BEFORE THE ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
IN THE MATTER OF:
)
WATER QUALITY STANDARDS AND )
EFFLUENT LIMITATIONS FOR THE )
CHICAGO AREA WATERWAY SYSTEM )
AND THE LOWER DES PLAINES RIVER )
PROPOSED AMENDMENTS TO 35 ILL. )
ADM. CODE 301, 302, 303 and 304
)
R08-9
(Rulemaking -
Water)
NOTICE OF FILING
TO: Mr. John T. Therriault
Assistant Clerk of the Board
Illinois Pollution Control Board
100 West Randolph
Street
Suite 11-500
Chicago, Illinois 60601
(VIA ELECTRONIC MAIL)
Ms. Marie E. Tipsord
Hearing Officer
Illinois Pollution Control Board
100
West
Randolph
Street
Suite 11-500
Chicago, Illinois 60601
(VIA FIRST CLASS MAIL)
(SEE PERSONS ON ATTACHED SERVICE LIST)
PLEASE TAKE NOTICE that I have today filed with the Office of the Clerk
of the Illinois Pollution Control Board the PRE-FILED TESTIMONY OF
ROBERT
S. ELVERT, copies of which are herewith served upon you.
Respectfully submitted,
Dated: August 4, 2008
EXXONMOBIL OIL CORPORATION,
By: /s/ Katherine D. Hodge
Katherine D. Hodge
Katherine D. Hodge
Monica T. Rios
HODGE DWYER ZEMAN
3150 Roland Avenue
Post Office Box 5776
Springfield, Illinois 62705-5776
(217) 523-4900
THIS FILING SUBMITTED ON RECYCLED PAPER
Electronic Filing - Received, Clerk's Office, August 4, 2008
CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE
I, Katherine D. Hodge, the undersigned, hereby certify that I have served the
attached PRE-FILED TESTIMONY
OF ROBERT S. ELVERT, upon:
Mr. John T. Therriault
Assistant Clerk of the Board
Illinois
Pollution Control Board
100 West Randolph Street
Suite 11-500
Chicago, Illinois 60601
via
electronic
mail
on August 4, 2008; and upon:
Ms. Marie E. Tipsord
Hearing Officer
Illinois Pollution Control Board
100 West Randolph Street
Suite 11-500
Chicago, Illinois 60601
M atthew J. Dunn, Esq.
Chief
Andrew Armstrong, Esq.
Susan Hedman, Esq.
Environmental Enforcement Division
Office of the Attorney General
69 West Washington, 18t" Floor
Chicago, Illinois 60602
Frederick
M. Feldman, Esq.
Ronald M. Hill, Esq.
Mr. Louis Kollias
Margaret T. Conway
Metropolitan Water
Reclamation District
100 East Erie Street
Chicago, Illinois 60611
Claire A. Manning, Esq.
Brown, Hay & Stephens, LLP
7 00 First Mercantile Bank Building
205 South Fifth Street
Post Office Box 2459
Springfield, Illinois
62705-2459
Deborah J. Williams, Esq.
Stefanie N. Diers, Esq.
Illinois
Environmental
Protection Agency
1 021 North Grand Avenue East
Post
Office Box 19276
Springfield, Illinois 62794-9276
Roy M. Harsch, Esq.
Drinker, Biddle, Gardner, Carton
191 North Wacker Drive
Suite 3700
Chicago, Illinois 60606-1698
Kevin G. Desharnais, Esq.
Thomas W. Dimond, Esq.
Thomas V. Skinner, Esq.
Mayer,
Brown
LLP
71 South Wacker Drive
Chicago, Illinois 60606-4637
Charles W. Wesselhoft, Esq.
James T. Harrington, Esq.
Ross & Hardies
150 North Michigan Avenue
Suite 2500
Chicago, Illinois 60601-7567
Electronic Filing - Received, Clerk's Office, August 4, 2008
Mr. Robert
VanGyseghem
City of Geneva
1800 South Street
Geneva, Illinois 60134-2203
Mr. Jerry Paulsen
Ms.
Cindy Skrukrud
McHenry County Defenders
132 Cass Street
Woodstock, Illinois 60098
Mr.
Bernard
Sawyer
Mr. Thomas Granto
Metropolitan Water
Reclamation District
6001 West Pershing Road
Cicero, Illinois 60650
Ms. Lisa Frede
Chemical Industry Council of Illinois
2250 East Devon Avenue
Suite 239
Des Plaines,
Illinois
60018-4509
Fredric P. Andes, Esq.
Erika K. Powers, Esq.
Barnes & Thornburg
1 North Wacker Drive
Suite 4400
Chicago, Illinois 60606
Mr. James L. Daugherty
Thorn Creek Basin Sanitary District
700 West End Avenue
Chicago Heights, Illinois 60411
Mr. Mark Schultz
Navy Facilities and
Engineering Command
201 Decatur Avenue, Bldg. 1A
Great Lakes, Illinois 60088-2801
Tracy Elzemeyer, Esq.
American Water Company
727 Craig Road
St. Louis,
Missouri
63141
Margaret P. Howard, Esq.
Hedinger Law Office
2601 South Fifth Street
Springfield, Illinois 62703
Keith I. Harley,
Esq.
Ms. Elizabeth Schenkler
Chicago Legal Clinic, Inc.
205 West Monroe Street
4th Floor
Chicago,
Illinois 60606
Frederick D. Keady, P.E.
Vermillion Coal Company
1979
Johns
Drive
Glenview, Illinois 60025
W.C. Blanton, Esq.
Husch Blackwell Sanders LLP
4801 Main Street
Suite
1000
Kansas City, Missouri 64112
Mr. Dennis L. Duffield
City of Joliet, Department of Public
Work and Utilities
921 East Washington Street
Joliet, Illinois 60431
Ms. Kay Anderson
American Bottoms RWTF
One American Bottoms Road
Sauget, Illinois 62201
Mr.
Jack
Darin
Sierra Club
70 East Lake Street
Suite 1500
Chicago, Illinois 60601-7447
Mr. Bob Carter
Bloomington Normal Water
Reclamation District
Post Office
Box
3307
Bloomington, Illinois 61702-3307
Electronic Filing - Received, Clerk's Office, August 4, 2008
Mr. Tom Muth
Fox Metro Water Reclamation District
682 State Route 31
Oswego,
Illinois
60543
Mr. Kenneth W. Liss
Andrews Environmental Engineering
3300 Ginger Creek Drive
Springfield, Illinois 62711
Albert Ettinger, Esq.
Jessica Dexter, Esq.
Environmental Law & Policy Center
35 East Wacker
Suite 1300
Chicago, Illinois 60601
Ms. Vicky McKinley
Evanston Environment Board
223 Grey Avenue
Evanston, Illinois 60202
Mr. Marc Miller
Mr.
Jamie S. Caston
O ffice of Lt.
Governor
Pat
Quinn
Room 414 State House
Springfield, Illinois 62706
S usan M. Franzetti, Esq.
Nijman Franzetti LLP
10 South LaSalle Street
Suite 3600
Chicago, Illinois 60603
Mr. Irwin Polls
Ecological Monitoring and Assessment
3206 Maple Leaf Drive
Glenview, Illinois 60025
D r. Thomas J. Murphy
2325 North Clifton Street
Chicago, Illinois 60614
M s. Cathy Hudzik
City of Chicago - Mayor's Office
of Intergovernmental Affairs
121 North LaSalle
Street
City Hall - Room 406
Chicago, Illinois 60602
Ms. Beth Steinhour
2021 Timberbrook
Springfield, Illinois 62702
Mr. James Huff
Huff & Huff, Inc.
915 Harger Road
Suite 330
Oak Brook, Illinois
60523
Ann Alexander, Esq.
Natural Resources Defense Council
101 North Wacker Drive
Suite 609
Chicago, Illinois 60606
Ms. Traci Barkley
Prairie Rivers Network
1902 Fox Drive
Suite 6
Champaign, Illinois 61820
Jeffrey C. Fort, Esq.
Ariel J. Tesher, Esq.
Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal
7800 Sears Tower
233 South Wacker Drive
Chicago, Illinois 60606-6404
Kristy A. N. Bulleit, Esq.
Brent
Fewell, Esq.
Hunton & Williams LLC
1900 K Street, NW
Washington, DC 20006
Ms. Stacy Meyers-Glen
Openlands
25 East Washington Street, Suite 1650
Chicago, Illinois 60602
Electronic Filing - Received, Clerk's Office, August 4, 2008
Mr. Lyman C. Welch
Manager, Water
Quality Program
Alliance for the Great Lakes
17 N. State St., Suite 1390
Chicago, Illinois 60602
by depositing said documents in the United States Mail, postage prepaid, in
Springfield, Illinois on August 4, 2008.
/s/ Katherine D. Hodge
Katherine D. Hodge
MOBO:032/Fil/NOF-COS-Prefiled Testimony, R08-9
Electronic Filing - Received, Clerk's Office, August 4, 2008
BEFORE THE ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
IN THE MATTER
OF:
)
WATER QUALITY STANDARDS AND )
EFFLUENT LIMITATIONS FOR THE )
CHICAGO AREA WATERWAY SYSTEM )
AND THE LOWER DES PLAINES RIVER )
PROPOSED AMENDMENTS TO 35 ILL. )
ADM. CODE 301, 302, 303 and 304
)
R 08-9
(Rulemaking
-
Water)
P RE-FILED TESTIMONY
OF
ROBERT
S. ELVERT
NOW COMES EXXONMOBIL OIL CORPORATION ("ExxonMobil"), by
and through its attorneys, HODGE DWYER ZEMAN, and submits the following
PRE-FILED TESTIMONY OF ROBERT S. ELVERT for presentation at the
September 2008 hearings
scheduled
in
the above-referenced matter.
I.
Testimony
of Robert S. Elvert
INTRODUCTION
My name is Bob Elvert, and I am the State Regulatory Advisor for the
Midwest Region at ExxonMobil Oil Corporation in Channahon, Illinois. I have more
than seventeen years of experience working in the environmental field. My
responsibilities include advocating ExxonMobil's perspective on environmental
issues that
may impact
the procedures and/or operations of the ExxonMobil Joliet
Refinery ("Refinery") and other company owned facilities within those states of my
responsibility.
ExxonMobil's Refinery is located at the southern most point at the 1-55
Bridge of the segment of the Lower Des Plaines River ("LDPR") commonly referred
to as the Upper Dresden Island Pool ("Dresden Pool"), which encompasses the stretch
Electronic Filing - Received, Clerk's Office, August 4, 2008
of the LDPR north of the I-55 Bridge and south of the Brandon Road Lock and Dam.
The
Illinois Environmental Protection Agency's ("Agency") proposed designated
recreational use for the Dresden Pool where ExxonMobil is located is Incidental
Contact, which is defined in the Agency's proposal as follows:
any recreational activity in which human contact with
the water is incidental
and in which the probability of ingesting appreciable quantities of water is
minimal, such as fishing; commercial boating; small craft recreational
boating; and any limited contact associated with shoreline activity such as
wading.
Proposed 35 111. Admin. Code ยง 301.282.
If the Illinois Pollution Control Board ("Board") adopts the recreational uses
as proposed by the Agency for the LDPR, ExxonMobil anticipates
that the
designation of Incidental Contact for the Dresden Pool will encourage increased
recreational
use of the Dresden Pool, which raises safety and security concerns.
ExxonMobil appreciates the opportunity to present testimony on such concerns before
the Board and requests that the Board take the following testimony under
consideration in its evaluation
of the proposed
recreational
use designations.
II. SAFETY-RELATED ISSUES
As noted previously, the Agency's proposed recreational use designation for
the Dresden Pool is Incidental Contact. Of the three recreational uses proposed by
the Agency,
Incidental
Contact
allows for the largest degree of human contact with
the waterway. Incidental Contact includes contact with the water during such
activities as fishing, wading, or small craft recreational boating. The designation of
the Dresden Pool as Incidental Contact will encourage increased use of the Dresden
Pool, and consequently, increased numbers of recreational users may be placed in
Electronic Filing - Received, Clerk's Office, August 4, 2008
danger since the Dresden Pool, in particularly the segment where ExxonMobil's
Refinery is located, is heavily used to navigate barges in and out of the area.
Barge traffic on the LDPR is a constant twenty-four hour a day, seven days a
week activity. In 2007, 825 barges were unloaded or loaded at the ExxonMobil
Refinery dock, with each barge being moved across the river or upstream on the river
by a tugboat two to three times during loading and unloading operations. This
amounts to hundreds of trips by tugboats and over
2,400
barge movements back and
forth across the width of the LDPR. In addition to the barges that are unloaded or
loaded at the Refinery, several other facilities along the LDPR are served by barges,
and thus, the
actual
number
of barges on the LDPR could be substantially greater than
that noted above.
To get an idea of
the
close quarters that the tugboats and the barges must work
within, based upon Corps of Engineers Illinois Waterway charts, the LDPR is about
1000 feet wide at the I-55 Bridge (mile marker 278) and narrows to about
500
feet
for
most of the segment upstream to mile marker 279. The average size of a barge used
at the Refinery is 55 feet wide and 300 feet long, and when the length of the tugboat
is added, the available water space in the Dresden Pool for recreational use watercraft
of any size is considerably reduced. In addition, on a daily basis, it is common
practice for tugboat owners to temporarily store
multiple
barges side by side along the
northern shoreline of the LDPR, thus further restricting the area of the LDPR in
which barges, as well as recreational users, can
maneuver. Further, a natural
consequence of the barge movement, which includes not only individual barges being
moved in and out of fleeting near the Refinery, but also tugboats transporting multiple
Electronic Filing - Received, Clerk's Office, August 4, 2008
tows of up to three barges long (900 feet) and two barges wide
(110 feet), through the
Dresden Pool is increased wakes that can easily overwhelm small watercraft such as
kayaks, canoes, fishing boats, jet skis, and/or powerboats, causing the novice paddler
or even expert boatman to capsize. Also note that during the public
hearing held on
June 16, 2008, in Chicago, witnesses indicated that the CAWS and the LDPR will
continue to see an increased use
by canoes, kayaks, and other small watercraft if the
proposed rules are adopted. Unfortunately, in the past, boaters in this area of the
LDPR have drowned.
See Exhibit 9,1 January 28, 2008 Hearing, In the Matter of
Water Quality Standards and Effluent Limitations for the Chicago Area Waterway
System and the Lower Des Plaines River: Proposed Amendments to 35 Ill. Admin.
Code Parts 301, 302, 303
and 304, R08-09 (Ill.Pol.Control.Bd. Jan. 28, 2008)
(rulemaking hereinafter cited as "CA WSILDPR ").
ExxonMobil has raised these safety concerns since the beginning of the LDPR
Use Attainability Analysis ("UAA") process in 2001 and throughout all associated
stakeholders meetings, as well as the open meeting held in Joliet in March 2007.
Representatives of ExxonMobil have actively participated in the stakeholder process
that was initiated during the development of the UAA project. I attended workgroup
meetings
and was present when safety concerns regarding barge traffic and increased
use of the LDPR by recreational users were raised during the LDPR UAA process.
Further, ExxonMobil is a member of the Three Rivers Manufacturing Association
("TRMA"), a local trade association that serves and represents the needs
of
local
' Exhibit 9 is an article from the Herald-News entitled "Fishermen died by drowning" dated August 19,
2002.
Electronic Filing - Received, Clerk's Office, August 4, 2008
manufacturers. In 2002 and 2003,2
TRMA sent three letters to the Agency expressing
its concerns with the development of the UAA and specifically made
the Agency
aware of its safety concerns regarding
the impact of increased recreational users on
barge operations in the LDPR, but never received a specific formal
response to its
members'
safety concerns. See Initial Filing, Attachment A, Appendix
A,
CA WS/LDPR, R08-9 (I11.Pol.Control.Bd.
Oct. 26, 2007).
III. SECURITY-RELATED ISSUES
In addition
to safety-related issues, ExxonMobil would also like to
briefly
discuss increased security concerns resulting from the
proposed designation of the
Dresden Pool
as Incidental Contact. ExxonMobil is a federally protected Energy
facility that requires additional security measures. In
addition, the Refinery as a U.S.
Coast Guard governed facility is subject to increased security measures, such as
implementing the recently
established Transportation Workers Identification
Credential program that requires extensive background
checks for anyone who is
within a specific designated area along a facility's river edge.
As previously noted, a designation
of Incidental Contact will encourage
increased use of the LDPR. Increased recreational users increases the security threat
to ExxonMobil, as well as
other
facilities
located on the LDPR. As with the safety-
related issues, ExxonMobil representatives were present at meetings where security-
related issues
were raised during the stakeholder process. However, as with safety
2
The TRMA letters (collectively "Letters") are dated June 11, 2002, July 18, 2002, and
June 6, 2003.
The Letters are included in Appendix A to the
UAA
for
the LDPR. Initial Filing, Attachment A,
Appendix A, CA WS/LDPR, R08-9 (I11.Pol.Control.Bd. Oct. 26, 2007).
Electronic Filing - Received, Clerk's Office, August 4, 2008
issues, the Agency has not specifically addressed any such concerns. In addition,
TRMA has not received a formal response
from the Agency regarding its expressed
security concerns for its members.
Unlike a
specific meeting regarding safety and security concerns held with
local, state, and federal officials during the stakeholder process
for the Chicago Area
Waterway System ("CAWS") UAA, to my recollection, as an active participant in the
LDPR stakeholder process, there has never been an official meeting
between
government officials and stakeholders to discuss safety and security issues for
the
LDPR,
in particularly the Dresden Pool segment. In addition, during previous
hearings in this rulemaking, neither the
Agency nor other parties acknowledged that
any such meeting on safety and security concerns regarding the LDPR had been held.
Perhaps such a meeting held in the near future would provide
valuable information on
additional security concerns held by stakeholders and the response that local and state
agencies can provide.
IV. CONCLUSION
On behalf of ExxonMobil, I thank the Board for providing the opportunity to
present testimony in this rulemaking, and look forward to the
opportunity to provide
additional information as it may come available. Please note that during the
upcoming
September
hearings, ExxonMobil intends
to provide the Board with
photographs depicting the barge traffic on the LDPR near where the Refinery is
located. In addition, ExxonMobil
intends
to offer testimony at a later date regarding
the impact of the numeric water quality standards derived from the Agency's
proposed designated uses. ExxonMobil reserves the right to supplement the
Electronic Filing - Received, Clerk's Office, August 4, 2008
testimony provided today. I would be happy to respond to any questions regarding
my testimony.
Respectfully submitted,
By: /s/ Katherine D. Hodge
Katherine D. Hodge
Dated: August
4,
2008
Katherine D. Hodge
Monica T. Rios
HODGE DWYER ZEMAN
3150 Roland
Avenue
Post Office
Box 5776
Springfield, Illinois 62705-5776
(217) 523-4900
M OBO:032/Filings/Pre-filed Testimony of R. Elvert-Final
Electronic Filing - Received, Clerk's Office, August 4, 2008
