ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD

November

3,

1994

MOBIL OIL CORPORATION,

)

Petitioner,

v.

)

PCB 94—318

)

(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)), Mobil Oil Corporation

(Mobil) has

requested that the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency

(Agency) recommend that the Board grant a provisional variance to

allow Mobil’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 Petitioner’s contractor is

unable to complete the installation of Stage II gasoline vapor

recovery systems by the November

1,

1994, deadline.

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 Mobil a

forty—five (45)—day provisional

variance for its two facilities

located at the Lincoln Oasis on the Tn-State Toliway,

in Cook

County, Illinois 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 the

required vapor recovery equipment can be installed at the two

facilities, whichever comes first.

Upon receipt of the request, the Agency issued its

recommendation, notifying the Board that the failure to grant the

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

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2

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 the required vapor recovery equipment can be installed

at the two 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

Boar~,dohereby certif

that the above order was adopted on the

______

day of ___________________________,

1994,

by a vote of

~Dorothy

M. ~Guhn, Clerk

Illinois ~(o~ution Control Board