ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
July 18, 1996
CITY OF PARIS,
Petitioner,
v.
ILLINOIS ENVIRONMENTAL
PROTECTION AGENCY,
Respondent.
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PCB 97-15
(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 Paris 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 allow the City of Paris to continue
operating during a period of wastewater treatment plant repairs. Such request for a provisional
variance and the notification of recommendation was filed with the Board by the Agency on
Tuesday, July 16, 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 for the City of Paris in order to allow
it to continue operating during a period of wastewater treatment plant repairs.
Specifically, the Agency recommends that we grant the City of Paris a 45-day
provisional variance for its Edgar County facility from 35 Ill. Adm. Code 302.212 of the
water pollution regulations as it would be imposed by 35 Ill. Adm. Code 304.105, from 35 Ill.
Adm. Code 304.105, from 35 Ill. Adm. 304.120(c) as it applies to five day biochemical
oxygen demand (BOD
5
), suspended solids, and from 35 Ill. Adm. Code 304.141(a) as it
applies to BOD
5
, suspended solids and ammonia nitrogen as imposed by NPDES Permit No.
IL0021377. This variance period shall begin on the date when the petitioner begins repairs to
its wastewater treatment plant by draining the first aeration basin for servicing, and continuing
until the petitioner returns all six units to service, 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
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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 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, 304.120(c) and 304.141(a), on the
following conditions:
1.
The term of this provisional variance shall commence on a date during 1996
when appropriate low flow conditions occur and when the first aeration basin is
drained for service, and it shall expire on the date the petitioner completes the
required repairs on all six units, or after 45 days have elapsed, whichever comes
first.
2.
During the term of this provisional variance, the City of Paris treatment plant
shall meet a monthly average concentration of 30 mg/1 for suspended solids, 25
mg/1 for BOD
5
and 6 mg/1 for ammonia nitrogen. The City of Paris shall also
continue to meet the additional effluent limits as addressed in its NPDES Permit
No. IL0021377.
3.
The petitioner shall notify Dan Bounds of the Agency’s Champaign regional
office by telephone, at 217/333-8361, when the work on the first aeration basin
begins and when the last aeration basin is returned to service. Petitioner shall
confirm this notice in writing within five (5) days, addressed as follows:
Illinois Environmental Protection Agency
ATTN: Mark T. Books
Division of Water Pollution Control
Compliance Assurance Section
2200 Churchill Road
P.O. Box 19276
Springfield, IL 62794-9276
4..
The petitioner shall perform the necessary repair work on the aeration basins as
expeditiously as possible and operate its waste treatment facility during the term
of this provisional variance in a manner that assures the best effluent
practicable.
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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
I (We), _________________________________,
hereby accept and agree to be bound by all terms and
conditions of the order of the Pollution Control
Board in PCB 97-15, July 18, 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