ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
    December 5, 1996
    CITY OF BELLEVILLE,
    Petitioner,
    v.
    ILLINOIS ENVIRONMENTAL
    PROTECTION AGENCY,
    Respondent.
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    PCB 97-98
    (Provisional Variance - Water)
    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 City of Belleville (petitioner) has requested that the Illinois Environmental
    Protection Agency (Agency) recommend that the Board grant a provisional variance from
    Section 35(b) of the Act (415 ILCS 5/35(b)), to the petitioner. Such request for a provisional
    variance and the notification of recommendation was filed with the Board by the Agency on
    December 3, 1996. 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 Act (415 ILCS 5/35(b)), the Agency, by and through
    its Director, Mary A. Gade, seeks a provisional variance to allow petitioner to continue to
    operate its wastewater treatment facility while repairs are made to the tertiary sand filters.
    Specifically, the Agency recommends that we grant petitioner a 45-day provisional
    variance for its St. Clair County facility from the total suspended solids effluent discharge
    requirements, as set forth in 35 Ill. Adm. Code 304.102(a) and 304.141(a). This variance
    period shall begin on November 19, 1996 and continue until the work on the tertiary sand
    filters is completed, but not 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 believes 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
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    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 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 304.102(a) and 304.141(a), on the following
    conditions:
    1.
    The term of this provisional variance shall commence on November 19, 1996
    and continue until the work on the tertiary sand filter is completed, but not
    longer than 45 days.
    2.
    During the term of this provisional variance, petitioner shall meet monthly
    average concentration limit of 30 mg/l for total suspended solids. Petitioner
    shall continue to meet the additional effluent limits in its National Pollutant
    Discharge Elimination System Permit No. Il0021873.
    3.
    The petitioner shall notify Barb Conner by telephone, at 217/782-9720, when
    the work on the tertiary filter is completed. Petitioner shall confirm this notice
    in writing within five (5) days, addressed as follows:
    Illinois Environmental Protection Agency
    Bureau of Water, Compliance Assurance Section
    Attention: Barb Conner
    2200 Churchill Road
    P.O. Box 19276
    Springfield, Illinois 62794-9276
    4.
    The petitioner shall operate its plant during the term of this provisional variance
    in a manner that assures the best effluent practicable. Additionally, petitioner
    shall perform the necessary repair work on the clarifer as expeditiously as
    possible to minimize the time period that the tertiary filter is out of service.
    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:
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    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 97-98, December 5, 1996.
    _____________________________________
    Petitioner
    _____________________________________
    Authorized Agent
    _____________________________________
    Title
    _____________________________________
    Date
    IT IS SO ORDERED.
    Board Member K.M. Hennessey abstained.
    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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