ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
    June
    2,
    1987
    CITY OF CREST HILL,
    )
    Petitioner,
    v.
    )
    PCB 87—74
    ILLINOIS ENVIRONMENTAL
    )
    AGENCY,
    Respondent.
    OPINION AND ORDER OF THE BOARD
    (by J.D. Dumelle):
    This provisional variance request comes before the Board
    upon
    a June
    1, 198~,Recommendation of the Illinois Environmental
    Protection Agency
    (Agency).
    The Agency recommends that because
    of an arbitrary and unreasonable hardship, the City of Crest Hill
    (City)
    be
    granted a provisional variance subject
    to certain
    provisions
    to allow the City
    to exceed fecal coliform limits
    in
    its NPDES permit No.
    ILOO21121 due
    to the construction activities
    currently underway at
    its wastewater treatment facility.
    The City owns and operates
    a 1.25 million gallons per day
    (MGD) wastewater treatment facility consisting of
    an activated
    sludge sewage treatment plant,
    two polishing lagoons and a
    chlorine contaqt
    zone.
    Effluent
    is discharged
    to the Rock Run
    Creek tributary
    to the Illinois and Michigan canal.
    Plant improvements underway provide for construction of a
    new chlorine contact basin and outfall.
    The construction
    requires
    the existing chlorine basin and outfall
    to be
    abandoned
    in order
    to construct the new units.
    Disinfection will
    be
    provided
    by
    a temporary outfall from the existing 6.44
    acrc
    polishing pond and
    a temporary chlorine feed will be established
    for
    the plant’s secondary effluent prior
    to its discharge to the
    polishing pond.
    The City contends that due
    to the existing bottom deposits
    in the polishing pond and the approximate eight day detention
    time at existing flows,
    it believes that the fecal coliform limit
    for
    the effluent will
    be exceeded.
    The City alleges that
    alternative methods of assuring compliance,
    i.e. construction
    of
    a temporary contact basin
    or temporary by—pass line
    to the
    existing basin,
    represent substantial cost without further use
    to
    the project.
    Therefore, the City argues, denial of its
    provisional variance petition would create an arbitrary and
    unreasonable hardship since the new chlorine contact basin and
    outfall cannot be constructed without removal
    of the existing
    units.
    78-349
    —2—
    The Agency agrees that an arbitrary and unreasonable
    hardship would occur
    if the provisional variance
    is denied.
    The
    Agency has determined that because the City discharges into the
    Rock Run Creek tributary to the Illinois and Michigan Canal,
    environmental impacts will
    be minimal
    if the variance is
    granted.
    The Agency has also determined that there are no
    downstream public water supplies
    to be adversely affected.
    Concluding that no federal laws preclude the granting
    of this
    provisional variance, the Agency has recommended that the Board
    grant this provisional variance subject
    to the conditions
    incorporated
    into the Board’s order.
    Pursuant
    to Section 35(b) of the Illinois Environmental
    Protection Act, the Board hereby grants the provisional variance
    as recommended.
    This Opinion constitutes the Board’s
    finding of
    fact and
    conclusion of law
    in this matter.
    ORDER
    The City of Crest Hill
    is hereby granted
    a provisional
    variance from 35
    Ill. Adm. Code 304.121, subject
    to the following
    conditions:
    1.
    The variance shall
    commence on June
    2,
    1987,
    and extend
    to July
    17,
    1987,
    or
    until the new chlorine contact
    basin and outfall
    is operational, whichever occurs
    first.
    2.
    The City shall operate
    and maintain its wastewater
    treatment facility
    so as to produce the best effluent
    practicable.
    3.
    Within ten
    (10) days
    of the date
    of this Order, the
    City shall
    execute a Certificate of Acceptance agreeing
    to
    be bound by the terms and conditions of this
    variance which shall be sent
    to:
    Illinois Environmental Protection Agency
    Division of Water Pollution Control
    Compliance Assurance Section
    2200 Churchill Road
    P.O. Box 19276
    Springfield,
    IL 62794—9276
    ATTN:
    Mr. Jim Frost
    78-350
    —3—
    CERTIFICATION
    I,
    (We)
    the City of
    Crest Hill, hereby accept and agree
    to
    be bound
    by all terms and conditions of the Order
    of the
    Pollution Control Board
    in PCB 87—74, June
    2,
    1987.
    Petitioner
    Authorized Agent
    Title
    Date
    IT
    IS SO ORDERED.
    I, Dorothy H.
    Gunn,
    Clerk of the Illinois Pollution Control
    Board,
    hereby certify that the above 0 inion and Order was
    adopted
    on the
    _______________
    day of
    _____________,
    1987 by a vote
    of
    ~/-o
    .
    Ill
    Control Board
    78-351

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