ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
    April 21,
    1994
    VILLAGE OF
    SWANSEA,
    )
    Petitioner,
    )
    v.
    )
    PCB 94—129
    (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 Village of Swansea has
    requested that the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency
    (Agency) recommend that the Board grant a provisional variance to
    allow the Village of Swansea to continue operating during a
    period of wastewater treatment plant construction.
    Such request
    for a provisional variance and the Notification of Recommendation
    was filed with the Board by the Agency on Wednesday, April 20,
    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 Village of Swansea in
    order to allow it to continue operating during a period of
    wastewater treatment plant construction.
    Specifically, the Agency recommends that we grant the
    Village of Swansea a forty-five (45)—day provisional variance for
    its St. Clair County facility from the fecal coliform limit, as
    set forth in 35 Ill. Adm. Code 302
    •
    209 (a) and 304.141(a), for the
    period beginning on May 1, 1994
    when the petitioner begins
    construction on its ultra—violet light channel and continuing
    not 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 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. Adm. Code 302.209(a) and
    304.141(a), on the following conditions:
    1.
    The term of this provisional variance shall commence
    on May 1,
    1994 when the petitioner, Village of Swansea,
    initiates construction at its wastewater treatment plant 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.
    During the variance period, fecal coliform limits shall
    not apply.
    3.
    The petitioner shall operate its plant during the term
    of this provisional variance in a manner that assures the
    best effluent practicable; and
    4.
    The petitioner shall notify Eric Merz of the Agency’s
    Collinsville Regional office by telephone, at (618)346—5120,
    when the ultra—violet light channel becomes operational, 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:
    Barb Conner
    5.
    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
    3
    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—129, April 21,
    1994.
    Petitioner
    Authorized Agent
    Title
    Date
    IT IS SO ORDERED.
    I, Dorothy M.
    Gunn, Clerk of the Illinois Pollution Control
    Board, do hereby certi
    th~tthe above order was adopted on the
    ~
    day of ___________________________,
    1994, by a vote of
    h~0
    .
    Control Board

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