ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
March 19, 1998
WOODWARD GOVERNOR COMPANY,
Petitioner,
v.
ILLINOIS ENVIRONMENTAL
PROTECTION AGENCY,
Respondent.
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PCB 98-117
(Provisional Variance - RCRA)
ORDER OF THE BOARD (by C.A. Manning):
On March 12, 1998, Woodward Governor Company (petitioner), filed a letter with the
Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (Agency) requesting that it be granted a provisional
variance to allow its facility in Winnebago County to continue accumulating hazardous waste
for a period in excess of 90 days. The request for a provisional variance and the notification
of recommendation were filed with the Board by the Agency on March 17, 1998. Pursuant to
Section 35(b) of the Environmental Protection Act (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 three-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 March 11, 1998, to March 14, 1998.
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 three-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
the petitioner a provisional variance for the period from March 11, 1998, to March 14, 1998.
IT IS SO ORDERED.
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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 19th day of March 1998 by a vote of 7-0.
Dorothy M. Gunn, Clerk
Illinois Pollution Control Board