ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
    August 3, 1995
    COMMONWEALTH EDISON COMPANY
    )
    (LASALLE COUNTY GENERATING
    )
    STATION),
    Petitioner,
    v.
    )
    PCB
    96-25
    )
    (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)), Commonwealth Edison Company
    (Commonwealth Edison), on behalf of its LaSalle County generating
    station, has requested that the Illinois Environmental Protection
    Agency (Agency) recommend that the Board grant a provisional
    variance to allow Commonwealth Edison to operate while its
    request for a permit modification is being reviewed by the
    Agency. Such request for a provisional variance and the
    Notification of Recommendation were filed with the Board by the
    Agency on Wednesday, August 2, 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
    Commonwealth Edison in order to allow it to operate while its
    request for permit modification is under Agency review.
    Specifically, the Agency recommends that we grant
    Commonwealth Edison a forty-five (45)-day provisional variance
    for its facility located in LaSalle County from the NPDES
    effluent standards as set forth in 35 Iii. Adm. Code 304.141(b)
    for the period beginning August 14, 1995 and continuing until
    September 27, 1995.
    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 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
    hardship on the petitioner.
    9
    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 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 301.141(b),
    on the following conditions:
    1. The variance shall commence on August 14, 1995 and
    continue until September 27, 1995;
    2. The provisional variance is limited to the conditions
    that will be set forth in the modified permit, as described
    in paragraph 10 of the Agency Recommendation;
    3. During the provisional variance period, Commonwealth
    Edison shall immediately inform the Agency of any adverse
    circumstances that may arise which could cause public health
    or environmental concerns.
    Within ten (10) days of the date of this order of the Board
    Commonwealth Edison shall execute a copy of a Certificate of
    Acceptance of this provisional variance and forward that copy to
    the Agency addressed as follows:
    Illinois Environmental Protection Agency
    Bureau of Water, Compliance Assurance Section
    2200 Churchill Road
    P.O. Box 19276
    Springfield, Illinois 62794—9276
    Attention: Susan Davison
    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 96-25, August 3, 1995.
    Petitioner
    Authorized Agent
    Title
    Date
    IT IS SO ORDERED.
    I, Dorothy N. Gunn, Clerk of the Illinois Pollution Control
    Board1 do hereby certify that the above order was adopted on the
    j-te~C
    day of ___________________________, 1995, by a vote of
    5—IJ
    .
    Dorothy M.//Gunn, Clerk
    Illinois i~ollutionControl Board

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