ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL
    BOARD
    September 9, 1993
    NESTLE FOOD COMPANY,
    Petitioner,
    v.
    )
    PCB 93—170
    (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 Illinois Environmental
    Protection Agency (Agency), by and through its Director, Mary A.
    Gade, seeks a provisional variance for Nestle Food Company in
    order to allow it to release water from the company—owned and
    operated wastewater treatment lagoons. While normal at the
    beginning of the annual production season those lagoons are
    empty, the saturation of 117 acres of spray fields due to heavy
    rains has made the discharge necessary to assure adequate holding
    capacity for the usual process season wastewater flows. The
    Agency Recommendation was filed September 8, 1993.
    Specifically, the Agency recommends that we grant Nestle
    Food Company a 45—day provisional variance for its Tazewell
    County facility from the ammonia nitrogen (NH3), biochemical
    oxygen demand (CBOD5), and suspended solids (TSS) effluent
    requirements, as set forth in 35 Ill. Adm. Code 302.141(a), 35
    Ill. Adm. Code 304.120(c) and 35 Ill. Adm. Code 304.105, for the
    period from when the Petitioner begins discharging water from its
    #2 and #4 lagoons, and continuing 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 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
    2
    responsibilities in standard variances.
    ~.
    415 ILCS 5/35 (b) &
    (C)
    (1992) (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1991, ch. 111½, pars. 1035(b) & (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 Petitioner a
    provisional variance from 35 Ill. Adm. Code 304.141(a), 35 Ill.
    Adm. Code 304.120(c) and 35 Ill. Adm. Code 304.105, on the
    following conditions:
    1. The term of this provisional variance shall commence
    upon the date of this Board order and continue for a period
    of forty—five (45) days;
    2. During the term of this provisional variance, the
    effluent from the Petitioner’s treatment plant shall not
    exceed concentrations of 5.0 mg/i NH3 (daily maximum
    concentration)(daily
    maximum
    orconcentration)4.0 mg/i (30-dayor
    20average),mg/i (30-dayor
    30average),mg/i BOD5
    or 70 mg/l TSS (daily maximum concentration) or 50 mg/i (30-
    day average);
    3. The Petitioner shall notify Eric Ackerman of the
    Agency’s Peoria Regional office by telephone, at 309/693—
    5463, when a discharge from lagoon #2 or lagoon #4 begins
    and when the discharge from these lagoons is completed. The
    Petitioner shall confirm this notice in writing within five
    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
    4. The Petitioner shall operate its wastewater treatment
    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 the other parameters, as addressed in NPDES
    Permit No. 1L0060852; and
    3
    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 10 days of the date of this Order
    of the Board, and the Certificate of Acceptance shall take
    the following form:
    CERTI FICATION
    I (We),
    hereby accept and agree to be bound by all terms
    and conditions of the Order of the Pollution
    Control Board in PCB 93—170, September 9, 1993.
    Petitioner
    Authorized Agent
    Title
    Date
    IT IS SO ORDERED.
    I, Dorothy N. Gunn, Clerk of the Illinois Pollution Control
    ~
    do hereby certi~~th~atthe above order was adopted on the
    c/(~/~
    day of
    ~ ~
    ,
    1993, by a vote of
    /-.-~
    •
    /
    ~-
    ~~/—(;
    ~Dorothy M. Gufln, Clerk
    Illinois Pollution Control Board

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