ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
September 5, 1996
VILLAGE OF ROMEOVILLE,
Petitioner,
v.
ILLINOIS ENVIRONMENTAL
PROTECTION AGENCY,
Respondent.
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
PCB 97-46
(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 Romeoville.
Such request for a provisional variance and the Notification of Recommendation was filed with
the Board by the Agency on Wednesday, September 4, 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 Romeoville in order to allow it
to continue operating while modifications are made to its wastewater treatment plant.
Specifically, the Agency recommends that we grant the Village of Romeoville a forty-
five (45) day provisional variance for its Will County facility from the ammonia nitrogen and
total residual chlorine effluent requirements, as set forth in 35 Ill. Adm. Code 302.212,
302.208, and 35 Ill. Adm. Code 304.141(a). This variance period shall begin on the date
when the petitioner begins draining the polishing pond and/or the bypass has been
implemented, and continue until the modifications 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.
2
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 302.212, 302.208, 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 Village of Romeoville begins draining the polishing pond and/or the bypass
has been implemented and shall continue until the modifications 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 Romeoville
treatment plant shall meet a daily maxim effluent concentration of 15 mg/1 for
ammonia nitrogen and a monthly average concentration 50 mg/1 total residual chlorine.
All other effluent limits in the Village of Romeoville’s NPDES Permit No. IL0048526
shall remain in force and in effect during the variance period
;
3.
The petitioner shall notify Susan George of the Agency’s Maywood Regional
office by telephone, at 847/338-7900, when the pond begins draining and/or the bypass
begins and again when the work is completed. 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:
Erin Rednour
5.
The petitioner shall perform the necessary excavation work 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
3
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 97-46, 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