ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
    January 9, 1997
    ROCK RIVER WATER RECLAMATION
    DISTRICT,
    Petitioner,
    v.
    ILLINOIS ENVIRONMENTAL
    PROTECTION AGENCY,
    Respondent.
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    PCB 97-118
    (Provisional Variance - NPDES)
    ORDER OF THE BOARD (by R.C. Flemal):
    Pursuant to Section 35(b) of the Environmental Protection Act (Act) (415 ILCS
    5/35(b)),
     
    Rock River Water Reclamation District (District) has requested that the Illinois
    Environmental Protection Agency (Agency) recommend that the Board grant a provisional
    variance to allow the District to continue operating during a period of wastewater treatment
    plant upgrades. Such request for a provisional variance and the Notification of
    Recommendation was filed with the Board by the Agency on Tuesday, January 7, 1997.
    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 Act (415 ILCS 5/35(b)), 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 construction work to install two new aeration tanks and
    circular clarifiers and to upgrade the existing aeration tanks is completed.
    Specifically, the Agency recommends that we grant petitioner a 39-day provisional
    variance for its Winnebago County facility from the ammonia nitrogen, five-day carbonaceous
    biochemical oxygen demand and total suspended solids effluent discharge requirements, as set
    forth in 35 Ill. Adm. Code 302.212, 304.120(a) and 304.141(a). This variance period shall
    begin on December 24, 1996 and end on January 31, 1997.
    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 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.
    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)). 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 302.212, 304.120(a) and 304.141(a), on the
    following conditions:
    1.
    The term of this provisional variance shall commence on December 24, 1996
    and end on January 31, 1997;
    2.
    During the term of this provisional variance, petitioner shall meet weekly
    average concentration limits of 90 mg/l and monthly averages of 50 mg/l for
    total suspended solids; weekly average concentration limits of 60 mg/l and
    monthly averages of 50 mg/l for five-day carbonaceous biochemical oxygen
    demand; and weekly average concentration limits of 19 mg/l and monthly
    averages of 16 mg/l for ammonia nitrogen. Petitioner shall continue to meet
    the additional effluent limits in its National Pollutant Discharge Elimination
    System Permit No. IL0027201
    ;
    3. The petitioner shall operate its plant during the term of this provisional variance in a
    manner that assures the best effluent practicable; and:
    The petitioner shall execute a copy of a Certificate of Acceptance of this provisional
    variance and forward that copy to the Agency addressed below; the petitioner shall
    forward that copy within ten (10) days of the date of this order of the Board.
    Illinois Environmental Protection Agency
    Bureau of Water, Compliance Assurance Section
    2200 Churchill Road
    P.O. Box 19276
    Springfield, Illinois 62794-9276
    Attention: Mark T. Books
    The Certificate of Acceptance shall take the following form:
    CERTIFICATION
    3
    I (We), _________________________________,
    hereby accept and agree to be bound by all terms and
    conditions of the order of the Pollution Control
    Board in PCB 97-118, January 9, 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 _____ day of ___________, 1997, by a vote of
    ______________.
    ___________________________________
    Dorothy M. Gunn, Clerk
    Illinois Pollution Control Board

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