ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL
BOARD
October 19,
1995
CITY OF JOLIET,
)
Petitioner,
v.
)
PCB 96—83
)
(Provisional Variance-Water)
ILLINOIS ENVIRONMENTAL
)
PROTECTION AGENCY,
)
Respondent.
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 Joliet has requested
that the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (Agency)
recommend that the Board grant a provisional variance to allow
the
City
or Joliet to continue operating during a period or
repairs to its wastewater treatment facility.
Such request for a
provisional variance and the Notification of Recommendation were
filed with the Board by the Agency on Wodnooday,
Octobor 18,
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, Mary A.
Gade,
seeks a provisional variance for the City
of Joliet in order to allow it to continue operating during a
period of repairs to the air diffusers and associated piping
located in the aeration basins at its wastewater treatment
facility.
Specifically, the Agency recommends that we grant the City
of Joliet a (forty-five)
45 day provisional variance for its
facility located in Will County, from the requirements pertaining
to ammonia nitrogen and NPDES effluent standards as set forth in
35 Ill. Adm. Code 302.212 and 304.141, for the period beginning
when the City of Joliet takes the first aeration basin out of
service and continuing for a period not longer than forty—five
(45) -days.
The Agency recommends that the Board grant the requested
provisional variance with specified conditions.
The Agency
agrees that the repaire are necee~ary.
The Agency anticipatee
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 finds that a denial of the requested
provisional variance would create an arbitrary or unreasonable
2
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
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 proec reloace.
Having received the Agency recommendation finding that a
denial of the requested relief would impose an arbitrary or
unreasonable hardship, the Board hereby grants the City of Joliet
a provisional variance from 35 Ill.
Adiu.
Code 302.212 and
304.141, on the following conditions:
1.
The variance shall commence on the date when the City
of Joliet takes the first aeration basin out of service and
continue
for
a period
not
longer than forty-five
(45)-days,
which ever occurs first;
2.
The petitioner shall notify Erin Rednour of the
Agency’s Springfield Regional office by telephone,
at
217/782-9720, when the first basin is removed from service
and again when the project is completed.
The petitioner
shall confirm each of these activities in writing within
five
(5)
days, addressed as follows:
Illinois Environmental Protection Agency
Bureau of Water
Compliance Assurance Section,
WWCMU
2200 Churchill Road
P.O. Box 19276
Springfield, Illinois
62794—9276
Attention:
Erin Rednour
3.
During this provisional variance, the City of Joliet
shall operate its wastewater treatment facility so as to
produce the best effluent practicable.
Additionally,
the
City of Joliet shall perform the necessary repairs as
expeditiously as possible
so
as
to minimize the period of
time that the aeration basins are out of service;
4.
Durinci this provisional variance, the City of Joliet
shall meet monthly concentration average effluent limits of
4.5 milligrams per liter and shall not be subject to a daily
maximum concentration for ammonia nitrogen while this
provisional variance is in effect;
3
5.
During this provisional variance, the City of Joliet
shall continue to monitor and maintain compliance with all
other parameters as addressed in NPDES Permit No. IL0033553.
The City of Joliet 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 torward 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 96-83, October 19,
1995.
Petitioner
Authorized Agent
Title
Date
IT IS SO ORDERED
I, Dorothy N.
Gunn,
Clerk of the Illinois Pollution Control
Bo,r~fr~do
hereby cert~~~a-tthe above order was adopted on the
_______
day of _____________________________,
1995,
by a vote of
7-0.
Dorothy N.
GjInn,
Clerk
Illinois P0
ution Control Board
