ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
    February 17, 1994
    T.ML. ASSOCIATES, INC.,
    )
    Petitioner,
    )
    v.
    )
    PCB 94—63
    )
    (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)), T.M.L. Associates, Inc. has
    requested that the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency
    (Agency) recommend that the Board grant a provisional variance to
    allow several of T.ML. Associates, Inc.’s gasoline dispensing
    operations (service station) to continue operating even though it
    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, February 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 T.M.L.
    Associates, Inc. a forty—five (45)-day provisional variance for
    its facilities located in Kane County in the Chicago metropolitan
    statistical area from the Stage II vapor recovery requirements,
    as set forth in 35 Ill. Adin. Code 218.586, for the period
    beginning January 30, 1994, and continuing for forty-five (45)
    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 January 29, 1994. The docket number of the previous
    provisional variance was PCB 93—254, granted on December 16,
    1993. That prior provisional variance was itself an extension of
    the forty—five (45)—day provisional variance granted on November
    18, 1993 in PCB 93—224.’
    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
    of time not to exceed 45 days. Upon receipt of a
    2
    The Agency’s provisional variance recommendation states that
    T.M.L. Associates, Inc. has requested a provisional variance on
    behalf of its service stations in the Chicago area, located as
    follows:
    County
    City or Village Street Address
    Kane
    Elburn
    Routes 47 & 38
    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 T.M.L. Associates, Inc. facilities is
    not possible by the November 1, 1993 deadline for compliance
    because T.M.L. Associates, Inc. has contracted for the purchase
    and installation of Hasstech vapor recovery equipment, but that
    equipment and the crews necessary to install it were 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.
    (~
    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
    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 93-224 expired January 29,
    1994, and fewer than ninety (90) days elapsed in this calendar
    year, the Board interprets Section 36(c) as allowing T.M.L.
    Associates, Inc. the Agency-recommended forty-five (45)-day
    extension.
    3
    January 30, 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
    IT IS SO ORDERED.
    I, Dorothy H. Gunn, Clerk of the Illinois Pollution Control
    Board do hereby certify. hat the above order was adopted on the
    /7~
    day of __________________________, 1994, by a vote of
    ,~5L /~J~_~AJ
    Dorothy H. ~1nn, Clerk
    Illinois Po~lutionControl Board

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