ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
    March 17, 1994
    MARATHON OIL COMPANY,
    )
    )
    Petitioner,
    )
    v.
    )
    PCB 94—87
    )
    (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)), Marathon Oil has requested that the
    Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (Agency) recommend that
    the Board grant a provisional variance to allow several of
    Marathon Oil’s gasoline dispensing operations (service stations)
    to continue operating even though they did not install
    operational vapor recovery equipment by November 1, 1993. Such
    request for a provisional variance and the Notification of
    Recommendation was filed with the Board by the Agency on Tuesday,
    March 15, 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 Marathon
    Oil a sixteen (16)—day provisional variance for seven of its
    facilities located in four (4) counties 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 March 16, 1994, and continuing for sixteen (16)
    days or until the required vapor recovery equipment is installed,
    whichever comes first.
    This recommendation is essentially that the Board extend a
    previously-granted forty-five (45)-day provisional variance that
    expired March 15, 1994. The docket number of the previous
    provisional variance was PCB 94—69, granted on February 17, 1994.
    That prior provisional variance was an extension of the forty—
    five (45)-day provisional variance granted on January 6, 1994 in
    PCB 94—5. That prior provisional variance was itself an extension
    of the forty-five (45)-day provisional variance granted on
    October 27, 1993 in PCB 93—200.’
    1 Section 36(c) of the Act imposes limitations on the
    Board’s ability to extend a provisional variance:
    Any provisional variance granted by the Board pursuant
    to subsection (b) of Section 35 shall be for a period
    2
    The Agency’s provisional variance recommendation states that
    Marathon Oil 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
    Kane
    1
    McHenry
    1
    Will
    1
    The addresses of those stations are listed as follows:
    County
    City or Village Street Address
    Cook
    Des Plaines
    10 W. Golf Road
    Cook
    Rolling Meadows 4200 Kirchoff Road
    Cook
    Northbrook
    1795 Schermer Road
    Cook
    Hanover Park
    1260 Lake Street
    Kane
    Aurora
    1795 N. Farnsworth
    McHenry
    McHenry
    4608 W. Crystal Lake Road
    Will
    Joliet
    Glenwood & Republic
    Upon receipt of the request, the Agency issued its
    recommendation, notifying the Board that the failure to grant the
    requested sixteen (16)—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 Marathon Oil facilities is not possible
    by the November 1, 1993 deadline for compliance because CARB-
    approved vacuum vapor recovery equipment is not yet available for
    Toliheim gasoline dispensers.
    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) &
    of time not to exceed 45 days. Upon receipt of a
    recommendation from the Agency to extend this time
    period, the Board shall grant up to an additional 45
    days. The provisional variances granted to any one
    person shall not exceed a total of 90 days during any
    calendar year.
    Since the variance granted in PCB 94-5 expired January 29, 1994
    and PCB 94-69 expired March 15, 1994, and fewer than ninety (90)
    days elapsed in this calendar year, the Board interprets Section
    36(c) as allowing Marathon Oil the Agency-recommended sixteen
    (16) -day extension.
    3
    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. Adiu. Code 218.586,
    subject to the following conditions:
    1. The term of this provisional variance shall commence on
    March 16, 1994 and it shall expire on the date the
    petitioner completes the required installation of vacuum
    assist Stage II vapor recovery equipment, or after sixteen
    (16) 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
    IT IS SO ORDERED.
    I, Dorothy M. Gunn, Clerk of the Illinois Pollution Control
    Board do hereby certify that the above order was adopted on the
    jL
    day of ___________________________, 1994, by a vote of
    ~,.‘,
    ~-
    __/
    Dorothy M. G,i~thn, Clerk
    Illinois Pq~ution Control Board

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