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
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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;
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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