ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD

November 3,

1994

SHELL OIL COMPANY,

)

Petitioner,

v.

)

PCB 94—319

)

(Provisional Variance)

ILLINOIS ENVIRONMENTAL

)

PROTECTION AGENCY,

)

Respondent.

ORDER OF THE BOARD

(by

C.

A. Manning):

Pursuant to Section 35(b)

of the Environmental Protection

Act

(Act)

(415 ILCS 5/35(b)), Shell Oil Company has requested

that the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency

(Agency)

recommend that the Board grant a provisional variance allow

several of Shell Oil Company’s gasoline dispensing operations

(service stations) to continue operating even though it will not

install operational vapor recovery equipment by November 1,

1994.

This provisional variance is being requested because the stations

will be demolished,

and will be rebuilt and equipped with Stage

II gasoline vapor recovery equipment during the rebuild.

This

request for a provisional variance and the Notification of

Recommendation was filed with the Board by the Agency on Tuesday,

November 1,

1994.

Pursuant to Section 35(b)

of the Act, the

Board must issue the variance within two

(2) days of this filing.

Specifically, the Agency recommends that we grant Shell Oil

Company a forty-five

(45)-day provisional variance for three of

its facilities located in Cook County,

in the Chicago

metropolitan statistical area from the Stage II vapor recovery

requirements,

as set forth in 35

Ill. Adm. Code 218.586,

for the

period beginning November

1,

1994,

and continuing for forty-five

(45)-days or until demolition commences at the three facilities,

whichever comes first.

The Agency’s provisional variance recommendation states that

Mobil has requested a provisional variance on behalf of numerous

of its service stations in the Chicago area,

located as follows:

County

City or Village

Street Address

Cook

Arlington Heights

934 S. Arlington Heights Rd

Cook

Arlington Heights

3 West Algonquin Road

Cook

Glenview

200 West Willow Road

Upon receipt of the request, the Agency issued its

recommendation, notifying the Board that the failure to grant the

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2

requested forty-five

(45)—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.

(~

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 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 from 35

Ill. Adm. Code 218.586,

subject to the following conditions:

1.

The term of this provisional variance shall commence on

November

1,

1994,

and continue for forty—five

(45)-days or

until demolition commences at the three facilities,

whichever comes first.

2.

The petitioner shall notify the Agency upon

installation of the Stage II gasoline vapor recovery

equipment, by sending notification addressed as follows:

Mr. Terry Sweitzer, P.E.

Manager, Air Monitoring Section

Illinois Environmental Protection Agency

Division of Air Pollution Control

P.O. Box 19276

Springfield,

Illinois

62794—9276

IT IS SO ORDERED.

I, Dorothy M. Gunn,

Clerk of the Illinois Pollution Control

Bo~rd,~dohereby cert~i~ythat the above order was adopted on the

~

day of

//

~

,

1994,

by a vote of

/

--,~

Control Board