ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD

September 9, 1993

THE KNAPHEIDE MANUF’ACTURING,

COMPANY,

Petitioner,

v.

)

PCB 93—168

(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)), the Illinois Environmental

Protection Agency (Agency), by and through its Director, Mary A.

Gade, seeks to extend the term of a provisional variance granted

the Knapheide Manufacturing Co. (Knapheide), on July 29, 1993,

under docket PCB 93-141, in order to allow it to continue

operating during the Mississippi River flooding of 1993. The

Agency Recommendation was dated September 8, 1993.

Specifically, the Agency recommends that we grant Knapheide

a 45—day provisional variance for its Quincy, Illinois facility

from the construction and operating permit and permit review

requirements and the volatile organic material emissions

limitations, as set forth in 35 Iii. Adm. Code 201.142 through

201.164 and 215.204, beginning September 11, 1993 and ending

October 25, 1993. The prior provisional variance granted in PCB

93-141 commenced on July 28, 1993 and ran through September 10,

1993.

The Agency’s provisional variance recommendation states that

Knapheide operated a metal shaping, forming, welding and

fabrication facility in West Quincy, Missouri. Due to the

flooding along the Mississippi River, however, the petitioner was

forced to suspend those operations because its Missouri site is

now under sixteen feet of water. Knapheide has located an

alternative facility directly across the Mississippi River in

Quincy, Adams County, Illinois at which it could temporarily

resume operations. The Agency recommendation states that the

alternative facility is located about three miles from the

flooded Missouri facility, that the Quincy, Illinois area is

presently in compliance with the National Ambient Air Quality

Standard for ozone, and that the expected environmental impact of

the provisional variance is minimal.

Upon receipt of the request, the Agency issued its

recommendation, notifying the Board that the failure to grant the

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2

requested 45—day provisional variance would impose an arbitrary

or unreasonable hardship on 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) &

(c) (1992) (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1991, ch. 111½, pars. 1035(b) & (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 notifying the

Board that a denial of the requested relief would impose an

arbitrary or unreasonable hardship, the Board hereby grants

Petitioner a provisional variance from 35 Ill. Adm. Code 201.142

through 201.164 and 215.204, beginning September 11 and running

through October 25, 1993.

The Agency recommendation did not include the customary

recommendation that the Board grant the provisional variance

subject to conditions, and the Board does not add conditions to

the grant.

The Board notes that Knapheide does not have a compliance

plan, but is in the process of developing one. Also, Knapheide

filed a petition for a “regular” variance on September 8, 1993,

which the Board has docketed as PCB 93—169.

IT IS SO ORDERED.

I, Dorothy M. Gunn, Clerk of the Illinois Pollution Control

Boa,~, do hereby certify tl3at the above order was adopted on the

i~f’-

day of

~Ji

~

,

1993, by a vote of

-7--,’)

.

.1

/

-

Dorothy M. Gi.inn, Clerk

Illinois Pollution Control Board