ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
    March 9, 1995
    THE UNO-VEN COMPANY,
    )
    )
    Petitioner,
    )
    v.
    )
    PCB 95—87
    )
    (Provisional Variance—Water)
    ILLINOIS ENVIRONMENTAL
    )
    PROTECTION AGENCY,
    )
    )
    Respondent.
    ORDER OF THE BOARD (by N. McFawn):
    Pursuant to Section 35(b) of the Environmental Protection
    Act (Act) (415 ILCS 5/35(b)), The UNO-VEN Company (UNO-VEN) has
    requested that the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency
    (Agency) recommend that the Board grant a provisional variance to
    allow UNO—VEN to continue operating while raising the monthly
    average cyanide concentration limit from the permitted value of
    0.1 mg/l to 0.2 mg/i while operational strategies are assessed to
    bring about proper sequential control. These actions will
    necessitate temporary relief from 35 Ill. Adm. Code 304.124(a) as
    it relates to UNO-VEN’s cyanide limit in 35 Ill. Adm. Code
    304.141(a). Such request for a provisional variance and the
    Notification of Recommendation was filed with the Board by the
    Agency on Thursday, March 9, 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 UNO—VEN in order to allow
    it to continue operating during a period of refinery repairs.
    Specifically, the Agency recommends that we grant UNO-VEN a
    (forty—five) 45-day provisional variance for its Will County
    facility from the cyanide limitation requirements, as set forth
    in 35 Ill. Adm. Code 304.141(a), which shall begin on February
    25, 1995 and shall continue for a period not longer than 45 days
    or when compliance with the cyanide limit can be maintained,
    whichever occurs 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, and 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, and finds
    that a denial of the requested provisional variance would create
    2
    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 petitioner a
    provisional variance from 35 Ill. Adm. Code 304.141(a), on the
    following conditions:
    1. The term of this provisional variance shall commence on
    February 25, 1995 and it shall expire on the date when
    compliance with the cyanide limit can be maintained, or
    after forty—five (45) days have elapsed, whichever comes
    first;
    2. During the term of this provisional variance, the
    petitioner’s cyanide effluent shall be limited to 0.2 mg/l
    (monthly average concentration) from Outfall 001 during the
    period of the variance. UNO-VEN’s existing daily maximum
    effluent limit of 0.2 mg/l as specified in its National
    Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit, shall remain
    in effect;
    3. The petitioner shall notify Basil Papadakis of the
    Agency’s Maywood Regional office by telephone, at (708)338-
    7900, should any unusual conditions arise. The petitioner
    shall confirm each 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: Dan Ray
    4. The petitioner shall operate its refinery in such a
    manner as to treat cyanide in the best practical manner so
    as to minimize the amount of cyanide entering the receiving
    waters;
    3
    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 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—87, March 9, 1995.
    Petitioner
    Authorized Agent
    Title
    Date
    IT IS SO ORDERED.
    I, Dorothy
    N. 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 M.,4lnn, Clerk
    Illinois ~y1lution Control Board

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