ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
    December 1,
    1994
    ILLINOIS CENTRAL RAILROAD,
    )
    Petitioner,
    v.
    )
    PCB 94—367
    )
    (Provisional Variance)
    ILLINOIS ENVIRONMENTAL
    )
    PROTECTION AGENCY,
    )
    )
    Respondent.
    ORDER
    OF THE BOARD
    (by C.
    A. Manning):.
    Pursuant to Section 35(b)
    of the Envirornuental Protection
    Act (Act)
    (415 ILCS 5/35(b)), Illinois Central Railroad (ICRR)
    has requested that the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency
    (Agency) recommend that the Board grant a provisional variance to
    allow ICRR to allow it to discharge treated surface water that
    became contaminated with perchioroethylene due to a train
    derailment.
    The derailment site is located 1.5 miles north of
    Thompsonville and 2 miles south of of
    Akin
    in the rural area of
    Franklin County.
    Such request for a provisional variance and the
    Notification of Recommendation were filed with the Board by the
    Agency on Wednesday, November 30,
    1994.
    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 ICRR in order to allow
    them to discharge treated perchioroethylene—impacted surface
    water into an unnamed tributary of Thompsonville Lake.
    Specifically, the Agency recommends that we grant the ICRR a
    (forty—five)
    45 day provisional variance for its Thompsonville,
    Illinois facility from the effluent requirements,
    as set forth in
    35 Ill. Adm. Code 309.103(d)
    for the period from when the
    discharge begins and shall continue for not 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
    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.
    2
    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.
    (~g415 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.
    Adju.
    Code 309.103(d), on the
    following conditions:
    1.
    The term of this provisional variance shall commence
    when the discharge begins and shall continue not longer than
    45 days;
    2.
    During the term of this provisional variance, the
    effluent from this site shall be monitored for pH, flow and
    perchioroethylene (also known as tetrachioroethylene)
    and
    shall not exceed the following limits:
    pH 6.0 to 9.0, and perchloroethylene 0.025 mg/l.
    3.
    The petitioner shall notify Larry Ziemba of the
    Agency’s Marion Regional office by telephone, at
    (618)993-
    7200, when the discharge begins. The petitioner 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:
    Mark T. Books
    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:
    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 94-367, December
    1,
    1994.
    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 ____________________________,
    1994, by a vote of
    7-6
    Dorothy M./,tunn, Clerk
    Illinois ~ol1ution Control Board

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