ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
    August 3,
    1995
    COMMONWEALTH EDISON COMPANY
    )
    (FISK, CRAWFORD, WILL COUNTY
    )
    and JOLIET GENERATING
    )
    STATIONS),
    Petitioner,
    )
    V.
    )
    PCB 96—26
    (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, 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
    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 due to
    increased electrical demands and outages of several of its
    generating units.
    The Board previously-granted Commonwealth Edison a twenty—
    five (25)-day provisional variance that expired July 15, 1995.
    The docket number of the previous provisional variance was PCB
    95-183, granted on June 29, 1995.
    Specifically, the Agency recommends that we grant
    Commonwealth Edison a thirty-two (32)-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 July 31, 1995 and
    continue until August 31, 1995.
    The Agency recommends that the Board grant the requested
    provisional variance with specified conditions. The Agency
    2
    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.
    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 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 July 31, 1995 and
    continue until August 31, 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
    of 93 degree Fahrenheit, measured in the lower Des Plaines
    River at the 1-55 Bridge;
    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 shall execute a copy of a Certificate 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:
    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 96-26, August 3, 1995.
    Petitioner
    Authorized Agent
    Title
    Date
    IT IS SO ORDERED.
    Board Member J. Theodore Meyer voted present.
    I, Dorothy N. Gunn, Clerk of the Illinois Pollution Control
    Board, ~dohereby certify hat the above order was adopted on the
    3”—~-day of _____________________________, 1995, by a vote of
    Dorothy M. ,~nn, Clerk
    Illinois P~J/lutionControl Board

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