ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
November 23, 1977
IN THE MATTER OF :
)
WATER QUALITY AMENDMENTS,
)
R74-1, -8, -9
HEXANE SOLUBLES
)
SUPPLEMENTAL OPINION OF THE BOARD (by Mr . Goodman) :*
On September 29, 1977, the Board ordered that a Proposed
Final Draft of Amendments to Rule 408(a) of Chapter 3 : Water
Pollution (concerning hexane solubles) be published, and made
allowance for a 45 day public comment period . At the same time,
the Board adopted an Opinion in this matter
.
The Board's Order, with the Proposed Final Draft in this
matter, was published in Environmental Register #157, dated
October 17, 1977 . Since that Order was entered, only two
comments have been received: the Metropolitan Sanitary District
of Greater Chicago (MSD) filed written comments on November 22,
1977, pursuant to leave granted by the Hearing Officer, and
E. I. duPont deNemours and Company has communicated with the Board
in several telephone conversations
.
Turning first to the comments of MSD, we agree that polar
materials, while "more readily biodegradable", (Opinion of
September 29, 1977, at 8), are not necessarily totally biodegrad-
able, or totally removed by municipal sewage treatment . As we
noted in our opinion, the general correlation between polar
materials and biodegradability is sufficient to justify a measure-
ment and regulatory distinction between polar and non-polar
material. We need not go beyond that finding, and do not .
MSD also apparently expressed concern that our findings and
Order in this matter might, somehow, affect its pre-treatment
standards for fats, oils or greases . On the contrary, our decision
in this matter affects in no way the authority of MSD to regulate
discharges to its sewer system. No such proposal was before us,
and we noted in our September 29 Opinion (at 10) that, "we cannot
assume that municipal dischargers will in fact eliminate sewer
discharge ordinances
.
. ."
*The Board wishes to thank Vincent P . Flood, Jr., Attorney, Hearing
officer in this matter, for his assistance in the preparation and
drafting of this opinion and Order
.
-2-
The comments by duPont concern the use of the word "Freon" in
the Proposed Final Draft of the Amendments to Rule 408(a) . DuPont
alleged that "Freon" is a duPont trademark, and objected to our
"generic" use of the term in the Proposed Final Draft . Our
September 29, 1977 Opinion noted that freon designates the solvent
trichlorotrifluoroethane, used in various test procedures to
determine compliance with the proposed standards . Since we have
no wish to infringe on any duPont trademark, and since the term
"Freon extractable material" is not necessary for definition
purposes, we shall substitute (as shown in our separate order) the
broader term, "oil, fats and greases", consistent with the testi-
mony presented at hearing in this matter
.
We shall, therefore, adopt as our final Order in this matter
the Proposed Final Order of September 29, 1977, with the change
noted above
.
I, Christan L. Moffett, Clerk of the Illinois Pollution Control
Board, hereby certify the above Supplemental was adopted on the .43
RA
day of ylt,, .,,,(wA
,
1977 by a vote of S p
Christan L. offe
.
4
Illinois Pollution
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