ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
October 6, 1994
METROPOLITAN WATER
RECLAMATION DISTRICT
)
OF GREATER CHICAGO,
)
Petitioner,
)
v.
)
PCB 94—285
)
(Provisional Variance)
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)), Metropolitan Water Reclamation
District of Greater Chicago (MWRDGC) has requested that the
Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (Agency) recommend that
the Board grant a provisional variance to allow MWRDGC to
continue operating during a period of wastewater treatment plant
modifications. Such request for a provisional variance and the
Notification of Recommendation were filed with the Board by the
Agency on Wednesday, October 6, 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 NWRDGC in order to allow
it to continue operating during a period of wastewater treatment
plant modifications.
Specifically, the Agency recommends that we grant MWRDGC a
(forty-five) 45 day provisional variance for its Cook County
facility from the effluent requirements, as set forth in 35 Ill.
Adm. Code 304.141(a) and 304.102(a) for the period from when the
petitioner continues modifications to its wastewater treatment
plant, by continuing to remove the eighteen drop shafts from
service, and until the petitioner returns the Cal—Sag section of
Tunnel and Reservoir Project (TARP) to service, but not for
longer than 45 days. This recommendation is essentially that the
Board extend a previously-granted forty-five (45)-day provisional
variance that expired October 3, 1994. The docket number of the
previous provisional variance was PCB 94—219, granted on August
11, 1994.
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
2
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.
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 responsibil-
ities in standard variances. (See 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) and
304.102(a), on the following conditions:
1. The term of this provisional variance shall commence on
October 4, 1994 and it shall expire on the date the
petitioner completes the required construction work, or
after forty—five (45) days have elapsed, whichever comes
first;
2. The petitioner shall notify Rob Sulski of the Agency’s
Maywood Regional office by telephone, at (708)338—7900, when
necessary construcrion work is completed and when it returns
the Cal-Sag section of TARP to service, and 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: Dan Ray
3. The petitioner shall immediately inform the Agency of
any adverse circumstances that may arise, due to any
abnormal precipitation events or connection related
problems.
3
4. The petitioner shall operate its Calumet Wastewater
Reclamation Plant in such a manner as to treat the highest
possible influent flow. Petitioner shall also perform the
necessary work as expeditiously as possible.
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:
CERTIFI CATION
I (We), _______________________________
hereby accept and agree to be bound by all terms
and conditions of the order of the Pollution
Control Board in PCB 94-286, October 6, 1994.
Petitioner
Authorized Agent
Title
Date
IT IS SO ORDERED.
I, Dorothy M. Gunn, Clerk of the Illinois Pollution Control
Bo~r~,do hereby certify t a~the above order was adopted on the
~-/~ day of ____________________________, 1994, by a vote of
~-c)
/7
Dorothy N.
GUfl1)~
Clerk
Illinois Pol~3tion Control Board