ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
    April 3, 1997
    CITGO PETROLEUM
    CORPORATION,
    Petitioner,
    v.
    ILLINOIS ENVIRONMENTAL
    PROTECTION AGENCY,
    Respondent.
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    PCB 97-170
    (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)), Citgo Petroleum Corporation (petitioner) has requested that the Illinois
    Environmental Protection Agency (Agency) recommend that the Board grant a provisional
    variance from Section 35(b) of the Act (415 ILCS 5/35(b)), to the petitioner. Such request for
    a provisional variance and the notification of recommendation were filed with the Board by the
    Agency on Tuesday, April 1, 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 Act (415 ILCS 5/35(b)), the Agency, by and through its
    Director, Mary A. Gade, seeks a provisional variance to allow petitioner to discharge
    hydrostatic test water offsite through its existing National Pollutant Discharge Elimination
    System (NPDES) permitted outfall to allow for repair and testing of petroleum tanks
    Specifically, the Agency recommends that we grant petitioner a 45-day provisional
    variance for its Cook County facility from the NPDES effluent discharge requirements, as set
    forth in 304.141(b). This variance period shall begin when petitioner begins discharging the
    water for the hydrostatic test and continue until the discharge is completed, but not 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. The Agency is unaware of any public water supplies that the requested provisional
    variance would adversely impact and maintains that granting 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 304.141(b), on the following conditions:
    1.
    The term of this provisional variance shall commence when petitioner begins
    discharging the water for the hydrostatic test and continue until the discharge is
    completed, but not longer than 45 days.
    2.
    The petitioner shall notify Robert Sulski at the Agency’s Maywood Regional
    Office by telephone, at 708/531-5900, when the work on the tertiary filter is
    completed. Petitioner shall confirm this notice in writing within five (5) days,
    addressed as follows:
    Illinois Environmental Protection Agency
    ATTN: Mark T. Books
    Bureau of Water, Compliance Assurance Section
    2200 Churchill Road
    P.O. Box 19276
    Springfield, Illinois 62794-9276
    3.
    The petitioner shall maintain compliance with it current NPDES permit limits
    during the time hydrostatic test water is discharged. Petitioner shall verify
    compliance with its NPDES permit limits prior to releasing the hydrostatic test
    water.
    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:
    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 97-170, April 3, 1997.
    _____________________________________
    Petitioner
    _____________________________________
    Authorized Agent
    _____________________________________
    Title
    _____________________________________
    Date
    IT IS SO ORDERED.
    Board Member Kathleen 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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