ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL
BOARD
September 7,
1995
COMMONWEALTH
EDISON
COMPANY
)
(FISK,
CRAWFORD,
WILL
COUNTY
)
and JOLIET GENERATING
)
STATIONS),
Petitioner,
v.
)
PCB
96-51
)
(Provisional Variance-Water)
ILLINOIS
ENVIRONMENTAL
)
PROTECTION AGENCY,
)
Respondent.
ORDER OF THE BOARD
(by CA. Manning):
Pursuant to Section
35(b)
of the Environmental Protection
Act (Act)
(415 ILCS 5/35(b)), Commonwealth Edison Company
(Commonwealth Edison), on behalf of its,
Fisk, Crawford, Will
County,
and Joliet generating
stations,
has
requested that the
Illinois Environmental Protection Agency
(Agency) recommend that
the Board grant a provisional variance to allow Commonwealth
Edison to increase the thermal discharge from these facilities.
Such request for a provisional variance and the Notification of
Recommendation were filed with the Board by the Agency on
Tuesday,
September 5,
1995.
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 Agency,
by and through
its
Director, Nary A. Gade,
seeks a provisional variance for
Commonwealth Edison in order to allow it to operate due to
increased electrical demands and outages of several of its
generating units.
This recommendation is essentially that the Board extend a
previously-granted thirty-two (32)-day provisional variance that
expired August 31,
1995.
The docket number of the previous
provisional variance was PCB 96-26, granted on August 3,
1995.
That prior provisional variance was itself an extension of the
variance granted on June 29,
1995
in PCB 95-183.
Specifically, the Agency recommends that we grant
Commonwealth Edison a eighteen (18)-day provisional variance for
its facilities located in Will and Cook Counties from the
temperature standards as set forth in 35 Ill. Adm. Code
302.211(d), 304.141(a)
and from the Board’s order in PCB 91—29,
November 21,
1991,
for the period beginning September
1,
1995 and
continue until September
18,
1995.
2
The Agency recommends that the Board grant the requested
provisional variance with specified conditions.
The Agency
anticipates that the requested provisional variance would have
minimal environutental 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 finds that a denial of the 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.
(~
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
i~to adopt a formal ordQr, to as~nr~th~form~1maintenance 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 finding that a
denial of the requested relief would impose an arbitrary or
unreasonable hardship, the Board hereby grants Commonwealth
Edison a provisional variance from 35
Ill. Adm. Code 302.211(d),
304.141(a)
and from the Board’s order in PCB 91—29, November 21,
1991,
on the following conditions:
1.
The variance shall commence on September 1,
1995 and
continue until September 18,
1995;
2.
For the period of this provisional variance,
Commonwealth Edison’s Joliet, Will County,
Crawford, and
Fisk stations shall comply with a maximum temperature limit
or
93 degree Fahrenheit, measured
in
the
lower
Des
Plaines
River at the 1-55 Bridge.
Also during this variance, any
excursion hours over the Petitioner’s National Pollutant
Discharge Elimination Systems permit limit shall not be
counted against the usual 1
excursion hour allowance;
3.
Commonwealth Edison shall continue to measure the water
temperature at the 1—55 Bridge on
a continuous basis and
shall perform periodic surveillance of the river to ensure
that no adverse environmental hardship is being caused by
the higher water temperature.
Within ten
(10) days of the date of this order of the Board
Commonwealth Edison ~ha11 execute a copy
of
a Certifir~te
of
Acceptance of this provisional variance and forward that copy to
the Agency addressed as follows:
3
Illinois Environmental Protection Agency
Bureau of Water, Compliance Assurance Section
2200 Churchill Road
P.O. Box 19276
Springfield,
Illinois
62794—9276
Attention:
Mark T. Books
The
Certificate
of
Acceptance
shall take the following form;
I
(We)
CERTIFICATION
hereby accept and agree to be bound by all terms
and conditions of the order of the Pollution
Control Board in PCB 96-51, September 7,
1995.
Petitioner
Authorized Agent
Title
Date
IT IS SO ORDERED.
Board Member M. McFawn dissented.
Board Member J. Theodore Meyer voted present.
I, Dorothy M. Gunn,
Clerk of the Illinois Pollution Control
Board
do hereby certifyi’that the above order was adopted on the
7(1
day of __________________________,
1995, by a vote of
s—I.
—
tj
Control
Board
