ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
    March 31,
    1994
    CITY OF MONMOUTH,
    )
    )
    Petitioner,
    )
    v.
    )
    PCB 94—105
    )
    (Provisional Variance)
    ILLINOIS ENVIRONMENTAL
    PROTECTION AGENCY,
    )
    )
    Respondent.
    ORDER OF THE BOARD
    (by J. Theodore Meyer):
    Pursuant to Section 35(b)
    of the Environmental Protection
    Act
    (Act)
    (415 ILCS 5/35 (b)), City of Moniaiouth has requested that
    the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency
    (Agency) recommend
    that the Board grant a provisional variance to allow City of
    Moninouth to continue operating during a period of wastewater
    treatment plant repairs.
    Such request for a provisional variance
    and the Notification of Recommendation was filed with the Board
    by the Agency on Wednesday, March 31, 1994.
    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 City of Monmouth in order
    to allow it to continue operating during a period of wastewater
    treatment plant repairs.
    Specifically, the Agency recommends that we grant City of
    Monmouth a forty-five (45)—day provisional variance for its
    Warren County facility from the ammonia nitrogen
    (NH3),
    biochemical oxygen demand
    (CBOD5), and suspended solids
    (SS)
    effluent requirements, as set forth in 35 Ill.
    Adm. Code
    304.120(c), 304.212 and 304.141(a) for the period from March
    31,1994 when the petitioner begins repairs to its wastewater
    treatment plant, by removing one of its aeration basins from
    service, and continuing until the petitioner returns that unit to
    service, but not for 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
    2
    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)
    &
    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 finding 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.
    Adin. Code 304.120(c),
    304.212
    and 304.141(a),
    on the following conditions:
    1.
    The term of this provisional variance shall commence
    on March 31,
    1994 and continue for a period of forty-five
    (45)—days.
    2.
    During the term of this provisional variance,
    Petitioner shall meet monthly average effluent concentration
    limits of 25 mg/i
    (SS),
    20 mg/i CBOD5, and 10 mg/i NH3 as
    well as daily maximum effluent concentration limits of 40
    mg/i
    (SS),
    30 mg/i CBOD5,
    and 20 mg/i NH3.
    3.
    The petitioner shall notify Ken Newman of the Agency’s
    Peoria Regional office by telephone, at 309/693-5463, when
    it removes its aeration basin from service and when it
    returns the unit to service, and the 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:
    Erin Rednour
    4.
    The petitioner shall perform the necessary maintenance
    and modification work as expeditiously as possible and
    3
    operate its plant during the term of this provisional
    variance in a manner that assures the best effluent
    practicable; and
    5.
    During this provisional variance, Petitioner shall
    continue to monitor, and maintain compliance with the other
    parameters, as addressed in NPDES Permit No.
    IL00362l8.
    6.
    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
    (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 94—105, March 31,
    1994.
    Petitioner
    Authorized Agent
    Title
    Date
    IT IS SO ORDERED.
    I, Dorothy M. Gunn,
    Clerk of the Illinois Pollution Control
    Bo~rd1do hereby certify that the above order was adopted on the
    ~/-‘~
    day of _________________________,
    1994, by a vote of
    ~-O.
    /Y
    ~
    )~t.
    Dorothy M. ~nn,
    Clerk
    Illinois Pd~ution Control Board

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