ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
    October 20, 1994
    AMOCO OIL COMPANY,
    )
    O’HARE
    TERMINAL,
    )
    )
    Petitioner,
    )
    V.
    )
    PCB 94—298
    )
    (Provisional Variance)
    ILLINOIS ENVIRONMENTAL
    PROTECTION AGENCY,
    )
    Respondent.
    ORDER OF THE BOARD (by M. McFawn):
    Pursuant to Section 35(b) of the Environmental Protection
    Act (Act) (415 ILCS 5/35(b)), Amoco Oil Company (Amoco) has
    requested that the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency
    (Agency) recommend that the Board grant a provisional variance to
    allow Amoco to hydrostatically test a new aboveground storage
    tank. Such request for a provisional variance and the
    Notification of Recommendation was filed with the Board by the
    Agency on Wednesday, October 19, 1994. Pursuant to Section 35(b)
    of the Act, the Board must issue the variance within two (2) days
    of this filing.
    Pursuant to Section 35(b) of the Environmental Protection
    Act (Act) (415 ILCS 5/35(b)), the Illinois Environmental
    Protection Agency (Agency), by and through its Director, Mary A.
    Gade, seeks a provisional variance for Amoco in order to allow
    Amoco to hydrostatically test a new aboveground storage tank.
    Specifically, the Agency recommends that we grant Amoco a
    forty-five (45)-day provisional variance for its Cook County
    facility from the effluent requirements, as set forth in 35 Ill.
    Adm. Code 304.141(b), for the period from when the petitioner
    begins discharging the water used for the hydrostatical test, and
    continuing until the petitioner completes the discharge
    procedures, but not for longer than 45 days.
    The Agency recommends that the Board grant the requested
    provisional variance with specified conditions. The Agency
    agrees that the repairs are necessary. The Agency anticipates
    that the requested provisional variance would have minimal
    environmental impact on the receiving stream. The Agency is
    unaware of any public water supplies that the requested
    provisional variance would adversely impact. The Agency
    maintains that a grant of a provisional variance would violate no
    federal laws. The Agency finds that a denial of the requested
    provisional variance would create an arbitrary or unreasonable
    hardship on the petitioner.
    2
    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 finding 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 304.141(b), on the
    following conditions:
    1. The term of this provisional variance shall commence
    when the petitioner, Amoco, begins discharging the water
    used for the hydrostatical test, and continue until the
    petitioner completes the discharge procedures, but not for
    longer than 45 days, whichever comes first;
    2. The petitioner shall notify Robert Sulski of the
    Agency’s Maywood Regional office by telephone, at (708)531—
    5900, when the water used to hydro test the new storage tank
    begins to be discharged and again when the process is
    complete. The petitioner shall confirm this notice in
    writing within five (5) days, addressed as follows:
    Illinois Environmental Protection Agency
    Division of Water Pollution Control
    Compliance Assurance Section
    2200 Churchill Road
    P.O. Box 19276
    Springfield, Illinois 62794—9276
    Attention: Mark T. Books
    3. During the term of this provisional variance,
    Petitioner shall be in compliance with its NPDES permit
    limits (1L0034347).
    The petitioner shall execute a copy of a Certificate of
    Acceptance of this provisional variance and forward that copy to
    the Agency addressed as is the written notice required in the
    above condition; the petitioner shall forward that copy within
    ten (10) days of the date of this order of the Board, and the
    Certificate of Acceptance shall take the following form:
    3
    CERTIFICATION
    I (We),
    hereby accept and agree to be bound by all terms
    and conditions of the order of the Pollution
    Control Board in PCB 94-298, October 20, 1994.
    Petitioner
    Authorized Agent
    Title
    Date
    IT IS SO ORDERED.
    I, Dorothy M. Gunn, Clerk of the Illinois Pollution Control
    Board, do hereby certify ~j,hat,the above order was adopted on the
    ~‘~CZ~ day of ____________________________, 1994, by a vote of
    ~
    Dorothy M.4~unn,
    )?‘~
    Clerk
    /S~~~J
    Illinois ~jlution Control Board

    Back to top