ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
    August 26,
    1993
    VILLAGE OF WINNETKA,
    Petitioner,
    v.
    )
    PCB 93-154
    )
    (Provisional Variance)
    ILLINOIS ENVIRONMENTAL
    )
    PROTECTION AGENCY,
    )
    )
    Respondent.
    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 Illinois Environmental
    Protection Agency
    (Agency), by and through its Director, Mary A.
    Gade,
    seeks a provisional variance for Village of Winnetka in
    order to allow it to use hot water to destroy the present
    infestation of zebra mussels on their inlet and within their
    intake pipelines for both their water treatment plant and power
    plant.
    The Agency Recommendation was filed August 25,
    1993.
    Specifically, the Agency recommends that we grant Village of
    Winnetka a 45-day provisional variance for its Cook County
    facility from the regulatory prohibition against violation of a
    water quality standard,
    as set forth in 35
    Ill. Adm. Code
    304.141(b),
    for the period of 45 days from the date of the
    Board’s order or from when the Petitioner thermal treatment
    process for zebra mussel control
    is completed, whichever occurs
    first.
    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 finds that a denial of the requested
    provisional variance would create an arbitrary or unreasonable
    hardship on the Petitioner.
    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.
    ~
    415 ILCS 5/35
    (b)
    &
    (c)
    (1992)
    (Iii.
    Rev.
    Stat.
    1991,
    ch.
    111½,
    pars.
    1035(b)
    &
    (c)).
    In provisional
    variances
    it
    is the responsibility
    of the Agency

    2
    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 finding that
    a
    denial
    of the requested relief would impose an arbitrary or
    unreasonable hardship,
    the Board hereby grants Petitioner
    a
    provisional variance from 35
    Ill. Adm.
    Code 304.141(b),
    on the
    following conditions:
    1.
    The term of this provisional variance shall commence
    when the Petitioner, Village of Winnetka,
    initiates the
    thermal treatment process for zebra mussel control,
    and it
    shall expire on the date the Petitioner completes the
    required maintenance work,
    or after 45 days have elapsed,
    whichever comes
    first;
    2.
    During the term of this provisional variance,
    petitioner shall maintain compliance with 35
    Ill.
    Adm. Code
    302.507, thermal limitations at the edge of a mixing zone.
    Petitioner shall monitor the water temperature at the inlet
    of the 20-inch and the 60-inch intake pipes.
    If a
    temperature rise of more than 3°Fat the edge of the mixing
    zone is anticipated, the petitioner shall close the valve
    connecting the thermal plant to the intake pipe and shall
    start a low lift pump to draw the heated water out of the
    intake pipelines into the water treatment plant.
    3.
    The Petitioner shall notify Robert Suiski of the
    Agency’s Maywood Regional office by telephone,
    at 708/531-
    5900, when it initiates its thermal treatment process and
    when the thermal treatment process
    is completed,
    and the
    Petitioner shall confirm this notice
    in writing within five
    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:
    Mark T.
    Books
    4.
    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
    10 days
    of the date of this Order
    of the Board,
    and
    the
    Certificate of Acceptance shall take

    3
    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 93—154, August 26,
    1993.
    Petitioner
    Authorized Agent
    Title
    Date
    The Agency recommendation did not include the customary
    recommendation that the Board grant the provisional variance
    subject to conditions,
    and the Board does not add conditions to
    the grant.
    IT IS SO ORDERED.
    I, Dorothy M. Gunn, Clerk of the Illinois Pollution Control
    Board, do hereby certify that theAabove order was adopted by the
    Board on the
    ~
    day of _________________________,
    1993,
    by a vote of
    ~
    .
    Dorothy M. Gin,
    Clerk
    Illinois Pollution Control Board

    Back to top