ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
    September 5, 1996
    VILLAGE OF FAYETTEVILLE,
    Petitioner,
    v.
    ILLINOIS ENVIRONMENTAL
    PROTECTION AGENCY,
    Respondent.
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    PCB 97-45
    (Provisional Variance - Water)
    ORDER OF THE BOARD (by J. Theodore Meyer):
    Pursuant to Section 35(b) of the Environmental Protection Act (Act) (415 ILCS
    5/35(b)), the Village of Ashland has requested that the Illinois Environmental Protection
    Agency (Agency) recommend that the Board grant a provisional variance from Section 35(b)
    of the Environmental Protection Act (Act) (415 ILCS 5/35(b)), to the Village of Fayetteville.
    Such request for a provisional variance and the Notification of Recommendation was filed with
    the Board by the Agency on Tuesday, September 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 Environmental Protection Act (Act) (415 ILCS
    5/35(b)), the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (Agency), by and through its Director,
    Mary A. Gade, seeks a provisional variance for the Village of Fayetteville in order to allow it
    to continue operating during a period of wastewater treatment plant repairs.
    Specifically, the Agency recommends that we grant the Village of Fayetteville a forty-
    five (45) day provisional variance for its St. Clair County facility from the biochemical oxygen
    demand and total suspended solids effluent requirements, as set forth in 35 Ill. Adm. Code
    302.120(a) and 35 Ill. Adm. Code 304.141(a). This variance period shall begin on the date
    when the petitioner begins repairs to its wastewater treatment plant, and continue until the
    repairs to the wastewater treatment plant are complete, 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 believes that a denial of the
    requested provisional variance would create an arbitrary or unreasonable hardship on the
    petitioner.
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    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 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 302.120(a) and 35 Ill. Adm. Code 304.141(a),
    on the following conditions:
    1.
    The term of this provisional variance shall commence on a date during 1996
    when the lagoon and rock filter are removed from service and shall continue until the
    repairs to the wastewater treatment plant are complete, or after forty-five (45) days
    have elapsed, whichever comes first;
    2.
    During the term of this provisional variance, the Village of Fayetteville
    treatment plant shall meet a monthly average concentration of 77 mg/1 for total
    suspended solids and 50 mg/1 for biochemical oxygen demand. All other effluent
    limits in the Village of Fayetteville’s NPDES Permit No. IL0020893 shall remain in
    force and in effect during the variance period
    ;
    3.
    The petitioner shall notify Eric Merz of the Agency’s Collinsville Regional
    office by telephone, at 618/346-5120, when the lagoon and rock filter are removed
    from service and again when the units are returned to service. Petitioner shall confirm
    this notice in writing within five (5) days, addressed as follows:
    Illinois Environmental Protection Agency
    Division of Water Pollution Control
    Compliance Assurance Section
    2200 Churchill Road
    P.O. Box 19276
    Springfield, Illinois 62794-9276
    Attention:
    Mark Books
    5.
    The petitioner shall perform the necessary repairs as expeditiously as possible
    and operate its plant during the term of this provisional variance in a manner that
    assures the best effluent practicable; and
    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
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    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 97-45, September 5, 1996.
    ___________________________
    Petitioner
    ___________________________
    Authorized Agent
    ___________________________
    Title
    ___________________________
    Date
    IT IS SO ORDERED.
    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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