ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
    October 17, 1996
    COMMONWEALTH EDISON
    COMPANY (FISK, CRAWFORD, WILL
    COUNTY, and JOLIET GENERATING
    STATIONS),
    Petitioner,
    v.
    ILLINOIS ENVIRONMENTAL
    PROTECTION AGENCY,
    Respondent.
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    PCB 97-72
    (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)), Commonwealth Edison Company (Commonwealth Edison), on behalf of its Fisk,
    Crawford, Will County, and Joliet generating stations, has requested that the Illinois
    Environmental Protection Agency (Agency) recommend that the Board grant a provisional
    variance to allow Commonwealth Edison to immediately implement the new alternate thermal
    standards established in In the Matter of: Petition of Commonwealth Edison Company for an
    Adjusted Standard from 35 Ill. Adm. Code 302.211(d) and (e) (October 3, 1996), AS 96-10.
    Such request for a provisional variance and the notification of recommendation were 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 for Commonwealth Edison in order
    to allow it to operate consistent with the AS 96-10 limits while the Agency completes its
    administrative process to formally modify each of Commonwealth Edison’s National Pollutant
    Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits for these facilities.
    Specifically, the Agency recommends that we grant Commonwealth Edison a 45-day
    provisional variance for its facilities located in Will and Cook Counties from the temperature
    standards and interim temperature limitations in Special Condition #5 of NPDES Permit No.
    IL0064254 for the Joliet Station #29, and from the temperature limitations as set forth in 35
    Ill. Adm. Code 302.211(d) and (e), 304.141(a) and from the interim temperature limitations
    established by the Board in Commonwealth Edison v. IEPA and the Illinois Chapter of the
    Sierra Club (November 21, 1991), PCB 91-29, for the period beginning October 9, 1996 and
    continue until November 22, 1996.
    The Agency recommends that the Board grant the requested provisional variance with
    specified conditions and anticipates that the requested provisional variance would have minimal
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    environmental impact on the receiving stream. The Agency 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 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. (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
    Commonwealth Edison a provisional variance from the temperature standards and interim
    temperature limitations in Special Condition #5 of NPDES permit No. IL0064254 for the
    Joliet Station #29, and from the temperature limitations as set forth in 35 Ill. Adm. Code
    302.211(d) and (e), 304.141(a) and from the interim temperature limitations established by the
    Board in Commonwealth Edison v. IEPA and the Illinois Chapter of the Sierra Club
    (November 21, 1991), PCB 91-29, on the following conditions:
    1.
    The term of this provisional variance shall commence on October 9, 1996 and
    continue through November 22, 1996 or the modification of Commonwealth
    Edison’s NPDES permits, whichever occurs first;
    2. For the period of this provisional variance, Commowealth Edison’s Fisk,
    Crawford, Will County, and Joliet generating stations shall comply with the
    following alternate thermal standards at the I-55 bridge as limitations for
    discharge in lieu of the interim temperature limitations of Commonwealth
    Edison v. IEPA and the Illinois Chapter of the Sierra Club (November 21,
    1991), PCB 91-29, and the requirements of in 35 Ill. Adm. Code 302.211(d)
    and (e):
     
    October 85
    °
    F
    November 75
    °
    F
     
    3. The standards may be exceeded by no more than 3
    °
    F for no more than 2
    %
    of
    the hours in the 12-month period ending December 31, 1996, except at no time
    shall Commonwealth Edison’s plant cause the water temperature at the I-55
    bridge to exceed 93
    °
    F. Commonwealth Edison’s plant continues to be subject
    to the Secondary Contact Standards at the point of discharge; and
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    4.
    The petitioner shall continue to measure the water temperature at the I-55 bridge
    on a continuous basis.
    The petitioner shall execute a copy of a certificate of acceptance of this provisional
    variance and forward that copy to the Agency 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
    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 97-72, October 17, 1996.
    _____________________________________
    Petitioner
    _____________________________________
    Authorized Agent
    _____________________________________
    Title
    _____________________________________
    Date
    IT IS SO ORDERED.
    Board Members K.M. Hennessey and J. Theodore Meyer 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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