Electronic Filing - Received, Clerk's Office : 11/21/2014 - * * PC# 1416 * * BEFORE THE ILLINOIS J>OLLUTION CONTROL BOARD IN THE MATTER OF: ) ) WATER QUALITY STANDARDS AND ) R08-9 EFFLUENT LIMITATIONS FOR THE ) (Rulemaking- Water) CHICAGO AREA WATERWAY SYSTEM ) AND THE LOWER DES PLAINES RIVER: ) Subdocket D PROPOSED AMENDMENTS TO 35 Ill. ) Adm. Code Parts 301, 302, 303 and 304 ) NOTICE OF FILING To: ALL COUNSEL OF RECORD (Service List Attached) PLEASE TAKE NOTICE that on the 21st day ofNovember, 2014, I electronically filed METROPOLITAN WATER RECLAMATION DISTRICT OF GREATER CHICAGO'S COMMENTS ON FIRST NOTICE OPINION AND ORDER with the Office of the Clerk of the Illinois Pollution Control Board. Dated: November 21,2014 METROPOLITAN WATER RECLAMATION DISTRICT OF GREATER CHICAGO By: Is/ Fredric P. Andes One of Its Attorneys Fredric P. Andes BARNES & THORNBURG LLP One North Wacker Drive Suite 4400 Chicago, Illinois 60606 (312) 357-1313 Electronic Filing - Received, Clerk's Office : 11/21/2014 - * * PC# 1416 * * PROOF OF SERVICE The undersigned attorney certifies, under penalties of perjury pursuant to 735 ILCS 5/1- 109, that he caused a copy of the foregoing METROPOLITAN WATER RECLAMATION DISTRICT OF GREATER CHICAGO'S COMMENTS ON FIRST NOTICE OPINION AND ORDER, to be served via First Class Mail, postage paid, from One North Wacker Drive, Chicago, Illinois, on the 21st Day of November, 2014, upon those listed on the attached Service List. Is/ Fredric P. Andes One of Its Attorneys Fredric P. Andes BARNES & THORNBURG LLP One North Wacker Drive Suite 4400 Chicago, Illinois 60606 (312) 357-1313 2 Electronic Filing - Received, Clerk's Office : 11/21/2014 - * * PC# 1416 * * BEFORE THE ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD IN THE MATTER OF: ) ) WATER QUALITY STANDARDS AND ) R08-9 EFFLUENT LIMITATIONS FOR THE ) (Rulemaking - Water) CHICAGO AREA WATERWAY SYSTEM ) AND THE LOWER DES PLAINES RIVER: ) Subdocket D PROPOSED AMENDMENTS TO 35 Ill. ) Adm. Code Parts 301, 302, 303 and 304 ) SERVICE LIST Roy M. Harsch Claire A. Manning Drinker, Biddle, Gardner, Carton Brown, Hay & Stephens LLP 191 North Wacker Drive 700 First Mercantile Bank Building Suite 3700 205 South Fifth Street Chicago, IL 60606-1698 P.O. Box 2459 Springfield, IL 62705-2459 Deborah J. Williams, Assistant Counsel Katherine D. Hodge Stefanie N. Diers, Assistant Counsel Matthew C. Read Illinois Environmental Protection Agency Hodge Dwyer & Driver Division of Legal Counsel 3150 Roland Avenue 1021 North Grand Avenue East P.O. Box 5776 P.O. Box 19276 Springfield, IL 62705-5776 Springfield, IL 62794-9276 Thomas W. Dimond Jerry Paulsen/Cindy Skrukrud Ice Miller LLP Environmental Defenders of McHenry County 200 West Madison Street 110 South Johnson Street Suite 3500 Suite 106 Chicago, IL 60606-3417 Woodstock, IL 60098 Robert VanGyseghem Lisa Frede City of Geneva Chemical Industry Council of Illinois 1800 South Street 1400 East Touhy Avenue Geneva, IL 60134-2203 Suite 110 Des Plaines, IL 60018 Electronic Filing - Received, Clerk's Office : 11/21/2014 - * * PC# 1416 * * Matthew J. Dunn, Chief James L. Daugherty, District Manager Susan Hedman Thorn Creek Basin Sanitary District Thomas H. Shepherd- Asst. Atty. General 700 West End Avenue Office of the Attorney General Chicago Heights, IL 60411 Environmental Bureau North 69 West Washington Street Suite 1800 Chicago, IL 60602 Thomas H. Shepherd Mitchell Cohen Assistant Attorney General Illinois DNR, Legal Environmental Bureau One Natural Resources Way 69 West Washington Street Springfield, IL 62705-5776 18th Floor Chicago, IL 60602 Bernard Sawyer Frederick D. Keady, P.E., President Thomas Granato Vermilion Coal Company Metropolitan Water Reclamation District 1979 Johns Drive 6001 West Pershing Road Glenview, IL 60025 Cicero, IL 60804-4112 Keith I. Harley James E. Eggen Elizabeth Schenkier Director of Public Works & Utilities Chicago Legal Clinic, Inc. City of Joliet, Department of Public 211 West Wacker Drive Works & Utilities Suite 750 150 W. Jefferson Street Chicago, IL 60606 Joliet, IL 60431 W. C. Blanton Ann Alexander, Sr. Attorney Husch Blackwell Sanders LLP Natural Resources Defense Council 4801 Main Street 20 North Wacker Drive Suite 1000 Suite 1600 Kansas City, MO 64112 Chicago, IL 60606 Erin L. Brooks Chicago Department of Law Bryan Cave LLP 30 N. LaSalle St, Suite 1400 One Metropolitan Square Chicago, Illinois 60602 211 N. Broadway, Suite 3600 St. Louis, MO 63102-2750 2 Electronic Filing - Received, Clerk's Office : 11/21/2014 - * * PC# 1416 * * James Huff, Vice President Dr. Thomas J. Murphy Huff & Huff, Inc. DePaul University 915 Harger Road 2325 North Clifton Street Suite 330 Chicago, IL 60614 Oak Brook, IL 60523 Cindy Hudzik Vicky McKinley City of Chicago - Mayor's Office of Evanston Environment Board Intergovernmental Affairs 223 Grey A venue 121 North LaSalle Street Evanston, IL 60202 City Hall - Room 509 Chicago, IL 60602 Irwin Polls Kenneth W. Liss Ecological Monitoring and Assessment Andrews Environmental Engineering 3206 Maple LeafDrive 3300 Ginger Creek Drive Glenview, IL 60025 Springfield, IL 62711 Jack Darin Bob Carter Sierra Club Bloomington Normal Water Illinois Chapter Reclamation District 70 East Lake Street P.O. Box 3307 Suite 1500 Bloomington, IL 61702-3307 Chicago, IL 60601-7 44 7 Jessica Dexter Kay Anderson Environmental Law & Policy Center American Bottoms R WTF 35 East Wacker Drive One American Bottoms Road Suite 1600 Sauget, IL 62201 Chicago, IL 60601 Lyman C. Welch Marie Tipsord, Hearing Officer Manager, Water Quality Programs John Therriault, Assistant Clerk Alliance for the Great Lakes Illinois Pollution Control Board 150 N. Michigan 100 West Randolph Street Suite 700 Suite 11-500 Chicago, IL 60601 Chicago, IL 60601 3 Electronic Filing - Received, Clerk's Office : 11/21/2014 - * * PC# 1416 * * Stacy Meyers-Glen Susan M. Franzetti Openlands Nijman Franzetti LLP 25 East Washington 10 South LaSalle Street Suite 1650 Suite 3600 Chicago, Illinois 60602 Chicago, IL 60603 Jeffrey C. Fort Kristen Laughridge Gale Irina Dashevsky Nijman Franzetti LLP Denton US LLP 10 South LaSalle Street 233 South Wacker Drive Suite 3600 Suite 7800 Chicago, IL 60603 Chicago, IL 60606-6404 Frederick M. Feldman Albert Ettinger- Senior StafT Attorney Ronald M. Hill 53 West Jackson Margaret T. Conway Suite 1664 Metropolitan Water Reclamation District Chicago, IL 60604 100 East Erie Street Chicago, IL 60611 Mark Schultz Regional Environmental Coordinator Navy Facilities and Engineering Command 20 1 Decatur A venue Building 1A Great Lakes, IL 60088-2801 937725Y I 4 Electronic Filing - Received, Clerk's Office : 11/21/2014 - * * PC# 1416 * * BEFORE THE ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD IN THE MATTER OF: ) ) WATER QUALITY STANDARDS AND ) R08-9 EFFLUENT LIMITATIONS FOR THE ) (Rulemaking- Water) CHICAGO AREA WATERWAY SYSTEM ) AND THE LOWER DES PLAINES RIVER: ) Subdocket D PROPOSED AMENDMENTS TO 35 Ill. ) Adm. Code Parts 301, 302, 303 and 304 ) METROPOLITAN WATER RECLAMATION DISTRICT OF GREATER CHICAGO'S COMMENTS ON FIRST NOTICE OPINION AND ORDER The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago ("MWRD" or the "District") has the following comments concerning the First Notice Opinion and Order in this proceeding filed by the Board on September 18,2014: 1. The Board considers site-specific chloride standards (990 mg/1 acute standard and 620 mg/L chronic standard) only for the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal (CSSC) from December 1 - April 30, while the remainder of the waterways will be subject to the General Use water quality standard of 500 mg/L. In providing justification for its proposed standards for the CSSC, Citgo relied on data gathered by the MWRD and others for the Chicago Area Waterways System (CAWS). Upon review of the available data concerning presence of various species throughout the CAWS, MWRD believes that the same justification applies to site-specific standards for the remaining CAWS reaches for the same time period. (The relevant data are included in reports that are available at http://www.mwrd.org/irj/portallanonvmous/WQM.) Since the Board has accepted Citgo's proposal, it should apply the same site-specific standards (990 mg/1 acute and 620 mg/1 chronic) to the other CAWS reaches. (MWRD does not gather information Electronic Filing - Received, Clerk's Office : 11/21/2014 - * * PC# 1416 * * regarding presence of species on the Lower Des Plaines River (LDPR), so this request does not extend to the LDPR.) 2. MWRD is aware that U.S. EPA has expressed concerns about the exclusion of certain species in the Citgo calculations. However, even if the standards were recalculated, in response to U.S. EPA comments, tore-include Ceriodaphnia and Sphaerium, the revised site-specific standards would still be significantly different than the 500 mg/1 proposed by the Board. Based on review of historical MWRD data, we have also included the American eel and the threespine stickleback in the taxa list for recalculation of the chloride water quality standard. (The taxa list and other relevant information to the recalculation process are included in Appendix 1 to these comments.) Based on MWRD's recalculation, the new chloride standards would be 640 mg/1 as an acute standard and 400 mg/1 as a chronic standard. (Supporting calculations are attached as Appendix 2 to these comments.) While application of these revised standards would not entirely eliminate the attainment issues in the CAWS, they would significantly reduce the extent of noncompliance as compared to application of the proposed 500 mg/1 standard, and some reaches would either be in attainment or may not need the application of a variance (as discussed below). MWRD believes that the scientific issues about the chloride standards that remain to be resolved are significant enough that the Board should consider creating a new Subdocket, to consider issues relating to chloride standards for the CAWS. 3. Because of the attainment issues that would result from application of the new chloride standards, Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEP A) has asked MWRD to lead a workgroup on chloride issues in the metropolitan Chicago area.