ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
May 15, 1997
CITY OF MATTOON,
Petitioner,
v.
ILLINOIS ENVIRONMENTAL
PROTECTION AGENCY,
Respondent.
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PCB 97-200
(Provisional Variance - Water)
ORDER OF THE BOARD (by C.A. Manning):
Pursuant to Section 35(b) of the Environmental Protection Act (Act) (415 ILCS 5/35(b)
(1994)), the City of Mattoon (petitioner) has requested that the Illinois Environmental
Protection Agency (Agency) recommend that the Board grant a provisional variance to the
petitioner. Such request for a provisional variance and the notification of recommendation
were filed with the Board by the Agency on May 14, 1997. Pursuant to Section 35(b) of the
Act, the Board must issue the variance within two (2) days of this filing.
The Agency, by and through its director, Mary A. Gade, seeks a provisional variance
pursuant to Section 35(b) of the Act (415 ILCS 5/35(b)) to allow petitioner to continue to
operate its wastewater treatment facility while rehabilitation work is conducted on petitioner’s
tertiary sand filter units.
Specifically, the Agency recommends that we grant petitioner a 45-day provisional
variance for its Coles County facility from the total suspended solids and biochemical oxygen
demand effluent discharge requirements, as set forth in 35 Ill. Adm. Code 304.120(c) and
304.141(a) and imposed by National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Permit (NPDES)
No. IL0029831. This variance period is recommended to commence during 1997 when its
tertiary sand filter units are removed from service and shall continue until the work on the
units are completed, but not longer than 45 days.
The Agency recommends that the Board grant the requested provisional variance with
specified conditions and 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. According to the Agency, no federal laws would be violated
if the provisional variance is granted by the Board. The Agency believes that a denial of the
requested provisional variance would create an arbitrary or unreasonable hardship on the
petitioner.
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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. (See 415 ILCS 5/35(b) and 5/36(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 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) and NPDES No.
IL0029831, subject to the following conditions:
1.
The term of this provisional variance shall commence during 1997 when the
tertiary sand filter units are removed from service and shall continue until the
work on the units are completed, but not longer than 45 days, whichever occurs
first.
2.
Petitioner shall operate its plant during the term of this provisional variance in a
manner that assures the best effluent practicable. Additionally, petitioner shall
meet the following effluent limits:
CBOD
Suspended Solids
Monthly Average
20 mg/l
25 mg/l
Daily Maximum
30 mg/l
37 mg/l
Petitioner shall continue to meet the additional limits of its NPDES Permit No.
IL0029831.
3.
The petitioner shall notify C. Eliana Brown at the Agency’s Champaign regional
office by telephone, at 217/333-8361, when the tertiary sand filter units are
removed from service and again when the units are returned to service.
Petitioner shall confirm this notice in writing within five (5) days, addressed as
follows:
Illinois Environmental Protection Agency
ATTN: Mark T. Books
Bureau of Water, Compliance Assurance Section
2200 Churchill Road
P.O. Box 19276
Springfield, Illinois 62794-9276
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4.
The petitioner shall perform the necessary repair work on the tertiary sand filter
units as expeditiously as possible to minimize the time period that the units are
out of service.
The petitioner 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 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 97-200, May 15, 1997.
______________________________________
Petitioner
______________________________________
Authorized Agent
______________________________________
Title
______________________________________
Date
IT IS SO ORDERED.
Board Member K.M. Hennessey abstained.
Section 41 of the Environmental Protection Act (415 ILCS 5/41 (1994)) provides for
the appeal of final Board orders to the Illinois Appellate Court within 35 days of the date of
service of this order. The Rules of the Supreme Court of Illinois establish filing requirements.
(See also 35 Ill. Adm. Code 101.246 “Motions for Reconsideration.”)
I, Dorothy M. Gunn, Clerk of the Illinois Pollution Control Board, hereby certify that
the above order was adopted on the 15
th
day of May, 1997, by a vote of 5-0.
Dorothy M. Gunn, Clerk
Illinois Pollution Control Board
