ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
    August 15, 1996
    VILLAGE OF ASHLAND,
    Petitioner,
    v.
    ILLINOIS ENVIRONMENTAL
    PROTECTION AGENCY,
    Respondent.
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    PCB 97-32
    (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)), the Village of Ashland has requested that the Illinois Environmental Protection
    Agency (Agency) recommend that the Board grant a provisional variance from Section 35(b)
    of the Environmental Protection Act (Act) (415 ILCS 5/35(b)), to the Village of Ashland.
    Such request for a provisional variance and the Notification of Recommendation was filed with
    the Board by the Agency on Tuesday, August 13, 1996. 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 Environmental Protection Act (Act) (415 ILCS
    5/35(b)), the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (Agency), by and through its Director,
    Mary A. Gade, seeks a provisional variance for the Village of Ashland in order to allow it to
    continue operating during a period of wastewater treatment plant repairs.
    Specifically, the Agency recommends that we grant the Village of Ashland a forty-five
    (45) day provisional variance for its Cass County facility from the ammonia nitrogen,
    biochemical oxygen demand, and total suspended solids effluent requirements, as set forth in
    35 Ill. Adm. Code 302.120(a) and 35 Ill. Adm. Code 304.141(a) and (b). This variance
    period shall begin on the date when the petitioner begins repairs to its wastewater treatment
    plant, and continuing until the repairs to the wastewater treatment plant are complete, but not
    longer than 45 days.
    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.
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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)). 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 302.120(a) and 35 Ill. Adm. Code 304.141(a)
    and (b), on the following conditions:
    1.
    The term of this provisional variance shall commence on a date during 1996
    when repairs on the wastewater treatment plant begin and continue until the repairs to
    the wastewater treatment plant are complete, or after forty-five (45) days have
    elapsed, whichever comes first;
    2.
    During the term of this provisional variance, the Village of Ashland treatment
    plant shall meet a monthly average concentration of 80 mg/1 for total suspended solids,
    60 mg/1 for biochemical oxygen demand, and 15 mg/1 for ammonia nitrogen. All
    other effluent limits in the Village of Ashland’s NPDES Permit No. IL0027529 shall
    remain in force and in effect during the variance period
    ;
    3.
    The petitioner shall notify Jim Miles of the Agency’s Springfield Regional
    office by telephone, at 217/786-6892, when the repairs and maintenance work have
    begun and when they are completed. Petitioner shall confirm this notice in writing
    within five (5) days, addressed as follows:
    Illinois Environmental Protection Agency
    Division of Water Pollution Control
    Compliance Assurance Section
    2200 Churchill Road
    P.O. Box 19276
    Springfield, Illinois 62794-9276
    Attention:
    Susan Davison
    4.
    The petitioner shall operate its waste treatment facility during the term of this
    provisional variance in a manner that assures the best effluent practicable; and
    5.
    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
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    (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 97-32, August 15, 1996.
    ___________________________
    Petitioner
    ___________________________
    Authorized Agent
    ___________________________
    Title
    ___________________________
    Date
    IT IS SO ORDERED.
    I, Dorothy M. Gunn, Clerk of the Illinois Pollution Control Board, hereby certify that
    the above order was adopted on the _____ day of ___________, 1996, by a vote of
    ______________.
    ___________________________________
    Dorothy M. Gunn, Clerk
    Illinois Pollution Control Board

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