ILLINOIS

POLLUTION

CONTROL BOARD

October

17,

1972

GRANT

PARK COMMUNITY

UNIT

SCHOOL

)

DiSTRICT

NO.

6 OF

KANKAKEE

COUNTY,

ILLINOIS

v.

)

PCB

72-378

(formerly

72-261)

ENVIRONMENTAL

PROTECTION

AGENCY

)

OPINION

& ORDER

OF

THE

BOARD

(by Mr.

Dumelle)

This

is

a

Petition

for

Reconsideration

of

an

earlier

Board

order

(August

29,

1972)

denying

the

School Districtrs

request

for

a

variance.

Briefly

stated,

the

original

Petition

for

Variance

requested

permission

to

discharge

sanitary

wastes

from

the

newly constructed

high

school

building

into

the

local

storm

sewers.

One

of the

District’s

major

arguments

was

that

the

new

school

was

entirely

replacing

the

old

school

and that

the

quality

of

the

effluent

from

the

new

school

would

be better

than from

the

old.

In

our earlier

order

we noted

that,

among

other

things,

the

record

was

inadequate

as

to

analytical

data

concerning

the

effluent

from

the

old

school,

the

expected

effluent from

the

new

school

and

also

the

effects

of

the

proposed

discharge

upon the

receiving

waters.

This

Petition

for Reconsideration

(filed

September

20,

1972),

does

not

satisfy

the

aforementioned

inadequacies.

In

the absence

of such

data

we

cannot

determine

the

extent to which

the

general

public

would

be

injured

if the

variance

were

granted.

Even though

the

effluent

from

the

new

school

would

be

of a higher

quality than from

the

old,

we

still

would

not

know

the

harm

that

the

new

effluent

would

be

causing

to

the

stream.

We

must,

therefore,

deny

the

Pefition

for

Reconsideration.

However,

we

are

in

no

way prohibiting

the

District

from

using

its

new

school,

including

the

sanitary

facilities.

In fact,

since

the

effluent

from

the

new

school

will

be

of

a higher

quality,

we

are

hereby

ordering

that

the

District

be

allowed

to

connect

its

new

school

facilities

into

the

existing

City sewer

system.

We

caution,

however,

that

we

are

not

granting

a variance;

we

are

merely

allowing

the

District

to

discharge

a cleaner

effluent

than

it

did

from

the

old

5 —717

---

—2-

school.

The

District

may

connect

and discharge

at its

own risk

but

will

not be

immune

from

prosecution

for

violations,

if any,

of

the

Act

or

Regulations.

IT

IS

SO

ORDERED.

I,

Christan

L.

Moffett,

Clerk

of the

Illinois

Pollution

Control

B?ard,

hereby

certify

the

above

Opinion

and Order

were

adopted

on

the

/7

~ay

of October,

1972

by

a vote

of

•~3

ff~9

~

Christan

L.

Moffett,~

~1~i~k

Illinois

Pollution

Control

Board

5

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