ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
December 1, 1994
AMOCO OIL COMPANY,
)
Petitioner,
)
v.
)
PCB 94—347
)
(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)), Amoco Oil Company (Amoco) has
requested that the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency
(Agency) recommend that the Board grant a provisional variance to
allow several of Amoco’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, 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 Amoco a
forty-five (45)—day provisional variance for six (6) 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 Iii. Adm. Code 218.586, for the
period beginning November 1, 1994, and continuing for forty-five
(45)-days or until the required vapor recovery equipment is
installed, whichever comes first.
The Agency’s provisional variance recommendation states that
Amoco has requested a provisional variance on behalf of numerous
of its service stations in the Chicago area, located as follows:
County
Number of Stations
Cook
4
Will
2
The addresses of those stations are listed as follows:
County
City or Vil1ac~e Street Address
Cook
South Holland
170th & Park
Cook
Chicago
Cicero & Foster
Cook
Chicago
Sheridan & Howard
2
Cook
Lansing
Burnham & Bernice
Will
Cresthill
Plainfield & Canton Farm
Will
Channahon
1-55 & Route 6
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 Amoco facilities was not possible by
the November 1, 1994 deadline for compliance because Amoco has
contracted for the purchase and installation of vacuum assist
vapor recovery equipment, but that the equipment was not
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. (~g 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
November 1, 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 N. Gunn, Clerk of the Illinois Pollution Control
Board, do hereby certify that the above order was adopted on the
/-~4-~ day of
____________________________,
1994, by a vote of
//i
2/u.
Dorothy M.4~unn, Clerk
Illinois ~6llution Control Board