ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD

November 19, 1992

COMMONWEALTH EDISON,

)

(Dresden Generating Station),

Petitioner,

v.

)

PCB 92—181

)

(Provisional Variance)

ILLINOIS ENVIRONMENTAL

)

PROTECTION AGENCY,

)

Respondent.

ORDER OF THE BOARD (by J.C. Marlin):

This matter comes before the Board on receipt of an Agency

Recommendation dated November 18, 1992. The recommendation refers

to a request from Petitioner, Commonwealth Edison, for a

provisional variance for its Will County facility from the effluent

discharge temperature limitations, as set forth in 35 Iii. Adin.

Code 302.211(d) and 304.141(c), for the period from when the

Petitioner removes its lift station transformer from service until

that unit is returned to service, or through November 30, 1992,

whichever comes first, but not for more than three 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.

The responsibilities of the Agency and the Board in these

short-term provisional variances are different from the

responsibilities in standard variances. See 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

0 I

37-0233

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2

provisional variance from 35 Ill. Adin. Code 302.211(d) and

304.141(c), on the following conditions:

1. The term of this provisional variance shall commence when

the Petitioner, Commonwealth Edison, initiates the removing of

its lift station transformer, and continue for three (3) days

or until the unit is returned to service, whichever occurs

first, but in no case later than November 30, 1992;

2. The Petitioner shall notify Allen Anderson of the

Agency’s Maywood Regional office by telephone, at 708/531-

5900, when it removes its lift station transformer from

service and when it returns the unit to service, and 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: Dan Ray

3. During the term of this variance, Petitioner shall not

exceed a final discharge temperature of 74 degrees F.

4. During the termof this variance, Petitioner shall

continuously monitor the temperature at the intake structure,

at the discharge point and at the Dresden lock and dam as

indicated by the Petitioner in its variance request.

5. During the term of this variance, Petitioner shall

operate the two boiling water reactors at reduced loads so

that the maximum amount of cooling water to be discharged

daily will be 936 MGD.

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:

01 37-023t4

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3

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 92-181, November 19, 1992.

Petitioner

Authorized Agent

Title

Date

IT IS SO ORDERED.

I, Dorothy M. Gunn, Clerk of the Illinois Pollution Control

Board, do hereby ~rtify that the ab ye order was adopted by the

Board on the /~‘~ day of _____________________________, 1992,

by a vote of

________

.

o; 37-0235

Dorothy N.

Illinois

Clerk

Ltion Control Board