ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
    July 18, 1996
    REXAM MEDICAL PACKING, INC.
    (formerly DRG Medical Packing Inc.),
    Petitioner,
    v.
    ILLINOIS ENVIRONMENTAL
    PROTECTION AGENCY,
    Respondent.
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    PCB 97-14
    (Provisional Variance - Air)
    ORDER OF THE BOARD (by C.A. Manning):
    Pursuant to Section 35(b) of the Environmental Protection Act (Act) (415 ILCS
    5/35(b)), Rexam Medical Packing, Inc. (Rexam) has requested that the Illinois Environmental
    Protection Agency (Agency) recommend that the Board grant a provisional variance to allow
    Rexam to continue operating its facility during testing of a catalytic oxidizer which is part of
    its pollution control system. Such request for a provisional variance and the notification of
    recommendation was filed with the Board by the Agency on Tuesday, July 16, 1996. Pursuant
    to Section 35(b) of the Act, the Board must issue the variance within two (2) days of this
    filing.
    Specifically, the Agency recommends that we grant Rexam a 45-day provisional
    variance for its Lake County facility from the testing deadline as set forth in paragraph 3 of the
    Board’s order in PCB 95-99 (October 19, 1995) for the period from June 16, 1996 to July 30,
    1996.
    The Agency’s provisional variance recommendation states that Rexam operates a
    facility located at 1919 South Butterfield Road, Mundelein, Lake County, Illinois which
    manufactures sterilizable flexible packaging.
    Upon receipt of the request, the Agency issued its recommendation, notifying the
    Board that due to unforeseen, temporary, and uncontrollable circumstances, failure to grant the
    requested 45-day provisional variance would impose 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. (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
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    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 the testing deadline set forth in paragraph 3 of the Board’s order in
    PCB 95-99 (October 19, 1995) for the period from June 16, 1996 to July 30, 1996, subject to
    the following conditions:
    1.
    The term of this provisional variance shall commence on June 16, 1996 and it
    shall expire on July 30, 1996;
    2.
    Rexam shall complete test data collection by June 21, 1996;
    3.
    Rexam shall obtain the testing results by July 15, 1996;
    4.
    All testing results and a certification of compliance must be submitted to the
    Agency by July 30, 1996; and
    5.
    Rexam shall continue to follow all other notification requirements as set forth in
    the Opinion and Order of the Board in PCB 95-99.
    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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