse effects of allow-

ing the connection sought.

I, Christan Moffett, Clerk of the Pollution Control Board, certify

that the Board adopted the

above

Preliminary Opini n

& Order

this

20th

day of June,

1972, by

a vote of.

4

—

693