ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
    June 6, 1996
    CITY OF SAVANNA,
    Petitioner,
    v.
    ILLINOIS ENVIRONMENTAL
    PROTECTION AGENCY,
    Respondent.
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    PCB 96-249
    (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 Savanna (Savanna) has requested that the Illinois Environmental
    Protection Agency (Agency) recommend that the Board grant a provisional variance to allow
    Savanna 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 Wednesday, June 5, 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 Savanna in order to allow it to
    continue operating during a period of wastewater treatment plant repairs.
    Specifically, the Agency recommends that we grant Savanna a 45-day provisional
    variance for its Carroll County facility from the total suspended solids (TSS) effluent
    requirements, as set forth in 35 Ill. Adm. Code 304.120(a) and 304.141(a), for the period
    beginning May 30, 1996 when the petitioner begins repairs to its wastewater treatment plant by
    removing its clarifier from service, and continuing until the petitioner returns that unit 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
    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 304.120(a) and 304.141(a), on the following
    conditions:
    1.
    The term of this provisional variance shall commence on May 30, 1996, and it
    shall expire on the date the petitioner completes the required repairs, or after 45
    days have elapsed, whichever comes first;
    2.
    During the term of this provisional variance, the effluent from the Savanna’s
    treatment plant shall meet a monthly average concentration of 60 mg/1 for TSS.
    Savanna shall also continue to meet the additional effluent limits as addressed in
    its NPDES Permit No. IL0020541
    ;
    4.
    The petitioner shall notify Dennis Connor of the Agency’s Rockford Regional
    office by telephone, at 815/987-7755, when the work on the clarifier 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
    Attn: Mark T. Books
    2200 Churchill Road
    P.O. Box 19276
    Springfield, Illinois 62794-9276
    5.
    The petitioner shall perform the necessary repair work on the clarifier 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
    6.
    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:
    3
    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 96-249, June 6, 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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