ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
July 8, 1998
VILLAGE OF ANTIOCH,
Petitioner,
v.
ILLINOIS ENVIRONMENTAL
PROTECTION AGENCY,
Respondent.
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PCB 99-4
(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 Village of Antioch (petitioner), located in Lake County, Illinois, has requested
that the Board grant a provisional variance from certain conditions of its National Pollutant
Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Permit No. IL0020354 and 35 Ill. Adm. Code
304.141(a), which prohibit any discharges from the excess flow facility prior to treatment of a
specific volume of flow through the wastewater treatment plant. The request for a provisional
variance and the notification of recommendation were filed with the Board by the Illinois
Environmental Protection Agency (Agency) on July 6, 1998. Pursuant to Section 35(b) of the
Act, the Board must issue the variance within two 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 maintenance work is completed on
its chlorine contact tank. The Agency recommends that the Board grant the requested
provisional variance with specified conditions. The Agency agrees that the modification is
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
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 Lake County facility from conditions and effluent discharge limits,
as set forth in NPDES Permit No. IL0020354 and 35 Ill. Adm. Code 304.141(a). This
variance period is recommended to commence when the chlorine contact tank is removed from
service and to continue until the work on the chlorine contact tank is completed, but not longer
than 45 days.
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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), 36(c) (1996). In provisional
variances, it is the responsibility of the Agency to make the technical determinations and
finding of an arbitrary or unreasonable hardship. The Board’s responsibility is to adopt a
formal order, assure the formal maintenance of the record, assure the enforceability of the
variance, and 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 NPDES Permit No. IL0020354 and 35 Ill. Adm. Code 304.141(a), subject to
the following conditions:
1.
This variance period shall commence when the chlorine contact tank is removed
from service and shall continue until the work on the chlorine contact tank is
completed, but not longer than 45 days.
2. Petitioner shall operate its wastewater treatment facility so as to produce the best
effluent practicable. Petitioner shall take whatever steps possible to avoid
having to discharge from the excess flow facility during the variance period.
During the variance period, petitioner’s excess flow outfall 001A shall not
discharge effluent with a suspended solids concentration greater than 50
milligrams per liter. Petitioner shall continue to meet all its NPDES Permit No.
IL0020354 effluent limits for outfall 001A.
3.
Petitioner shall notify Karen Katamey at the Agency’s Maywood regional office
by telephone, at 708/338-7900, when the chlorine contact tank is removed from
service and again when it is returned to service. 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: Mark T. Books
1021 N. Grand Avenue East
P.O. Box 19276
Springfield, Illinois 62794-9276
4. Petitioner shall perform the necessary repair work on the chlorine contact tank
as expeditiously as possible to minimize the time period that the unit is out of
service.
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 (3). 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:
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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 99-4, July 8, 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 8th day of July 1998 by a vote of 4-0.
Dorothy M. Gunn, Clerk
Illinois Pollution Control Board
