ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
    July 11, 1991
    CITY OF FAIRBURY,
    Petitioner,
    v.
    J
    PCB 91—114
    (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 July 9, 1991. The recommendation refers to
    a request from Petitioner, City of Fairbury, for a provisional
    variance from the ammonia nitrogen (NH3), biochemical oxygen
    demand (CBOD5), and suspended solids (TSS) effluent requirements,
    as set forth in 35 Ill. Adm. Code 304.120, 304.122, and
    304.141(a), for the period from when the Petitioner begins
    painting its wastewater treatment plant, by removing the newer
    portion of that plant from service, and continuing until the
    Petitioner returns that plant 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 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 and 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.
    1989, 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 and
    124—99
    2
    unreasonable hardship, the Board hereby grants Petitioner a
    provisional variance from 35 Ill. Adm. Code 304.120, 304.122, and
    304.141(a), on the following conditions:
    1. The term of this provisional variance shall commence
    when the Petitioner, City of Fairbury, initiates bypassing
    the newer protion of its wastewater treatment plant, and it
    shall expire on the date the Petitioner returns its
    wastewater treatment plant to service or after 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 20mg/i NH3 (daily maximum
    concentration or 45 mg/i BOD5 or 45 mg/i TSS (each on a
    monthly average basis);
    3. The Petitioner shall notify Steve Baldwin of the
    Agency’s Champaign Regional office by telephone, at 217-
    333-8361, when it removes the newer portion of its
    wastewater treatment plant 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: Mark T. Books
    4. The Petitioner shall return its treatment units to
    service as soon as possible and operate its plant during the
    term of this provisional variance in a manner that assures
    the best treatment practicable; and
    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 10 days of the date of this Order
    of the Board, and the Certificate of Acceptance shall take
    the following form:
    124—
    100
    3
    I (We)
    CERTIFICATION
    hereby accept and agree to be bound by all terms
    and conditions of the Order of the Pollution
    Control Board in PCB 91-114, July 11, 1991.
    Petitioner
    Authorized Agent
    Title
    Date
    IT IS SO ORDERED.
    J.D. Dumelle and B. Forcade concurred.
    I, Dorothy N. Gunn, Clerk of the Illinois Pollution Control
    Boa~rd,
    do hereby ce tif that the above Order was adopted on the
    //
    ~
    day of _______________________________, 1991, by a vote of
    7-~
    Control Board
    124—10 1

    Back to top