ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL
    BOARD
    Nay 19, 1994
    CITY OF GREENFIELD,
    )
    )
    Petitioner,
    )
    v.
    )
    PCB 94—154
    )
    (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)), the City of Greenfield has
    requested that the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency
    (Agency) recommend that the Board grant a provisional variance to
    allow the City of Greenfield 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 Wednesday, May 18,
    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 City of Greenfield in
    order to allow it to continue operating during a period of
    wastewater treatment plant modifications.
    Specifically, the Agency recommends that we grant City of
    Greenfield a forty-five (45)—day provisional variance for its
    Greene County facility from the effluent limitations as set forth
    in 35 Ill. Adm. Code 304.120(a) and 304.141(a) for a period
    forty-five (45)days when the petitioner begins modifications to
    its wastewater treatment plant, by removing cell #2 of their
    lagoon 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 modifications 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.
    (~
    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. Adin. Code 304.120(a) and
    304.141(a), on the following conditions:
    1. The term of this provisional variance shall commence
    when the petitioner, the City of Greenfield, initiates
    modifications to its wastewater treatment plant, by removing
    cell #2 of their lagoon from service, 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. The petitioner shall notify John Wells of the Agency’s
    Springfield Regional office by telephone, at 217/786—6892,
    when it removes cell #2 of their lagoon 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: Mark T. Books
    3. The petitioner shall operate its wastewater treatment
    plant so as to produce the best effluent practicable. Only
    one cell of the lagoon system shall be shut down at a time
    for the necessary work; and
    4. The petitioner shall perform the necessary maintenance
    and modification work as expeditiously as possible to
    minimize the time period that cell #2 of the lagoon needs
    to be out of service; and
    5. During the term of this provisional variance, the
    3
    effluent from the petitioner’s treatment plant shall not
    exceed concentrations of 55 mg/l CBOD5 and 80 mg/l TSS on a
    monthly average basis; and
    6. 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 94-154, May 19. 1994.
    Petitioner
    Authorized Agent
    Title
    Date
    IT IS SO ORDERED.
    I, Dorothy M. Gunn, Clerk of the Illinois Pollution Control
    Bo
    do hereby certify that the above order was adopted on the
    ______
    day of ___________________________, 1994, by a vote of
    ~-o.
    Dorothy M. ~nn,
    A~.
    Clerk
    4’
    Illinois Pcv~LutionControl Board

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