ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
    January 11,
    1995
    SHELL OIL COMPANY,
    )
    Petitioner,
    )
    v.
    )
    PCB 95—35
    )
    (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)),
    Shell Oil Company has requested
    that the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency
    (Agency)
    recommend that the Board grant a provisional variance allow
    several of Shell Oil Company’s gasoline dispensing operations
    (service stations)
    to continue operating even though it will not
    install operational vapor recovery equipment by November
    1,
    1994.
    This provisional variance is being requested because the stations
    will be demolished, and will be rebuilt and equipped with Stage
    II gasoline vapor recovery equipment during the rebuild.
    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 Shell Oil
    Company a forty-five (45)—day provisional variance for three of
    its facilities located in Cook County,
    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 demolition commences at the three facilities,
    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—319, granted on November 3,
    1994.
    The Agency’s provisional variance recommendation states that
    Mobil has requested a provisional variance on behalf of numerous
    of its service stations in the Chicago area,
    located as follows:
    County
    City or Village
    Street Address
    Cook
    Arlington Heights
    934
    S. Arlington Heights Rd
    Cook
    Arlington Heights
    3 West Algonquin Road
    2
    Cook
    Glenview
    200 West Willow Road
    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
    December 16,
    1994,
    and continue for forty—five (45)—days or
    until demolition commences at the three facilities,
    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
    3
    IT IS SO ORDERED.
    I, Dorothy N. Gunn,
    Clerk of the Illinois Pollution Control
    Board, do hereby
    that the above order was adopted on the
    /f~
    day of
    1995, by a vote of
    ~
    A_~
    /(_i&~-’
    Dorothy N. qunn,
    Clerk
    Illinois POllution Control Board

    Back to top