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

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