ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
May 21, 1998
ILLINOIS DEPARTMENT OF
TRANSPORATION (I-57 Rest Area, Iroquois
County),
Petitioner,
v.
ILLINOIS ENVIRONMENTAL
PROTECTION AGENCY,
Respondent.
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PCB 98-158
(Provisional Variance - Water)
ORDER OF THE BOARD (by C.A. Manning):
Pursuant to Section 35(b) of the Environmental Protection Act (Act) (415 ILCS 5/35(b)
(1996)), the Illinois Department of Transportation, for its I-57 Rest Area located in Iroquois
County (petitioner), has requested that the Board grant a provisional variance from certain
conditions of its National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Permit (NPDES) No.
IL0055387 and in 35 Ill. Adm. Code 304.120(c) and 304.141(a). The request for a
provisional variance and the notification of recommendation were filed with the Board by the
Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (Agency) on May 19, 1998. 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) (1996)), the Agency, by and
through its Director, Mary A. Gade, seeks a provisional variance to allow petitioner to
continue to operate its wastewater treatment facility while work is completed to install piping
and to remove sludge in its lagoons. The Agency recommends that the Board grant the
requested provisional variance with specified conditions. The Agency agrees that the
modification is necessary. The Agency 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. The
Agency 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.
Specifically, the Agency recommends that the Board grant petitioner a 45-day
provisional variance for its Iroquois County facility from effluent discharge limits for five-day
carbonaceous biochemical oxygen demand, total suspended solids and five-day biochemical
oxygen demand, as set forth in NPDES permit No. IL0055387 and in 35 Ill. Adm. Code
304.120(c) and 304.141(a). This variance period is recommended to commence during 1998
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when petitioner’s primary lagoon is removed from service and to continue until the work on
the lagoons is completed, but not longer than 45 days.
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 that a denial of the requested relief would
impose an arbitrary or unreasonable hardship, the Board hereby grants petitioner a provisional
variance from NPDES permit No. IL0055387 and in 35 Ill. Adm. Code 304.120(c) and
304.141(a), subject to the following conditions:
1.
This variance period shall commence during 1998 when petitioner’s primary
lagoon is removed from service and shall continue until the work on the lagoons
is completed, but not longer than 45 days.
2. Petitioner shall operate its plant during the term of this provisional variance in a
manner that assures the best effluent practicable. Additionally, petitioner shall
meet the following effluent limits:
CBOD
Suspended Solids
Monthly Average
65 mg/l
65 mg/l
Petitioner shall continue to meet the additional limits of its NPDES permit No.
IL0055387.
3.
Petitioner shall notify Steve Baldwin at the Agency’s Champaign regional office
by telephone, at 217/333-8361, when the primary lagoon is removed from
service. Petitioner shall confirm this notice in writing within five (5) days,
addressed as follows:
Illinois Environmental Protection Agency
Bureau of Water, Compliance Assurance Section
Attn: Mark T. Books
1021 N. Grand Avenue East
P.O. Box 19276
Springfield, Illinois 62794-9276
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4.
Petitioner shall perform the necessary repair work on the lagoons as
expeditiously as possible to minimize the time period that the lagoon are out of
service.
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; 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
I (We), _________________________________, hereby accept
and agree to be bound by all terms and conditions of the order of the
Pollution Control Board in PCB 98-158, May 21, 1998.
_________________________________
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 (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 172 Ill. 2d
R. 335; see also 35 Ill. Adm. Code 101.246, Motions for Reconsideration.
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I, Dorothy M. Gunn, Clerk of the Illinois Pollution Control Board, hereby certify that
the above order was adopted on the 21st day of May 1998 by a vote of 6-0.
Dorothy M. Gunn, Clerk
Illinois Pollution Control Board
