ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
    December 1,
    1994
    BORDEN CHEMICALS
    AND
    PLASTICS,
    )
    )
    Petitioner,
    )
    v.
    )
    PCB 94—368
    )
    (Provisional Variance)
    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)), Borden Chemicals and Plastics
    (Borden) has requested that the Illinois Environmental Protection
    Agency
    (Agency) recommend that the Board grant
    a provisional
    variance to allow Borden to continue operating during a period of
    wastewater treatment plant malfunction.
    Such request for a
    provisional variance and the Notification of Recommendation was
    filed with the Board by the Agency on Wednesday, November 30,
    1994.
    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 Borden in order to allow
    it to continue operating during a period of wastewater treatment
    plant malfunction.
    Specifically, the Agency recommends that we grant Borden a
    forty-five (45)-day provisional variance for its Sangamon County
    facility from the
    biochemical oxygen demand
    (CBOD5) and
    suspended solids
    (TSS)
    effluent requirements,
    as set forth in 35
    Ill.
    Adin.
    Code 304.120(c)
    and 304.141(a),
    beginning December,
    1994, and continuing for no longer than 45 days.
    This recommendation is essentially that the Board extend a
    previously—granted provisional variance that will expire December
    3,
    1994.
    The docket number of the previous provisional variance
    was PCB 94—300, granted on October 20,
    1994.
    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
    2
    maintains that a grant of a provisional variance would violate no
    federal laws.
    The Agency finds that a denial of the requested
    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.
    (~
    415 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 petitioner a
    provisional variance from 35 Ill. Adm. Code 304.120(c)
    and
    304.141(a),
    on the following conditions:
    1.
    The term of this provisional variance shall commence
    December 4,
    1994, and shall continue for no longer than
    forty-five days;
    2.
    The petitioner shall operate its plant during the term
    of this provisional variance in a manner that assures the
    best effluent practicable;
    3.
    During the term of this variance, petitioner shall
    meet monthly average concentration effluent limits of 24
    milligrams per liter
    (mg/i) CBOD and 40 mg/i TSS.
    Petitioners daily maximum concentration limits shall be 64
    ng/l
    CBOD and 130 mg/i TSS.
    The petitioner shall execute a copy of a Certificate of
    Acceptance of this provisional variance and forward that copy to
    the Agency addressed;
    Illinois Environmental Protection Agency
    Division of Water Pollution Control
    Compliance Assurance Section
    2200 Churchill Road
    P.O. Box 19276
    Springfield, Illinois
    62794—9276
    Attention:
    Susan Davision
    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 take the following form:
    3
    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 94-300, October 20,
    1994.
    Petitioner
    Authorized Agent
    Title
    Date
    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
    ___________________________,
    1994, by a vote of
    7—z~)
    /
    Illinois
    Control Board

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