ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
    December 16,
    1994
    THE AMOCO OIL
    COMPANY
    AND
    )
    THE CITY OF WOOD RIVER
    )
    )
    Petitioners,
    v.
    )
    PCB 94—384
    (Provisional Variance)
    ILLINOIS ENVIRONMENTAL
    PROTECTION AGENCY,
    )
    Respondent.
    ORDER OF THE BOARD
    (by M. McFawn):
    Pursuant to Section 35(b) of the Environmental Protection
    Act
    (Act)
    (415 ILCS 5/35 (b)),
    the Amoco Oil Company and the City
    of Wood River (co-petitioners) have requested that the Illinois
    Environmental Protection Agency (Agency) recommend that the Board
    grant a provisional variance to allow co—petitioners to continue
    operating during a period of wastewater treatment plant
    modifications.
    Such request for a provisional variance and the
    Notification of Recommendation was filed with the Board by the
    Agency on Thursday, December 15,
    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 Act (415 ILCS 5/35(b)), the
    Agency, by and through its Director, Mary A.
    Gade,
    seeks
    a
    provisional variance for co—petitioners in order to allow them to
    continue operating during
    a period of wastewater treatment plant
    modifications.
    Specifically, the Agency recommends that we grant Amoco a
    thirty
    (30)-day provisional variance from the biochemical oxygen
    demand
    (CBOD5) and suspended solids
    (TSS)
    effluent requirements,
    and oil and grease, phenol, and fecal coliform limits as set
    forth in
    35 Ill.
    Adin.
    Code 305.102(b) and 304.141(a)
    as they
    pertain to Outfall No.
    2 in Amoco’s NPDES permit, commencing upon
    the date in January or February 1995 when the dewatering of the
    aeration tank and diversion of wastewater to the Amoco Storage
    Lagoon begins, and continuing for no longer than 30 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

    2
    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
    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 co—petitioners
    a provisional variance from 35 Ill.
    Adiu.
    Code 305.102(b)
    and
    304.141(a), on the following conditions:
    1.
    The term of this provisional variance shall commence
    upon the date in January or February 1995 when the
    dewatering of the aeration tank and diversion of wastewater
    to the Amoco Storage Lagoon begins, and shall continue for
    no longer than 30 days.
    2.
    The co-petitioners shall notify Chris Port at the
    Agency’s Collinsville Regional Office via telephone at
    618/346—5120 when the aeration tank is removed from service
    and when the unit is returned to service.
    Written
    confirmation of each notification shall be sent within five
    (5) days to the following address;
    Illinois Environmental Protection Agency
    Bureau of Water
    Wastewater Compliance Assurance Section
    2200 Churchill Road
    P.O. Box 19276
    Springfield,
    Illinois
    62794—9276
    Attention:
    Barbara Conner
    3.
    If a discharge from the Amoco Oil Storage Lagoon should
    occur,
    the City of Wood River shall notify Karen Tsikteris
    of Illinois American Water Company-Granite City via
    telephone at 618/277—7450 or 618/874—8145,
    immediately.
    4.
    During the term of this provisional variance, the City
    of Wood River shall perform the necessary repair work on the
    aeration tank as expeditiously as possible to avoid

    3
    discharging from the Amoco Storage Lagoon.
    5.
    Should a discharge from the Amoco Storage Lagoon occur
    during the provisional variance period, the following
    parameters shall be sampled daily at the Amoco Oil Outfall
    No.
    002 and reported to the Agency.
    Parameters
    Daily Maximum
    Monthly Average
    CBOD5
    N/A
    100 mg/i
    TSS
    N/A
    50 mg/i
    Oil and Grease
    N/A
    25 mg/i
    Phenols
    4 mg/i
    2.5 mg/i
    In addition to those parameters,
    there shall be no
    applicable limit for fecal coliform and the special once a year
    sampling requirement shall be waived.
    The co—petitioners shall execute a copy of a Certificate of
    Acceptance of this provisional variance and forward that copy to
    the Agency at the above address.
    The co-petitioners 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:

    4
    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 94-384, December 16,
    1994.
    Petitioner
    Authorized Agent
    Title
    Date
    IT IS SO ORDERED.
    I, Dorothy N.
    Gunn, Clerk of the Illinois Pollution Control
    Board, do hereby cert~,fythat the above order was adopted on the
    /~t~
    day of ___________________________,
    1994,
    by a vote of
    _____.
    Dorothy N. ,~unn,Clerk
    Illinois P~llutionControl Board

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