ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
April
6,
1995
CITY OF CRYSTAL
LAXE,
Petitioner,
v.
)
PCB 95—120
)
(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 Crystal has requested
that the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (Agency)
recommend that the Board grant a provisional variance to allow
the City of Crystal Lake to continue operating its wastewater
treatment plant.
The City of Crystal Lake requires a provisional
variance 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 Tuesday, April 4,
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 Illinois Environmental
Protection Agency (Agency), by and through its Director, Mary A.
Gade,
seeks a provisional variance for the City of Crystal Lake
in order to allow it to continue operating its wastewater
treatment plant while its request for permit modification is
under Agency review.
Specifically, the Agency recommends that we grant the City
of Crystal Lake a (forty-five)
45 day provisional variance for
its McHenry County facility from the requirements pertaining to
barium as set forth in 35 Iii.
Adm. Code 304.141 and 304.124, for
the period beginning March 22,
1995 and continuing for forty-five
(45)—days or until the City of Crystal Lake’s modified NPDES
permit becomes effective, whichever comes first.
The Agency recommends that the Board grant the requested
provisional variance with specified conditions.
The Agency
agrees that the repairs 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
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
2
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.
(~g415 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 the City of
Crystal Lake a provisional variance from 35 Ill. Adm. Code
306.305, on the following conditions:
1.
The variance shall commence upon March
22, 1995 and
shall continue for forty-five (45)-days or until the City of
Crystal Lake’s modified NPDES permit becomes effective,
whichever comes first;
2.
The City of Crystal Lake shall notify Ahmad Abulaban of
the Agency’s Maywood Regional office by telephone, at
(798)388-7900 should any adverse circumstances arise that
could cause public health or environmental concerns.
The
City of Crystal Lake shall confirm this notice in writing
within five
(5)
days, addressed as follows:
Illinois Environmental Protection Agency
Bureau of Water
Wastewater Compliance Assurance Section
2200 Churchill Road
P.O. Box 19276
Springfield,
Illinois
62794—9276
Attention:
Dan Ray
3.
During this provisional variance, the City of Crystal
Lake barium effluent limit shall be limited to 4.0 mg/i
(monthly average)
from outfall 001 during the period of the
variance.
The City of Crystal Lake 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
forward that copy within ten
(10) days of the date of this
order of the Board,
and the Certificate of Acceptance shall
3
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 95-120, April
6,
1995.
Petitioner
Authorized Agent
Title
Date
IT IS SO ORDERED.
I, Dorothy M.
Gunn, Clerk of the Illinois Pollution Control
Board,
do hereby ce
ify that the above order was adopted on the
~
day of
•
,
1995, by a vote of
Dorothy ),~7Gunn,
Clerk
Illinois(jtollution Control Board