ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
    May 11,
    1995
    UNITED STATES TOBACCO
    )
    MANUFACTURING
    COMPANY,
    )
    Petitioner,
    )
    v.
    )
    PCB
    95—141
    )
    (Provisional Variance-Air)
    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)), United States Tobacco Manufacturing
    Company (USTNC) has requested that the Illinois Environmental
    Protection Agency
    (Agency) recommend that the Board grant a
    provisional variance to allow USTMC’s tobacco processing facility
    to continue operating even though it did not install operational
    emission capture and control equipment by March 15,
    1995.
    This
    provisional variance is being requested because USTMC had
    contracted for the purchase and installation of the air pollution
    emission capture and control equipment at the facility before the
    compliance deadline, but it did not arrive until March 21,
    1995.
    This request for a provisional variance and the Notification of
    Recommendation was filed with the Board by the Agency on Tuesday,
    May 9,
    1995.
    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 USTNC a
    forty—five (45)-day provisional variance for its facility located
    at 11601 Copenhagan Court, Franklin Park, Cook County, Illinois
    from the volatile organic material emissions requirements for
    “Other Emission Units” of the air pollution control requirements,
    as set forth in 35 Iii. Adm. Code 218, Subpart TT, specifically,
    35 Ill.
    Adm. Code 218.986, for the period beginning March 15,
    1995, and continue for forty-five
    (45)—days or until the required
    emission capture and control equipment,
    specifically,
    a
    regenerative thermal oxidizer is installed, 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)
    &
    2
    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 218.986,
    subject to the following conditions:
    1.
    The term of this provisional variance shall commence on
    March 15,
    1995, and continue for forty-five
    (45)—days or
    until the required regenerative thermal oxidizer is
    installed, whichever comes first.
    2.
    The petitioner shall notify the Agency upon
    installation and startup of the regenerative thermal
    oxidizer, by sending notification addressed as follows:
    Mr.
    Brooke
    Peterson
    Bureau of Air
    Illinois Environmental Protection Agency
    2200 Churchill Road,
    P.O. Box 19276
    Springfield, Illinois
    62794—9276
    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
    /j~/—
    day of _____________________________,
    1995,
    by a vote of
    ~
    Dorothy M. G~inn, Clerk
    Illinois P?)Jlution Control Board

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