ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
March 9,
1995
GO FOR IT,
Petitioner,
v.
)
PCB 95—82
(Provisional Variance-Air)
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)),
Go For It has requested that the
Illinois Environmental Protection Agency
(Agency) recommend that
the Board grant a provisional variance to allow Go For It’s
gasoline dispensing operation (service station)
to continue
operating even though it did not install operational vapor
recovery equipment by the expiration of a prior provisional
variance on February
9,
1995.
This provisional variance is being
requested because petitioner’s contractor was not available to
perform the installation at the facility before the compliance
deadline.
The Notification of Recommendation and the request for
a provisional variance were filed with the Board by the Agency on
Tuesday, March 7,
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 Go For It
a forty—five
(45)-day provisional variance for its facility
located at 6401 N. Kedzie Avenue,
Chicago,
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 February
10,
1995 and
continuing for forty-five
(45)-days or until the required vapor
recovery equipment is installed,
whichever comes first.
This recommendation is essentially that the Board extend a
previously-granted forty-five
(45)-day provisional variance that
expired February 9,
1995.
The docket number of the previous
provisional variance was PCB 95-24, granted on January
11,
1995.
That prior provisional variance was itself an extension of the
forty—five
(45)—day provisional variance granted on December
1,
1994
in PCB 94—358.’
1
Section 36(c)
of the Act imposes limitations on the
Board’s ability to extend a provisional variance:
2
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.
(~g415 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.
Adin.
Code 218.586,
subject to the following conditions:
1.
The term of this provisional variance shall commence on
February 10,
1995 and continue for forty—five
(45)-days or
until the required vapor recovery equipment is installed,
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
Any provisional variance granted by the Board pursuant
to subsection
(b) of Section 35 shall be for a period
of time not to exceed 45 days.
Upon receipt of a
recommendation from the Agency to extend this time
period, the Board shall grant up to an additional 45
days.
The provisional variances granted to any one
person shall not exceed a total of 90 days during any
calendar year.
Since the variance granted in PCB 95-24 expired February 9,
1995,
and fewer than ninety
(90) days will have elapsed in this
calendar year by the expiration of the variance requested in the
present petition, the Board interprets Section 36(c)
as allowing
Go For It the Agency-recommended forty-five
(45)-day extension.
3
Springfield,
Illinois
62794—9276
IT IS SO ORDERED.
I, Dorothy M.
Gunn, Clerk of the Illinois Pollution Control
Bo rd
do hereby certify that the above order was adopted on the
______
day of ___________________________,
1995,
by a vote of
AL
Dorothy M.
G,~4~’n,
Clerk
Illinois Po~j/ütion Control Board