ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
May 18, 1995
GLENBARD WASTEWATER AUTHORITY,
)
Petitioner,
v.
PCB 95—148
(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)), Glenbard Wastewater Authority has
requested that the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency
(Agency) recommend that the Board grant a provisional variance to
allow Glenbard Wastewater Authority to continue operating during
a period of wastewater treatment plant malfunction. Such request
for a provisional variance and the Notification of Recommendation
was filed with the Board by the Agency on May 17, 1995. Pursuant
to Section 35(b) of the Act, the Board must issue the variance
within two (2) days of this filing.
Specifically, the Agency recommends that we grant Glenbard
Wastewater Authority a (forty-five) 45-day provisional variance
for its DuPage County facility from the seasonal fecal coliform
effluent requirements, as set forth in 35 Ill. Adm. Code
304.121(a) and 304.141(a), for the period from May 1, 1995 and
continuing until the petitioner maintains compliance with the
fecal coliform limits, but not for longer than 45 days.
The Agency explains that the Glenbard Wastewater Authority
recently upgraded its treatment plant, which discharges into the
East Branch of the DuPage River. As part of the upgrade, the
Authority installed a UV disinfection system, but is having
trouble maintaining proper flow for adequate performance. Thus,
the Authority will be unable to comply with its seasonal fecal
coliform limit until the situation is corrected. The Agency
states that the Authority cannot apply chlorine disinfection
after the UV disinfection, but that it will do so to the best of
its ability before the UV disinfection until the new system works
properly. The Authority will also have to periodically have to
turn the chlorination off to check performance of the UV system.
This could lead to noncompliance with the effluent standard for
fecal coliform.
The Agency recommends that the Board grant the requested
provisional variance with specified conditions. The Agency
anticipates that the requested provisional variance would have
minimal environmental impact on the receiving stream. The Agency
2
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
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. (~g 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 petitioner a
provisional variance from the seasonal fecal coliform effluent
limits of 35 Ill. Adm. Code 304.121(a) and 304.141(a), on the
following conditions:
1. The term of this provisional variance shall commence on
May 1, 1995 and expire when the Glenbard Wastewater
Authority maintains compliance with the fecal coliform
limit, or after forty—five (45) days have elapsed, whichever
comes first;
2. The petitioner shall notify Ms. Maureen Brehmer of the
Agency by telephone, when adjustments are completed, and the
petitioner shall confirm this notice in writing, addressed
as follows:
Illinois Environmental Protection Agency
Bureau of Water, Compliance Assurance Section
Compliance Assurance Section
2200 Churchill Road
P.O. Box 19276
Springfield, Illinois 62794—9276
Attention: Dan Ray
3. The petitioner shall operate its plant during the term
of this provisional variance in a manner that assures the
best effluent possible; and
4. The petitioner 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
3
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 95-148, May 18, 1995.
Petitioner
Authorized Agent
Title
Date
IT IS SO ORDERED.
I, Dorothy N. Gunn, Clerk of the Illinois Pollution Control
Boar
,
do hereby certify that the above order was adopted on the
______
day of ___________________________, 1995, by a vote of
Dorothy M. Gu~, Clerk
Illinois Poli~tionControl Board