ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
    April
    6,
    1995
    ARGONNE NATIONAL
    )
    LABORATORY
    -
    EAST,
    )
    )
    Petitioner,
    )
    v.
    )
    PCB 95—123
    )
    (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)), Argonne National Laboratory
    -
    East
    (Argonne)
    has requested that the Illinois Environmental
    Protection Agency (Agency) recommend that the Board grant a
    provisional variance to allow the Argonne to continue operating
    its wastewater treatment plant.
    Argonne 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 Wednesday, April 5,
    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 Argonne 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 Argonne a
    (forty-five) 45 day provisional variance for its Dupage County
    facility from the requirements pertaining to total dissolved
    solids,
    copper, and ammonia—nitrogen as set forth in 35 Ill. Adm.
    Code 302.208(e),
    302.208(d)
    and 302.407 for the period beginning
    March 28,
    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 specifiec~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.
    (~
    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 Argonne a
    provisional variance from the total dissolved solids,
    copper, and
    ammonia—nitrogen requirements as set forth in 35
    11.1.
    Adm. Code
    302.208(e),
    302.208(d)
    and 302.407, on the following conditions:
    1.
    The variance shall commence upon March 28,
    1995 and
    continuing for a period not longer than forty-five
    (45)-
    days;
    2.
    During this provisional variance, Argonne shall operate
    its wastewater treatment plants so as to produce the best
    effluent practicable;
    3.
    During this provisional variance, Argonne shall meet a
    daily maximum effluent concentration limit of 1,500 mg/i for
    total dissolved solids, a monthly average concentration
    limit of 0.14 mg/i and a daily maximum effluent
    concentration limit of 0.31 mg/i for copper, and a monthly
    average effluent concentration limit of 5 mg/i and
    a daily
    maximum effluent concentration limit of 10 mg/i for ammonia—
    nitrogen;
    4.
    Argonne shall also continue to monitor and maintain
    compliance with all other parameters addressed in its NPDES
    Permit No. 110034529 during this provisional variance
    period.
    Argonne 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
    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 95—123, 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 certify that the above order was adopted on the
    ______
    day of __________________________,
    1995,
    by a vote of
    Dorothy N,(/Gunn, Clerk
    Illinois pollution Control Board

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