ILLINOIS
POLLUTION
CONTROL
BOARD
June
12,
1980
ALLIED CHEMICAL CORPORATION and
INVERNESS MINING COMPANY,
Petitioners,
v.
)
PCB 80-92
ENVIRONMENTAL
PROTECTION AGENCY,
Respondent.
OPINION
AND
ORDER
OF THE
BOARD
(by D.
Satchell):
This matter comes before the Board upon a petition for order
authorizing the transfer of variances
filed April 28,
1980 by
Allied Chemical Corporation
(Allied)
and Inverness Mining Com-
pany
(Inverness).
In
an
Order entered May 1,
1980 the Board
deemed the pleading
a request to transfer variances and new
variance petition by Inverness Mining Company.
The request to
transfer was granted with the transferred variances to expire
upon entry of
a Final Order on the variance petition.
On April
30,
1980 the Environmental Protection Agency
(Agency)
recommended
that the variances be granted with conditions.
The Agency has
caused notice of the petition to be given pursuant to Section
37
of the Environmental Protection Act
(Act).
The Board has re-
ceived from the International Association of Machinists District
111 and Local Lodge 1846 a comment urging grant of this variance.
The hearing was waived and no other public comment has been re-
ceived.
The Board has previously granted Allied two current variances
for its fluorspar operations
in Hardin and Pope Counties, the
Spivey Mine and Minerva Mill.
Involved are variances from Rules
203(f)
,
203.1,
402 and 408 of Cir~pter3:
Water Pollution as
applied
to ammonia nitrogen,
copper, fluoride,
sulfate and total
dissolved solids.
A complete description of these variances and
the reasons for granting them are to be found in the Board’s
previous Opinions and Orders
(PCB 77-203,
30 PCB 493,
June
22,
1978; PCB 79—149,
36 PCB 121, November 15,
1979).
Allied shut down its mining and milling activities during
September and October,
1979.
At the time this petition was filed
it was
in the process
of selling these operations to Inverness.
The parties agree and the Board finds that Inverness would suffer
substantially the same arbitrary and unreasonable hardship if
variances similar to those granted Allied were not granted.
The
previous Opinions in PCB 77-203 and PCB 79-149 are incorporated
by reference.
—2—
This
Opinion
constitutes
the
Board’s
findings of fact and
conclusions
of
law
in
this
matter.
ORDER
Inverness Mining Company
is granted the following variances:
1.
At the Spivey Mine
a variance from Rules 203(f), 402 and
408(a)
of Chapter
3 until June 21,
1983 subject to the
following
conditions:
a.
The variance from Rules
203(f)
and 402 shall be
limited to total dissolved solids
(TDS)
,
sulfate,
copper and ammonia nitrogen.
b.
The variance from Rule 408(a)
shall be limited to TDS,
c.
The effluent concentration of TDS, based on a twelve
month running average,
shall not exceed 2700 mq/l.
d.
The sulfate concentration in Petitioner’s effluent,
based on a twelve month running average,
shall not
exceed 1500 mg/l.
e.
The copper concentration in Petitioner’s effluent,
based upon a twelve month running average,
shall
not exceed 0.041 mg/l.
f.
The ammonia nitrogen concentration, based upon a
twelve month running average,
shall not exceed 4.0
mg/l.
2.
At the Minerva Mill No,
1
a variance from
Rules
203(f),
203.1 and 402 of Chapter
3 shall be granted until June
21,
1983 subject to the following conditions:
a.
The variance
from 203(f), 203.1 and 402 shall be
limited to TDS,
sulfate, fluoride and ammonia nitrogen.
b.
The fluoride concentration in the effluent wastewater,
based upon
a twelve month running average,
shall be
limited to 5.8 mg/l.
c.
The TDS concentration, based upon
a twelve month run-
ning average,
shall not exceed 1800 mg/l.
d.
The sulfate concentration, based upon a twelve month
running average,
shall not exceed 720 mg/l.
—3—
e.
The ammonia nitrogen concentration, based upon a
twelve month running average, shall not exceed 4.0
my/1.
3.
Inverness shall submit quarterly reports
to the Environ-
mental Protection Agency describing its past efforts and
future plans to achieve compliance.
4.
The Environmental Protection Agency shall modify the NPDES
permits
consistent
with
this
Order.
5.
Within
forty—five
days
of
the
date
of
this
Order,
Inverness
Mining Company shall execute and forward to the Illinois
Environmental Protection Agency, Variance Section, 2200
Churchill
Road, Springfield,
Illinois
62706,
a Certificate
of Acceptance and Agreement to be bound to all terms and
conditions
of this variance.
This
forty-five day period
shall be held in abeyance for any period this matter is
being
appealed.
The
form
of
the
Certificate
shall
be
as
follows:
CERTIFICATION
I,
(Vie), ___________________________,
having read
and
fully
understanding
the
Order
in
PCB
80-92,
hereby
accept
that
Order
and
agree
to
be
bound
by
all
of
its
terms
and
conditions.
SIGNED
_____________________________
TITLE
______________________________
DATE
________________________________
IT
IS
SO
ORDERED.
I,
Christan
L.
Moffett,
Clerk
of
the
Illinois
Pollution
Control
Board,
herek~y certify
that
the
above
Opinion
and
Order
were
ad9pted
on
the
~
day
of
__________________,
1980
by
a
vote
of
.~‘O
Illinois
Board
