ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
    April
    6,
    1995
    CITY OF CRYSTAL
    LAXE,
    Petitioner,
    v.
    )
    PCB 95—120
    )
    (Provisional Variance—Water)
    ILLINOIS ENVIRONMENTAL
    PROTECTION AGENCY,
    Respondent.
    ORDER OF THE BOARD
    (by C.
    A. Manning):
    Pursuant to Section 35(b)
    of the Environmental Protection
    Act
    (Act)
    (415 ILCS 5/35(b)), the City of Crystal has requested
    that the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (Agency)
    recommend that the Board grant a provisional variance to allow
    the City of Crystal Lake to continue operating its wastewater
    treatment plant.
    The City of Crystal Lake requires a provisional
    variance to operate while its request for a permit modification
    is being reviewed by the Agency.
    Such request for a provisional
    variance and the Notification of Recommendation were filed with
    the Board by the Agency on Tuesday, April 4,
    1995.
    Pursuant to
    Section 35(b)
    of the Act, the Board must issue the variance
    within two
    (2) days of this filing.
    Pursuant to Section 35(b)
    of the Environmental Protection
    Act
    (Act)
    (415 ILCS 5/35(b)), the Illinois Environmental
    Protection Agency (Agency), by and through its Director, Mary A.
    Gade,
    seeks a provisional variance for the City of Crystal Lake
    in order to allow it to continue operating its wastewater
    treatment plant while its request for permit modification is
    under Agency review.
    Specifically, the Agency recommends that we grant the City
    of Crystal Lake a (forty-five)
    45 day provisional variance for
    its McHenry County facility from the requirements pertaining to
    barium as set forth in 35 Iii.
    Adm. Code 304.141 and 304.124, for
    the period beginning March 22,
    1995 and continuing for forty-five
    (45)—days or until the City of Crystal Lake’s modified NPDES
    permit becomes effective, whichever comes first.
    The Agency recommends that the Board grant the requested
    provisional variance with specified conditions.
    The Agency
    agrees that the repairs are necessary.
    The Agency anticipates
    that the requested provisional variance would have minimal
    environmental impact on the receiving stream.
    The Agency is
    unaware of any public water supplies that the requested
    provisional variance would adversely impact.
    The Agency
    maintains that a grant of a provisional variance would violate no
    federal laws.
    The Agency finds that a denial of the requested
    2
    provisional variance would create an arbitrary or unreasonable
    hardship on the petitioner.
    Provisional variances are by their very nature temporary.
    The responsibilities of the Agency and the Board in these short-
    term provisional variances are different from the
    responsibilities in standard variances.
    (~g415 ILCS 5/35
    (b)
    &
    36(c)).
    In provisional variances it is the responsibility of the
    Agency to make the technical determinations and finding of
    arbitrary or unreasonable hardship.
    The Board’s responsibility
    is to adopt a formal order, to assure the formal maintenance of
    the record, to assure the enforceability of the variance, and to
    provide notification of the action by a press release.
    Having received the Agency recommendation finding that a
    denial of the requested relief would impose an arbitrary or
    unreasonable hardship, the Board hereby grants the City of
    Crystal Lake a provisional variance from 35 Ill. Adm. Code
    306.305, on the following conditions:
    1.
    The variance shall commence upon March
    22, 1995 and
    shall continue for forty-five (45)-days or until the City of
    Crystal Lake’s modified NPDES permit becomes effective,
    whichever comes first;
    2.
    The City of Crystal Lake shall notify Ahmad Abulaban of
    the Agency’s Maywood Regional office by telephone, at
    (798)388-7900 should any adverse circumstances arise that
    could cause public health or environmental concerns.
    The
    City of Crystal Lake shall confirm this notice in writing
    within five
    (5)
    days, addressed as follows:
    Illinois Environmental Protection Agency
    Bureau of Water
    Wastewater Compliance Assurance Section
    2200 Churchill Road
    P.O. Box 19276
    Springfield,
    Illinois
    62794—9276
    Attention:
    Dan Ray
    3.
    During this provisional variance, the City of Crystal
    Lake barium effluent limit shall be limited to 4.0 mg/i
    (monthly average)
    from outfall 001 during the period of the
    variance.
    The City of Crystal Lake shall execute a copy of a
    •
    Certificate of Acceptance of this provisional variance and
    forward that copy to the Agency addressed as is the written
    notice required in the above condition; the petitioner shall
    forward that copy within ten
    (10) days of the date of this
    order of the Board,
    and the Certificate of Acceptance shall
    3
    take the following form:
    CERTIFICATION
    I
    (We), __________________________
    hereby accept and agree to be bound by all terms
    and conditions of the order of the Pollution
    Control Board in PCB 95-120, April
    6,
    1995.
    Petitioner
    Authorized Agent
    Title
    Date
    IT IS SO ORDERED.
    I, Dorothy M.
    Gunn, Clerk of the Illinois Pollution Control
    Board,
    do hereby ce
    ify that the above order was adopted on the
    ~
    day of
    •
    ,
    1995, by a vote of
    Dorothy ),~7Gunn,
    Clerk
    Illinois(jtollution Control Board

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