ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
    April
    6, 1995
    ILLINOIS POWER COMPANY
    )
    (BALDWIN POWER STATION),
    )
    )
    Petitioner,
    )
    V.
    )
    PCB 95—121
    )
    (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)), Illinois Power Company (Illinois
    Power) has requested that the Illinois Environmental Protection
    Agency
    (Agency) recommend that the Board grant a provisional
    variance to allow Illinois Power to continue operating during a
    period of repairs to its ash pond system.
    Illinois Power
    requires a provisional variance to allow flow from the fly ash
    cell to stabilize and to evaluate the permanent compliance
    options from the cell at a lower level.
    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 Illinois Power in order to
    allow it to continue operating during a period of repairs to its
    ash pond system.
    Specifically, the Agency recommends that we grant Illinois
    Power a (forty-five)
    45 day provisional variance for its facility
    located in St. Clair and Randolph Counties, from the requirements
    pertaining to total suspended solids as set forth in 35 Ill. Adm.
    Code 304.141(a) and 304.120, for the period beginning March 24,
    1995 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 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
    2
    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 Illinois Power a
    provisional variance from 35 Ill. Adm. Code 304.141(a) and
    304.120, on the following conditions:
    1.
    The variance shall commence on March 24,
    1995 and
    continuing for a period not longer than forty—five
    (45)-
    days;
    2.
    Illinois Power shall notify the Agency of the
    appropriate repairs to be made as a results of the
    engineering study that is currently being conducted.
    Illinois Power 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:
    Barbara Conner
    3.
    During this provisional variance, the effluent total
    suspended solids discharge limit shall be 50 mg/l for a
    monthly average and 100 mg/l for a daily maximum
    (concentration limits).
    Illinois Power shall also continue
    to ensure compliance with other parameters described in its
    NPDES permit during this provisional variance period;
    4.
    During this provisional variance, Illinois Power shall
    provide the best treatment practicable during the variance
    period.
    The Illinois Power shall execute a copy of a Certificate of
    3
    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 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—121, April
    6,
    1995.
    Petitioner
    Authorized Agent
    Title
    Date
    IT IS SO ORDERED.
    I, Dorothy M.
    Gunn,
    Clerk of the Illinois Pollution Control
    Bo~rd,do hereby certify that the above order was adopted on the
    ~
    day of __________________________,
    1995,
    by a vote of
    7-0
    .
    ~
    /~,ty
    Dorothy My7Gunn, Clerk
    Illinois ~‘ollutionControl Board

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