ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
    November 2, 1995
    CITGO PETROLEUM CORPORATION, )
    )
    Petitioner,
    )
    )
    v.
    )
    PCB 96-94
    ) (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)), Citgo Petroleum (Citgo) has
    requested that the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency
    (Agency) recommend that the Board grant a provisional variance to
    allow Citgo to hydrostatically test a gasoline storage tank.
    Such request for a provisional variance and the Notification of
    Recommendation were filed with the Board by the Agency on
    Tuesday, October 31, 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 Illinois Environmental
    Protection Agency (Agency), by and through its Director, seeks a
    provisional variance for Citgo in order to allow Citgo to
    hydrostatically test its gasoline storage tank.
    Specifically, the Agency recommends that we grant Citgo a
    forty-five (45)-day provisional variance for its Cook County
    facility from the effluent requirements, as set forth in 35 Ill.
    Adm. Code 304.141(b), for the period from when the petitioner
    begins discharging the water used for the hydrostatical test, and
    continuing until the petitioner completes the discharge
    procedures, 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
    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.
    2
    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 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, Citgo, begins discharging the water
    used for the hydrostatical test, and continue until the
    petitioner completes the discharge procedures, but not for
    longer than 45 days, whichever comes first;
    2. The petitioner shall notify Robert Sulski of the
    Agency's Maywood Regional office by telephone, at (708)531-
    5900, when the water used to hydrostatic testing begins to
    be discharged and again when the process is complete. The
    petitioner shall confirm this notice in writing within five
    (5) days, addressed as follows:
    Illinois Environmental Protection Agency
    Bureau of Water/Compliance Assurance Section
    2200 Churchill Road
    P.O. Box 19276
    Springfield, Illinois 62794-9276
    Attention: Mark T. Books
    3. During the term of this provisional variance,
    Petitioner shall be in compliance with its NPDES permit
    limits;
    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:
    3
    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 96-94, November 2, 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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