DEVELOPMENT AND ENFORCEMENT OF AN INDUSTRIAL WASTE
ORDINANCE IN A LARGE METROPOLITAN AREA
Stanley W. Whitebloom, Chief Pollution Control Officer
Cecil Lue-Hing, Director of Research and Development
Ellen Guth, Pollution Control Officer
James Dencek, Industrial Waste Field Supervisor
The Metropolitan Sanitary District of Greater Chicago
Chicago, Illinois 60611
INTRODUCTION
The Metropolitan Sanitary District of Greater Chicago (MSDGC) is a tax-supported
unit of local government which is chartered under Illinois law to maintain and operate
facilities to collect and treat domestic sewage and waterborne industrial waste in an 865
square mile area in northeastern Illinois.    The MSDGC operates and maintains six
wastewater treatment plants that treat approximately 1.5 billion gallons of industrial
and domestic wastewater daily.    These treatment plants are serviced by over 500 miles
of intercepting sewers and 5000 miles of local sewers which range in size from 4 inches
to 28 feet in diameter.   The MSDGC is also responsible for monitoring all discharges
into 72 miles of navigable inland waterways, over 200 miles of small rivers and streams,
and 36 miles of Lake Michigan shoreline.
ORDINANCE DEVELOPMENT
The Board of Trustees of the MSDGC on July 11,  1946 adopted an Ordinance for
the control and abatement of pollution to waters within its jurisdiction. This Ordinance
was referred to as an "equivalency ordinance" in that it required all discharges to a
waterway not to exceed in "content of such like substances present in an equal volume
of the effluent discharged from the sewage treatment works of the District" [ 1 ].
On July 13, 1962 the Board of Trustees of the MSDGC adopted an Industrial
Waste Ordinance that set forth certain limiting conditions for the discharge of industrial
waste in the sanitary sewer system.   Contained as part of these conditions were the
limits for pH not to be lower than 4.5 or higher than  10.0 and fats, oils and greases
not to exceed  100 mg/1 [2].
The Illinois Sanitary Water Board (SWB), the predecessor of both the Illinois Pollution
Control Board (IPCB) and the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA) on June
28, 1967, adopted regulations for water and effluent quality for discharge to waters in
the State of Illinois.   On January 28, 1968, the United States Department of the
Interior approved these standards and they became law in the State of Illinois on
April 1, 1968.
Subsequent to the passage of these State regulations, the MSDGC determined that a
new industrial waste ordinance was needed to further control the discharge of industrial
waste into the sewer system.    Thus, open hearings were held which allowed the public
and industry an opportunity to express their views on a proposed new industrial waste
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