News Releases - 2003

City of Polo Receives Extension to Provisional Variance for Installation of New Unit in Treatment Process

Springfield, Ill. -- The Illinois EPA has granted a request by the city of Polo (Ogle County) for an extension of a 45 day provisional variance granted to the rural community in November, allowing it to exceed limits for three components of its wastewater discharge while equipment for part of the plant's secondary filtering process is replaced.

The Agency granted an initial variance for the period from Oct. 14 through Nov. 27, 2003. Due to an error during the manufacture of one of the necessary parts, installation was delayed while the city awaited arrival of the correct equipment. Construction is scheduled to begin Dec. 9, 2003, and the city expects the new equipment to be installed, on line and operational by the week of Dec. 15, 2003.

The community of 2,477 located northwest of Dixon has a wastewater treatment plant that processes approximately 0.3 million gallons per day of domestic sewage, discharging the treated wastewater into Buffalo Creek.

The provisional variance temporarily raises the allowed amounts of ammonia nitrogen, CBOD5 and suspended solids to be discharged from the plant above the limits specified in the community's National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit. CBOD5 refers to the five day carbonaceous biological oxygen demand, a measurement used to determine that sufficient oxygen is available to support aquatic life. NPDES permits are required under the federal Clean Water Act for activities that discharge to the waters of the state, including the operation of wastewater treatment plants.

The Agency determined on the initial application that environmental impact from the variance should be minimal, that no reasonable alternative appears to be available, no public water supplies should be affected, and that there are no federal regulations that would prohibit granting the request.

The variance will run from Dec. 3, 2003, through Jan. 16, 2004 and requires the community to notify the Agency when construction starts and again when work is completed. All other treatment processes will remain in operation during the work, and other NPDES permit limits will remain.