ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD

January 11,

1995

GAS STOP,

)

Petitioner,

)

v.

)

PCB 95—23

(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)), Gas Stop has requested that the

Illinois Environmental Protection Agency

(Agency) recommend that

the Board grant a provisional variance to allow Gas Stop’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, 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 Gas Stop a

forty-five (45)-day provisional variance for its facility located

at 901 N. Pulaski Street,

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 December 16,

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 15,

1994.

The docket number of the previous provisional variance was

PCB 94—366, granted on December 1,

1994.

Upon receiptof 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 218.586,

subject to the following conditions:

1.

The term of this provisional variance shall commence on

December 16,

1994, 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

IT IS SO ORDERED.

I, Dorothy M.

Gunn, Clerk of the Illinois Pollution Control

Board,

do hereby certi. y

hat the above order was adopted on the

//Li~.-~

clay

of

-~---

,

1995, by a vote of

~

4~_i

~

J-1~orothyM. G~i1~h,Clerk

Illinois PoJ4tion

Control Board