ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL
    BOARD
    November 16, 1995
    DEKALB SANITARY DISTRICT,
    )
    )
    Petitioner,
    )
    )
    v.
    )
    PCB 96-104
    )
    (Provisional Variance-Water)
    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 DeKalb Sanitary 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 repairs to its wastewater treatment facility.
    Such request for a provisional variance and the Notification of
    Recommendation were filed with the Board by the Agency on
    Tuesday, November 14, 1995. 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 Agency, by and through its
    Director, seeks a provisional variance for the District in order
    to allow it to continue operating during a period of repairs to
    its north trickling filter element.
    Specifically, the Agency recommends that we grant the
    District a (forty-five) 45 day provisional variance for its
    facility located in DeKalb County, from the requirements
    pertaining to carbonaceous biochemical oxygen demand (CBOD
    5
    ),
    total suspended solids (TSS), and ammonia nitrogen (NH
    3
    N) as set
    forth in 35 Ill. Adm. Code 304.120(c) and 304.141(a), commencing
    on November 16, 1995 and continuing for a period not longer than
    forty-five (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 finds that a denial of the requested
    provisional variance would create an arbitrary or unreasonable
    2
    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 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 District a
    provisional variance from 35 Ill. Adm. Code 304.120(c) and
    304.141(a), on the following conditions:
    1.
    The variance shall commence on November 16, 1995 and
    continue for a period not longer than forty-five (45)-days
    or until the trickling filter is returned to service, which
    ever occurs first;
    2.
    The District shall notify Gene Foster of the Agency's
    Rockford Regional office by telephone, at 815/987-7755, when
    the trickling filter is returned to service, and the
    petitioner shall confirm this notice in writing within five
    (5) days, addressed as follows:
    Illinois Environmental Protection Agency
    Bureau of Water
    Wastewater Compliance Assurance Section
    2200 Churchill Road
    P.O. Box 19276
    Springfield, Illinois 62794-9276
    Attention: Mark T. Books
    3.
    During this provisional variance, the District shall
    operate its wastewater treatment facility so as to produce
    the best effluent practicable. Additionally, the District
    shall perform the necessary repairs as expeditiously as
    possible so as to minimize the period of time that the
    trickling filter is out of service;
    4.
    During this provisional variance, the District shall
    meet monthly concentration average effluent limits of 24
    milligrams (mg/l) per liter for TSS, 15 mg/l CBOD
    5
    , 5 mg/l
    for NH
    3
    N and 10 mg/l daily maximum NH
    3
    N. Monitoring for
    those parameters shall be conducted twice per week.
    3
    The District 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 96-104, November 16, 1995.
    Petitioner
    Authorized Agent
    Title
    Date
    IT IS SO ORDERED.
    I, Dorothy M. Gunn, Clerk of the Illinois Pollution Control
    Board, do hereby certify that the above order was adopted on the
    _______ day of ______________________________, 1999, by a vote of
    _________.
    Dorothy M. Gunn, Clerk
    Illinois Pollution Control Board

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