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