ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
    November 21, 1984
    CITY OF WHITE HALL,
    )
    Petitioner,
    )
    V.
    )
    PCB 84—126
    )
    Ii,LINOIS ENVIRONMENTAL
    )
    PROTECTION AGENCY,
    )
    Respondent.
    OPINION AND ORDER OF THE BOARD
    (by
    J.
    D.
    Dumelle):
    This matter comes before the Board upon an August
    16,
    1984
    petition for variance filed on behalf of the City of White Hall
    requesting
    variance
    from
    the
    biochemical
    oxygen
    demand,
    suspended
    solids
    and
    ammonia
    nitrogen
    effluent
    limitations
    applicable
    to
    its wastewater treatment facility.*
    On September
    17,
    1984,
    the
    Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (Agency)
    filed a recom—
    inendation that variance be dismissed as moot.
    The City did not
    respond to that recommendation.
    Hearing was waived and none was
    held.
    The City requests variance to allow maintenance work on the
    tertiary filter unit,
    and due to existing piping the activated
    sludge unit must be out of service for two weeks and the filter
    unit for one month.
    Thus, during the variance period flows to
    the
    plant
    will,
    receive
    only
    primary
    treatment and
    disinfection.
    In its recommendation the Agency chronicles the operational
    difficulties of the facility since the summer of 1982 and the
    progress toward eliminating those problems.
    Finally,
    the Agency
    alleges that “on August
    6,
    1984,
    Petitioner’s
    the
    City’s
    waste—
    water treatment plant operator reported that the activated sludge
    plant went back on-line at 9:11 a.m.
    on August
    4,
    1984” and later
    reported “that the filters were placed back on-line at 2:15 p.m.
    on August 22,
    1984”
    (Rec.
    p.
    5).
    Based on these
    facts the Agency
    recommends dismissal of the variance as moot.
    *
    Variance is requested from 35
    Ill. Adm. Code 302.208
    (Chemical Constituents), 304.105
    (Violation of Water
    Quality Standards) and 304.120(c)
    (Deoxygenating Wastes),
    although the connection between these rules and the
    requested relief is not completely clear.
    61-203
    2
    The Board disagrees that the variance request is moot
    in
    that the Board has sometimes granted retroactive variances as a
    shield against enforcement where justice so demands and where
    such
    unusual
    relief
    is justified by the record,
    Here, there
    is
    no
    request for
    retroactive
    relief and the record does not support
    it.
    That is not to say that sufficient facts may not exist to
    support such relief;
    only that they are not present in this
    record.
    Furthermore, the record before the Board contains in~-
    sufficient facts to support the granting of any variance.
    Thus, the Board concludes that present relief is unnecessary
    and retroactive relief has been neither requested nor justified.
    Therefore, variance will be denied.
    This Opinion constitutes the Board’s findings of fact
    and
    conclusions of
    law
    in this matter.
    ORDER
    The
    City
    of
    White Hall
    is
    hereby denied variance
    from
    ‘35 Iii, Mm, Code 302,208, 304.105 and 304.120(c),
    IT
    IS
    SO
    ORDERED,
    I, Dorothy M. Gunn, Clerk of the Illinois Pollution Control
    Board, hereby certify that the above Opinion and Order was
    adopted on the
    ~
    day
    of
    ~
    1984
    by
    a
    vote
    of
    —
    Illinois Pollution Control
    J3oard
    61~204

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