ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
    February 2,
    1995
    SPRINGFIELD METRO
    )
    SANITARY
    DISTRICT,
    )
    )
    Petitioner,
    )
    v.
    )
    PCB 95—45
    )
    (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)), Springfield Metro Sanitary District
    (District) has requested that the Illinois Environmental
    Protection Agency
    (Agency) recommend that the Board grant a
    provisional variance to allow the District to continue operating
    during a period of wastewater treatment plant modification.
    The
    District requires a provisional variance to deal with times when
    flooding in the receiving stream prevents the discharge of
    effluent by gravity to the outfall sewer during its construction
    project.
    Such request for a provisional variance and the
    Notification of Recommendation were filed with the Board by the
    Agency on Wednesday, February 1,
    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 District in order to
    allow it to continue operating during a period of wastewater
    treatment plant modification.
    Specifically, the Agency recommends that we grant the
    District a (forty-five)
    45 day provisional variance for its
    Sanagamon County facility from the requirements as set forth in
    its NPDES Permit No.
    1L0021989. This would allow for a change in
    the plant’s discharge point for Outfall 007 from the Sanagamon
    River to Spring Creek during a construction project at the
    District’s Spring Creek facility, beginning on January 14,
    1995
    and until construction work is complete, but not for longer than
    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
    2
    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 the District a
    provisional variance from NPDES Permit No.
    1L0021989, on the
    following conditions:
    1.
    The effluent limits and monitoring requirements shall
    be in accordance with the NPDES permit conditions that apply
    to Outfall 007;
    2.
    The variance shall apply from when flooding conditions
    began on January 14,
    1995 and continue for forty—five
    (45)
    days or until the work is complete, which ever occurs first;
    3.
    The District shall notify Tim Zook of the Agency’s
    Springfield Regional office by telephone, at (217)786-6892,
    when the construction is complete and the normal outfalls
    are returned to service, and the District shall confirm this
    notice in writing within five
    (5)
    days, addressed as
    follows:
    Illinois Environmental Protection Agency
    Division of Water Pollution Control
    Compliance Assurance Section
    2200 Churchill Road
    P.O. Box 19276
    Springfield, Illinois
    62794—9276
    Attention:
    Susan Davison
    4.
    During the variance period, the District shall
    immediately inform the Agency of any adverse circumstances
    that may arise which could public health or environmental
    concerns.
    3
    The District 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:
    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—45, February 2,
    1995.
    Petitioner
    Authorized Agent
    Title
    Date
    IT IS SO ORDERED.
    I, Dorothy M.
    Gunn, Clerk of the Illinois Pollution Control
    Board, do hereby cer ify that the above order was adopted on the
    ‘~‘-‘~~
    day of __________________________,
    1995, by a vote of
    ?
    -O.
    Dorothy M.(~unn,Clerk
    Illinois P~llutionControl Board

    Back to top