ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL
    BOARD
    June 21,
    1990
    ROCKTON
    SANITARY
    DISTRICT
    )
    )
    Petitioner,
    V.
    )
    PCB 90—119
    (Provisional Variance)
    ILLINOIS ENVIRONNENTAL
    PROTECTION AGENCY,
    )
    Respondent.
    ORDER OF THE BOARD
    (J. Marlin):
    This matter
    comes
    before the Board on receipt of an Agency
    Recommendation dated June 20,
    1990.
    The recommendation refers to
    a request from Petitioner,
    Rockton Sanitary District
    (Rockton)
    for a provisional variance from the deoxygenating wastes
    (5—day
    biochemical oxygen demand
    (CBOD))
    and suspended solids
    (TSS)
    effluent requirements,
    as set forth
    in 35
    Ill. Adm.
    Code 304.120
    and 304.141(a),
    for the period from the date Rockton removes its
    oxidation ditch from service and continuing until that unit is
    returned to service, but not continuing for longer than 45 days.
    Rockton owns and operates
    a wastewater treatment plant
    consisting of
    a coimminutor,
    and oxidation ditch, a secondary
    clarifier,
    and aerated lagoon, and a chlorine contact tank.
    Plant effluent discharges to the Rock River.
    NPDES
    permit
    number
    IL0030791 imposes monthly average effluent limits of
    25
    ing/l
    CBOD
    and
    30 mg/l TSS.
    Rockton indicates that
    it
    must repair and upgrade its
    oxidation ditch,
    by converting
    it into an aeration tank by
    replacing existing brush aerators with diffused air aeration.
    Rockton represents that accomplishing this work while maintaining
    the ditch in service “would be a virtual impossibility.”
    The
    Agency agrees in its recommendation that “there are no reasonable
    alternatives.”
    The Agency recommends that the Board grant the requested
    relief with certain conditions.
    The Agency concurs with Rockton
    that to continue full treatment while repairing and upgrading the
    oxidation ditch would impose an arbitrary and unreasonable
    hardship on Rockton.
    The Agency believes that environmental
    impact would be minimal because of dilution of the effluent by
    the river flow and the fact that remaining wastewater treatment
    processes would continue through the duration of the provisional
    variance.
    The Agency represents that no federal law would
    preclude a grant of this provisional variance and that
    a grant
    would not adversely affect any downstream public water supplies.
    In light of the Agency Recommendation, the Board hereby
    L12—61~
    grants a provisional variance from the CEOD and TSS effluent
    requirements of
    35 Ill. Adm. Code 304.120
    and 304.141(a) with the
    following conditions:
    1.
    The term of this provisional variance shall begin on
    the day that Rockton removes its oxidation ditch from
    service, and that term shall continue until
    it returns the
    unit to service,
    but the term of this provisional variance
    shall not exceed 45 days;
    2.
    Rockton shall discharge no effluent whose CBOD or TSS
    content exceeds 40 mg/i during the term of this provisional
    variance;
    3.
    Rockton shall notify Dennis Rockton,
    of the Agency’s
    Rockford office, by telephone,
    at 815—987-7755, when it
    begins work on the oxidation ditch and when it returns the
    ditch to service and shall confirm the telephone notices
    within five days in writing by mail addressed as follows:
    Illinois Environmental Protection Agency
    Division of Water Pollution Control
    2200 Churchill Road
    P.O. Box 19276
    Springfield, Illinois
    62794—9276
    Attention:
    Mark T.
    Books
    4.
    Rockton shall return the oxidation ditch to service as
    soon as possible and shall provide the best practicable
    treatment during the term of this provisional variance; and
    5.
    Rockton shall, within 10 days of the date of this
    Order,
    execute a Certificate of Acceptance and Agreement and
    forward a copy to the Agency, addressed as indicated in
    condition number
    3,
    in the following form:
    112—42n
    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 90—119, dated June 21,
    1990.
    Petitioner
    Authorized Agent
    Title
    r..
    .L
    uaLe
    IT IS SO ORDERED.
    I, Dorothy
    N.
    Gunn, Clerk of the Illinois Pollution Control
    Board, do hereby certify that the above Order was adopted on the
    ~
    day of ____________________________,
    1990, by a vote of
    ~.
    Dorothy M.4~unn,Clerk
    Illinois P~11utionControl Board
    112—421

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