ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
    January 23, 1997
    ILLINOIS POWER COMPANY
    (Baldwin Power Station),
    Petitioner,
    v.
    ILLINOIS ENVIRONMENTAL
    PROTECTION AGENCY,
    Respondent.
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    PCB 97-123
    (Provisional Variance - NPDES)
    ORDER OF THE BOARD (by C.A. Manning):
    Pursuant to Section 35(b) of the Environmental Protection Act (Act) (415 ILCS
    5/35(b)),
     
    Illinois Power Company (IPC) has requested that the Illinois Environmental
    Protection Agency (Agency) recommend that the Board grant a provisional variance to allow
    IPC to continue to operate its generating station while maintenance is performed at its
    wastewater treatment facility. Such request for a provisional variance and the notification of
    recommendation was filed with the Board by the Agency on Wednesday, January 22 1997.
    Pursuant to Section 35(b) of the Act, the Board must issue the variance within two (2) days of
    this filing.
    Pursuant to Section 35(b) of the Act (415 ILCS 5/35(b)), the Agency, by and through
    its Director, Mary A. Gade, seeks a provisional variance to allow petitioner to continue to
    operate its generating station while maintenance is performed on the internal dike of the
    secondary cell ash pond system.
    Specifically, the Agency recommends that we grant petitioner a 45-day provisional
    variance for its facility located in St. Clair and Baldwin Counties from the total suspended
    solids effluent discharge requirements, as set forth in 35 Ill. Adm. Code 304.120 and
    304.141(a) and NPDES permit No. IL0000043 for Outfall 001. This variance period shall
    begin on January 16, 1997 and continue until the repairs are complete, 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 and anticipates that the
    requested provisional variance would have minimal environmental impact on the receiving
    stream. Accordingly, the Agency is unaware of any public water supplies that the requested
    provisional variance would adversely impact and maintains that a grant of a provisional
    variance would violate no federal laws. The Agency believes that a denial of the requested
    provisional variance would create an arbitrary or unreasonable hardship on the petitioner.
    2
    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
    responsibilities in standard variances. (See 415 ILCS 5/35(b) & 36(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 that a denial of the requested relief would
    impose an arbitrary or unreasonable hardship, the Board hereby grants the petitioner a
    provisional variance from 35 Ill. Adm. Code 304.120 and 304.141(a) and NPDES permit No.
    IL0000043 for Outfall 001, on the following conditions:
    1.
    The term of this provisional variance shall commence on January 16, 1997 and
    continue until the repairs are complete, but not for longer than 45 days.
    2.
    During the period of this variance, the effluent total suspended solids discharge
    limit shall be 50 mg/l for a monthly average with no daily maximum
    concentration limit. Petitioner shall also continue to ensure compliance with the
    other parameters described in its NPDES permit during this variance period
    .
    3. The petitioner shall notify Eric Merz of the Agency’s Collinsville Regional
    Office (618/346-5120) when the work on the secondary cell is completed.
    Petitioner shall confirm this notice in writing within five (5) days, addressed as
    follows:
    Illinois Environmental Protection Agency
    Attention: Mark T. Books
    Bureau of Water, Compliance Assurance Section
    2200 Churchill Road
    P.O. Box 19276
    Springfield, Illinois 62794-9276
    4. The petitioner shall provide the best treatment practicable during the term of this
    provisional variance.
    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 ten (10) days of the date of this
    order of the Board, and the certificate of acceptance shall take the following form:
    CERTIFICATION
    3
    I (We), _________________________________,hereby
    accept and agree to be bound by all terms and conditions of the
    order of the Pollution Control Board in PCB 97-123, January 23, 1997.
    ________________________________
    Petitioner
    ________________________________
    Authorized Agent
    ________________________________
    Title
    ________________________________
    Date
    IT IS SO ORDERED.
    Board Member K.M. Hennessey abstained.
    Section 41 of the Environmental Protection Act (415 ILCS 5/41 (1994)) provides for
    the appeal of final Board orders to the Illinois Appellate Court within 35 days of the date of
    service of this order. The Rules of the Supreme Court of Illinois establish filing requirements.
    (See also 35 Ill. Adm. Code 101.246 “Motions for Reconsideration.”)
    I, Dorothy M. Gunn, Clerk of the Illinois Pollution Control Board, hereby certify that
    the above order was adopted on the _____ day of ___________, 1997, by a vote of
    ______________.
    ___________________________________
    Dorothy M. Gunn, Clerk
    Illinois Pollution Control Board

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