ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
    March 16,
    1995
    ALAMO RENT-A-CAR,
    INC.,
    Petitioner,
    V.
    )
    PCB 95—92
    (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)), Alamo Rent-A-Car,
    Inc.
    (Alamo) has
    requested that the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency
    (Agency) recommend that the Board grant a provisional variance to
    allow Alamo’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 January 29,
    1995.
    This provisional variance
    is being
    requested because petitioner has contracted for the purchase and
    installation of vacuum assist vapor recovery equipment,
    but that
    the equipment was not available before the compliance deadline.
    This request for a provisional variance and the Notification of
    Recommendation was filed with the Board by the Agency on Tuesday,
    March 14,
    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 Alamo a
    forty—five
    (45)—day provisional variance for its facility located
    at 6525 South Cicero 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 16,
    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 5,
    1995.
    The docket number of the previous
    provisional variance was PCB 95-13, 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,
    2
    1994 in PCB 94-~353’
    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)
    &
    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
    February 16,
    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:
    Section 36(c)
    of the Act imposes limitations on the
    Board’s ability to extend a provisional variance:
    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 95-13 expired February
    5,
    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
    Alamo the Agency—recommended forty—four
    (44)—day extension.
    3
    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
    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
    ~
    /~
    ,
    1995,
    by a vote of
    /)
    ~
    ~
    Dorothy M.
    Gu~iji~,
    Clerk
    Illinois Pollution Control Board

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