ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
December 16, 1993
THE HERTZ CORPORATION,
)
)
Petitioner,
)
v.
)
PCB 93—251
)
(Provisional Variance)
ILLINOIS ENVIRONMENTAL
)
PROTECTION AGENCY,
)
)
Respondent.
ORDER OF THE BOARD (by C. A. Manning):
Pursuantto Section 35(b) of the Environmental Protection
Act (Act) (415 ILCS 5/35(b)), The Hertz Corporation has requested
that the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (Agency)
recommend that the Board grant a provisional variance to allow
The Hertz Corporation’s gasoline dispensing operations (service
station) to continue operating even though it did not install
operational vapor recovery equipment by November 1, 1993. Such
request for a provisional variance and the Notification of
Recommendation was filed with the Board by the Agency on Tuesday,
December 14, 1993. Pursuant to Section 35(b) of the Act, the
Board must issue the variance within two (2) days of this filing.
This recommendation is essentially that the Board extend a
previously—granted provisional variance that expired December 15,
1993. The docket number of the previous provisional variance was
PCB 93—217, granted on November 18, 1993.
Specifically, the Agency recommends that we grant The Hertz
Corporation a forty-five (45)-day provisional variance for 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 December 16, 1993, and continuing for forty-five (45)
days or until the required vapor recovery equipment is installed,
whichever comes first.
The Agency’s provisional variance recommendation states that
The Hertz Corporation has requested a provisional variance on
behalf of its service station in the Chicago area, located as
follows:
CountY
City or Village Street Address
Cook
Chicago
O’Hare Airport
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
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an arbitrary or unreasonable hardship on Petitioner. The Agency
recommendation states that installation of Stage II vapor
recovery equipment at the The Hertz Corporation facilities is not
possible by the November 1, 1993 deadline for compliance because
The Hertz Corporation has been unable to contract for the
purchase and installation of vapor recovery equipment because
numerous contractors withdrew their bids during the bidding, thus
the crews necessary to install it were not available before the
December 16, 1993 compliance deadline.
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) &
(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
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
December 16, 1993, and it shall expire on the date the
Petitioner completes the required installation of vacuum
assist Stage II vapor recovery equipment, or after forty—
five (45) days have elapsed, whichever comes first;
2. The Petitioner shall notify the Agency of the
installation of the 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
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IT IS SO ORDERED.
I, Dorothy M. Gunn, Clerk of the Illinois Pollution Control
Board, do hereby certify that the above order was adopted on the
~
day of
,
1993, by a vote of
7-O
Control Board