ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
    March 2,
    1995
    CAR
    CARE CENTER,
    )
    )
    Petitioner,
    )
    v.
    )
    PCB 95—66
    (Provisional Variance-Air)
    ILLINOIS ENVIRONMENTAL
    )
    PROTECTION AGENCY,
    )
    Respondent.
    ORDER OF THE BOARD
    (by R.C.
    Flemal):
    Pursuant to Section 35(b)
    of the Environmental Protection
    Act
    (Act)
    (415 ILCS 5/35(b)), Car Care Center has requested that
    the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency
    (Agency) recommend
    that the Board grant a provisional variance to allow Car Care
    Center’s gasoline dispensing operation (service station) to
    continue operating even though it did not install operational
    vapor recovery equipment by November
    1,
    1994.
    This provisional
    variance is being requested because petitioner’s contractor was
    not available to perform the installation at the facility 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,
    February 28,
    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 Car Care
    Center a forty—five
    (45)-day provisional variance for its
    facility located at 4410 Northwest Highway, Crystal Lake,
    NcHenry
    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 1,
    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 January 29,
    1995.
    The docket number of the previous
    provisional variance was PCB 95—18, 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—341..’
    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
    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.
    (~
    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
    1,
    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
    Springfield,
    Illinois
    62794—9276
    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 95-18 expired January 29,
    1995,
    and fewer than ninety
    (90) days elapsed in this calendar year,
    the Board interprets Section 36(c)
    as allowing Car Care Center
    the Agency-recommended forty-five
    (45)-day extension.
    3
    IT IS SO ORDERED.
    I,
    Dorothy M.
    Gunn, Clerk of the Illinois Pollution Control
    Boar4,
    do hereby certif~’that the above order was adopted on the
    •~~(4 day of
    //1
    ~
    ,
    1995,
    by a vote of
    ~5-c
    ~
    AL,
    Dorothy M//Gunn, Clerk
    Illinois ~PbllutionControl Board

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