ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
    December 1, 1994
    MICHAEL OIL COMPANY,
    )
    )
    Petitioner,
    )
    v.
    )
    PCB 94—339
    )
    (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)), Michael Oil Company has requested
    that the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (Agency)
    recommend that the Board grant a provisional variance to allow
    Michael Oil Company’s gasoline dispensing operation to continue
    operating even though it did not install operational vapor
    recovery equipment by November 1, 1994. This provisional
    variance is being requested because petitioners contractor was
    unable to perform the installation at the facility before the
    compliance deadline. This is because it is awaiting approval of a
    corrective action plan for a soil remediation project to be
    performed in conjunction with the vapor recovery equipment
    installation. This request for a provisional variance and the
    Notification of Recommendation was filed with the Board by the
    Agency on Tuesday, November 29, 1994. 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 Michael
    Oil Company a forty-five (45)-day provisional variance for its
    facility located at 221 Ash Street, New Lenox, Will County,
    Illinois in the Chicago metropolitan statistical area from the
    Stage II vapor recovery requirements, as set forth in 35 Iii.
    Adm. Code 218.586, for the period beginning November 4, 1994, and
    continuing for forty—five (45)-days or until corrective action
    can be performed and the required vapor recovery equipment 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) &
    36(c)). In provisional variances it is the responsibility of the
    2
    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. Adin. Code 218.586,
    subject to the following conditions:
    1. The term of this provisional variance shall commence on
    November 4, 1994, and continue for forty—five (45)-days or
    until corrective action can be performed and 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~ythat the above order was adopted on the
    ~
    day of
    _____________________________,
    1994, by a vote of
    .,
    Clerk
    lution Control Board

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