ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
August
11,
1994
CITY OF PEKIN,
)
Petitioner,
v.
)
PCB 94—218
)
(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)),
City of Pekin
(Pekin) has requested
that the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (Agency)
recommend that the Board grant a provisional variance to allow
Pekin to continue operating during a period of wastewater
treatment plant modification.
Such request for a provisional
variance and the Notification of Recommendation were filed with
the Board by the Agency on Wednesday, August 10,
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 Pekin
in order to allow it
to continue operating during a period of wastewater treatment
plant modification.
Specifically,
the Agency recommends that we grant Pekin a
(forty—five)
45 day provisional variance for its Tazewell County
facility from the biochemical oxygen demand
(CBOD5), suspended
solids
(TSS), and fecal coliforin effluent requirements, as set
forth in 35
Ill. Adm. Code 304.141, 304.120(b),
and 304.121 for
the period from when the petitioner begins modifications to its
wastewater treatment plant,
by removing the first secondary
clarifier unit from service,
and continuing until the petitioner
returns that unit to service,
but not for 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 agrant of
a provisional variance would violate
no
federal
laws.
The
Agency finds that
a denial of the requested
2
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.
(~
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
Iii. Adm. Code 304.141, 304.120(b),
and 304.121, on the following conditions:
1.
The term of this provisional variance shall commence
when the petitioner,
Pekin,
initiates modifications to its
wastewater treatment plant, by bypassing its first secondary
clarifier unit,
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
effluent from the petitioner’s treatment plant shall not
exceed concentrations of 40 mg/i CBOD5 and 100 mg/i TSS
monthly average,
and will not be subject to a daily maximum
fecal coliform limit;
3.
The petitioner shall notify Kenneth B. Newman of the
Agency’s Peoria Regional office by telephone,
at
(309)693-
5463, when it removes its first secondary clarifier unit
from service and when it returns the unit 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:
Erin Rednour
4.
The petitioner shall return the first secondary
clarifier unit to service as soon as possible and operate
3
its plant during the term of this provisional variance in a
manner that assures the best effluent practicable; and
5.
The petitioner shall continue to monitor and maintain
compliance with all other parameters as addressed in NPDES
Permit No.
110034495.
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 94-218
,
August 11,
1994.
Petitioner
Authorized Agent
Title
Date
IT IS SO ORDERED.
I, Dorothy M.
Gunn,
Clerk of the Illinois Pollution Control
Boa~~dohereby certify that the above order was adopted on the
//(~
day of ____________________________,
1994, by a vote of
/7
~
~
L.
Dorothy M. G~4~in,Clerk
Illinois Po~LutionControl Board