ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
    October 17, 1996
    SCHLUMBERGER INDUSTRIES, INC.,
    CRAB ORCHARD NATIONAL WILDLIFE
    REFUGE SUPERFUND SITE,
    Petitioner,
    v.
    ILLINOIS ENVIRONMENTAL
    PROTECTION AGENCY,
    Respondent.
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    PCB 97-71
    (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)), Schlumberger Industries, Inc., Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge Superfund
    Site (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 October 15, 1996. Pursuant to
    Section 35(b) of the Act, the Board must issue the variance within two (2) days of this filing.
    The Agency, by and through its Director, Mary A. Gade, seeks a provisional variance to allow
    petitioner a short-term discharge of high-fluoride storm water.
    Specifically, the Agency recommends that we grant petitioner a 45-day provisional
    variance for its Williamson County facility from the fluoride numeric effluent discharge
    requirements, as set forth in 35 Ill. Adm. Code 302.208(e). This variance period shall begin
    on the date in October 1996 when the petitioner begins to discharge water from its holding
    tanks, and continue until the tanks are completely drained, but not longer than 45 days.
    The Agency recommends that the Board grant the requested provisional variance with
    specified conditions and agrees that the repairs are necessary. The Agency anticipates that the
    requested provisional variance would have minimal environmental impact on the receiving
    stream and is unaware of any public water supplies that the requested provisional variance
    would adversely impact. According to the Agency, no federal laws would be violated if the
    provisional variance is granted by the Board. 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 an 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 302.208(e), on the following conditions:
    1.
    The term of this provisional variance shall commence on a date in October 1996
    when the petitioner begins to discharge water from its holding tanks, and
    continue until the tanks are completely drained, but not longer than 45 days.
    2.
    During the term of this provisional variance, petitioner shall meet a daily
    maximum fluoride effluent discharge limitation of 8 milligrams. Petitioner shall
    continue to meet the additional limits in its Water Management Plan
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    3.
    The petitioner shall notify Dwight Hill of the Agency’s Marion Regional office
    by telephone, at 618/993-7200, when it begins discharging water and again
    when discharging is completed. Petitioner shall confirm this notice in writing
    within five (5) days, addressed as follows:
    Illinois Environmental Protection Agency
    Attention: Mark T. Books
    Division of Water Pollution Control
    Compliance Assurance Section
    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.
    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
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    I (We), _________________________________, hereby accept and
    agree to be bound by all terms and conditions of the order of the Pollution
    Control Board in PCB 97-71, October 17, 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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