ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
    October 20, 1994
    MOBIL OIL CORPORATION,
    )
    Petitioner,
    v.
    )
    PCB 94—294
    )
    (Provisional Variance)
    ILLINOIS ENVIRONMENTAL
    )
    PROTECTION AGENCY,
    )
    )
    Respondent.
    ORDER OF THE BOARD (by N. McFawn):
    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 several of Mobil’s gasoline dispensing operations (service
    stations) to continue operating even though they will not install
    operational vapor recovery equipment by November 1, 1994. Such
    request for a provisional variance and the Notification of
    Recommendation was filed with the Board by the Agency on Tuesday,
    October 18, 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 seven of its
    facilities located in three (3) counties in the Chicago
    metropolitan statistical area from the Stage II vapor recovery
    requirements, as set forth in 35 Ill. Adni. Code 218.586, for the
    period beginning November 1, 1994, 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
    Mobil has requested a provisional variance on behalf of numerous of
    its service stations in the Chicago area, located as follows:
    County
    Number of Stations
    Cook
    2
    DuPage
    4
    Lake
    1
    The addresses of those stations are listed as follows:
    County
    City or Village
    Street Address
    Cook
    Riverdale
    359 W. 144th Street
    Cook
    Evanston
    2966 Central Street
    DuPage
    Bartlett
    7N120 Route 59
    2
    DuPage
    Naperville
    1304 Plainfield
    DuPage
    Lisle
    5500 Route 53
    DuPage
    Wheaton
    1000 E. Roosevelt Road
    Lake
    Waukegan
    506 washington Street
    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. The Agency
    recommendation states that installation of Stage II vapor recovery
    equipment at the Mobil facilities is not possible by the November
    1, 1994 deadline for compliance because Mobil has contracted for
    the purchase and installation of Dresser Wayne vacuum assist vapor
    recovery equipment, but that equipment and the crews necessary to
    install it will not be available before the 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. (See 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 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
    3
    IT IS SO ORDERED.
    I, Dorothy N. Gunn, Clerk of the Illinois Pollution Control
    Board, do hereby cextify that the above order was adopted on the
    ~
    day of
    ,y~
    ,
    1994, by a vote of
    ~
    Dorothy M. ~inn, Clerk
    Illinois Pollution Control Board

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