ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
November 20, 1997
FEDDERS CORPORATION,
Petitioner,
v.
ILLINOIS ENVIRONMENTAL
PROTECTION AGENCY,
Respondent.
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PCB 98-68
(Provisional Variance - RCRA)
ORDER OF THE BOARD (by C.A. Manning):
On November 12, 1997, Fedders Corporation (petitioner), filed a request with the
Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (Agency) requesting that it be granted a provisional
variance to allow its facility in Effingham County, Illinois, to continue accumulating hazardous
waste for a period in excess of 90 days. Such request for a provisional variance and the
notification of recommendation were filed with the Board by the Agency on November 18,
1997. Pursuant to Section 35(b) of the Environmental Protection Act (415 ILCS 5/35(b)
(1996)), the Board must issue the variance within two (2) days of this filing.
Specifically, the Agency recommends that we grant a 30-day provisional variance from
the 90-day limitation on the accumulation of hazardous wastes, as set forth in 35 Ill. Adm.
Code 722.134(b), for the period from November 13, 1997 to December 13, 1997.
Upon receipt of the request from the petitioner, the Agency issued its recommendation
notifying the Board that due to unforeseen, temporary, and uncontrollable circumstances,
failure to grant the requested 30-day provisional variance would impose an arbitrary or
unreasonable hardship on the petitioner.
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) (1996). 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 notifying the Board that a denial of the
requested relief would impose an arbitrary or unreasonable hardship, the Board hereby grants
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the petitioner a provisional variance for the period from November 13, 1997, to December 13,
1997.
IT IS SO ORDERED.
Section 41 of the Environmental Protection Act (415 ILCS 5/41 (1996)) provides for
the appeal of final Board orders to the Illinois Appellate Court within 35 days of service of this
order. Illinois Supreme Court Rule 335 establishes such filing requirements. See 145 Ill. 2d
R. 335; 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 20th day of November 1997, by a vote of 7-0.
Dorothy M. Gunn, Clerk
Illinois Pollution Control Board