ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
    January 11, 1995
    FEDERAL EXPRESS,
    )
    )
    Petitioner,
    V.
    )
    PCB 95—22
    (Provisional Variance)
    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)), Federal Express has requested that
    the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (Agency) recommend
    that the Board grant a provisional variance to allow two of
    Federal Express’s gasoline dispensing operations to continue
    operating even though they did not install operational vapor
    recovery equipment by November 1, 1994. Such request for a
    provisional variance and the Notification of Recommendation was
    filed with the Board by the Agency on Tuesday, January 10, 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 Federal
    Express a forty-five (45)-day provisional variance for two of its
    facilities located in two (2) counties 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 December 31, 1994, 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 provisional variance that expired December 30,
    1994. The docket number of the previous provisional variance was
    PCB 94—349, granted on December 1, 1994.
    The Agency’s provisional variance recommendation states that
    Federal Express has requested a provisional variance on behalf of
    two of its gasoline dispensing facilities in the Chicago area,
    located as follows:
    County
    Number of Stations
    Cook
    1
    McHenry
    1
    The addresses of those stations are listed as follows:
    2
    County
    City or Village Street Address
    Cook
    Skokie
    3747 Howard Street
    McHenry
    Cary
    721 Industrial Drive
    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. The
    Agency recommendation states that installation of Stage II vapor
    recovery equipment at the Federal Express facilities was not
    possible by the November 1, 1994 deadline for compliance because
    petitioner is awaiting State Fire Marshal’s inspection at the
    facilities and has contracted for the installation of vacuum
    assist vapor recovery equipment, but the crews necessary to
    install it were not be available before the compliance deadline.
    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. Adnt. Code 218.586,
    subject to the following conditions:
    1. The term of this provisional variance shall commence on
    December 31, 1994 and it shall expire on the date the
    petitioner completes the required installation of vacuum
    assist Stage II vapor recovery equipment, or after forty—
    five (45)—days have elapsed, whichever comes first;
    2. The petitioner shall notify the Agency of the
    installation of the 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
    3
    IT IS SO ORDERED.
    I, Dorothy M. Gunn, Clerk of the Illinois Pollution Control
    Board, do hereby c
    that the above order was adopted on the
    /7~-
    day of
    1995, by a vote of
    ~c~:2.
    Dorothy M. G~1nn, Clerk
    Illinois
    Pc1Jz~Lution Control Board

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