ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
October 6, 1994
THE UNO-VEN
COMPANY,
)
Petitioner,
v.
)
PCB 94—286
)
(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)), 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 during a period of total
refinery startup. Such request for a provisional variance and
the Notification of Recommendation was 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 the UNO—VEN in order to
allow it to continue operating during a period of total refinery
startup.
Specifically, the Agency recommends that we grant the 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.
Adlu.
Code 304.141(a), which shall begin on
September 27, 1994 and shall continue for a period not longer
than 45 days or when compliance with the cyanide limit is
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. 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.
2
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 35 Ill. Adm. Code 304.141(a), on the
following conditions:
1. The term of this provisional variance shall commence on
September 27, 1994 and it shall expire on the date the
petitioner completes the required maintenance work, 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 0.20 mg/l
(monthly average concentration) from Outfall 001 during the
period of the variance;
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 to
assure the lowest amount of cyanide to enter the receiving
water;
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 94-286, October 6, 1994.
Petitioner
Authorized Agent
Title
Date
IT IS SO ORDERED
I, Dorothy M. Gunn, Clerk of the Illinois Pollution Control
Board do hereby certify ayhe above order was adopted on the
_______
day of
-
,
1994, by a vote of
Control Board