ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
April 2, 1998
CITY OF KEWANEE,
Petitioner,
v.
ILLINOIS ENVIRONMENTAL
PROTECTION AGENCY,
Respondent.
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PCB 98-126
(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)
(1996)), the City of Kewanee (petitioner), located in Henry County, has requested that the
Board grant a provisional variance from Special Condition No. 12 of its National Pollutant
Discharge Elimination System Permit (NPDES) No. IL0029343 and in 35 Ill. Adm. Code
305.102(b) and 304.141. The request for a provisional variance and the notification of
recommendation were filed with the Board by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency
(Agency) on March 31, 1998. 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 Act (415 ILCS 5/35(b) (1996)), the Agency, by and
through its Director, Mary A. Gade, seeks a provisional variance to allow petitioner to
continue to operate its wastewater treatment facility while work is completed to repair joints in
the transfer piping between the excess flow lagoon and the chlorine contact lagoon. The
Agency recommends that the Board grant the requested provisional variance with specified
conditions. The Agency agrees that the modification is necessary and 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 and maintains that a grant of a provisional variance would
violate no federal laws. The Agency believes that a denial of the requested provisional
variance would create an arbitrary or unreasonable hardship on the petitioner.
Specifically, the Agency recommends that the Board grant petitioner a 45-day
provisional variance for its Henry County facility from the sampling and excess effluent
discharge requirements, as set forth in Special Condition No. 12 of its NPDES Permit No.
IL0029343 and in 35 Ill. Adm. Code 305.102(b) and 304.141. This variance period is
recommended to commence on March 18, 1998, when the first excess flow discharge event
through Outfall 003 occurred, and is to continue for 45 days, or until the transfer piping repair
is complete, whichever occurs first.
2
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), 36(c) (1996). 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 petitioner a provisional
variance from Special Condition No. 12 of its NPDES Permit No. IL0029343 and 35 Ill.
Adm. Code 305.102(b) and 304.141, subject to the following conditions:
1.
The term of this provisional variance shall commence on March 18, 1998, when
the first excess flow discharge event through Outfall 003 occurred, and is to
continue for 45 days, or until the transfer piping repair is complete, whichever
occurs first.
2. During the variance period, petitioner shall take three grab samples and analaze
for Biological Oxygen Demand, Total Suspended Solids, and Ammonia
Nitrogen at Outfall 003 to achieve a 24-hour composite sample for each
discharge event.
3. Petitioner shall also continue to meet all other conditions and limits in its
NPDES Permit No. IL0029343.
4.
Petitioner shall notify Todd Huson at the Agency’s Peoria regional office by
telephone, at 309/693-5463, when excess flow discharge events through Outfall
003 occur. Petitioner shall confirm this notice in writing within five (5) days,
addressed as follows:
Illinois Environmental Protection Agency
Bureau of Water, Compliance Assurance Section
Attn: Erin Rednour
1021 North Grand Avenue East
P.O. Box 19276
Springfield, Illinois 62794-9276
4.
Petitioner shall operate its wastewater treatment facility during the term of this
provisional variance in a manner that assures the best effluent practicable.
Additionally, petitioner shall perform the necessary work on the berm as
expeditiously as possible to minimize the time period that excess flow must be
diverted to, and discharged from, Outfall 003.
3
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; 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 98-126, April 2, 1998.
____________________________________
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 (1996)) provides for
the appeal of final Board orders to the Illinois Appellate Court within 35 days of service of this
order. Illinois Supreme Court Rule 335 establishes such filing requirements. See 172 Ill. 2d
R. 335; 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 2nd day of April 1998 by a vote of 5-0.
Dorothy M. Gunn, Clerk
Illinois Pollution Control Board
