ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
August 24, 1995
A.E. STALEY MANUFACTURING,
)
Petitioner,
)
v.
)
PCB 96—43
(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)), A.E. Staley Manufacturing (Staley)
requested that the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency
(Agency) recommend that the Board grant a provisional variance to
allow Staley to operate in violation of its National Pollutant
Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit, 1L0002381, in order
to be able to use its newly constructed cooling tower. Such
request for a provisional variance and the Notification of
Recommendation were filed with the Board by the Agency on
Wednesday, August 23, 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 Staley
in order to allow it to operate in violation of its NPDES permit.
Specifically, the Agency recommends that we grant Staley a
(forty-five) 45 day provisional variance for its facility located
in Macon County, from the requirements pertaining to carbonaceous
biochemical oxygen demand (CBOD5) and total suspended solids
(TSS) as set forth in 35 Ill. Adm. Code 304.120(c) and
304.141(a), for the period beginning August 13, 1995 and
continuing for forty-five (45)-days or until Staley receives its
revised NPDES permit, whichever occurs first.
This recommendation is essentially that the Board extend a
previously—granted provisional variance that expired August 12,
1995. The docket number of the previous provisional variance was
PCB 95-186, granted on June 29, 1995.
The Agency recommends that the Board grant the requested
provisional variance with specified conditions. The Agency
agrees that the modifications are necessary. 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
2
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 Staley a
provisional variance from 35 Ill. Adm. Code 304.120(c) and
304.141(a), on the following conditions:
1. The variance shall commence on beginning August 13,
1995 and continuing for forty-five (45)-days or until Staley
receives its revised NPDES permit, whichever occurs first;
2. The discharge of stormwater shall be subject to the
mass based limitations for CBOD5 and TSS, as outlined in
Staley’s provisional variance petition;
3. Staley shall monitor the stormwater discharge for pH,
oil and grease, CBOD5 and TSS. Sampling for pH and oil and
grease shall be grab samples taken during the first 30
minutes (or as soon thereafter as practicable) of a
discharge. For CBOD5 and TSS both a grab sample taken
during the first 30 minutes (or as soon thereafter as
practicable) of a discharge, and a flow weighted composite
must be analyzed. A minimum of one grab sample shall be
taken from any holding ponds or other impoundments with a
retention period of greater than 24 hours. All samples
shall be collected from the discharge resulting from a storm
event that is greater than 0.1 inches and least 72 hours
from the previously measurable storm event. Flow weighted
composites samples shall be taken for the entire event or
the first three hours of the event, whichever is shorter.
Visual inspections of the receiving stream shall also be
conducted during the sampling time periods to ensure that
Lake Decatur water quality is protected;
4. Staley shall initiate a Stormwater plan which shall
include the following:
3
(a) Identify the source of the stormwater
pollutants.
(b) Identify the poundage of each pollutant
source.
(c) Determine how each pollutant enters the
stormwater system.
(d) Develop plans to control and prevent
pollutants from entry into stormwater.
Within ten (10) days of the date of this order of the Board
Staley 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: Mark T. Books
The Certificate of Acceptance shall take the following form:
CERTI Fl CATION
I (We),
hereby accept and agree to be bound by all terms
and conditions of the order of the Pollution
Control Board in PCB 96-43, August 24, 1995.
Petitioner
Authorized Agent
Title
Date
4
IT IS SO ORDERED.
I, Dorothy M. Gunn, Clerk of the Illinois Pollution Control
Board, do hereby certify that the above order was adopted on the
~/~ day of ____________________________, 1995, by a vote of
2- ~
Dorothy M.,~unn, Clerk
Illinois P~llutionControl Board