ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
    February 17,
    1994
    DELTA SONIC CARWASH SYSTEMS,
    )
    INC.,
    )
    Petitioner,
    )
    v.
    )
    PCB 94—67
    )
    (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)), Delta Sonic Carwash Systems,
    Inc.
    has requested that the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency
    (Agency) recommend that the Board grant a provisional variance to
    allow several of Delta Sonic Carwash Systems,
    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 Delta
    Sonic Carwash Systems,
    Ipc.
    a forty-five
    (45)-day provisional
    variance for its facilities located in Cook County 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 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 94—7, granted on January
    6,
    1994.
    That prior provisional variance was itself an extension of the
    forty—five (45)—day provisional variance granted on November 18,
    1993 in PCB 93_218.1
    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
    Delta Sonic Carwash Systems, Inc. has requested a provisional
    variance on behalf of its service station in the Chicago area,
    located as follows:
    County
    City or Village
    Street Address
    Cook
    Tinley Park
    159th
    & Oak Park Drive
    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 Delta Sonic Carwash Systems,
    Inc.
    facilities is not possible by the November 1,
    1993 deadline for
    compliance because Tokheim is in the last stages of
    CARB
    approval
    for vacuum assist vapor recovery equipment for its gasoline
    dispensers, and that 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.
    (~ç~
    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
    Iii. Adm. Code 218.586,
    subject to the following conditions:
    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 94—7 expired January 29,
    1994, and
    fewer than ninety
    (90) days elapsed in this calendar year, the
    Board interprets Section 36(c)
    as allowing Delta Sonic Carwash
    Systems, Inc. the Agency-recommended forty—five (45)-day
    extension.
    3
    1.
    The term of this provisional variance shall commence on
    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 M. Gunn,
    Clerk of the Illinois Pollution Control
    Boar
    do hereby certi
    that the above order was adopted on the
    ______
    day of ___________________________,
    1994, by a vote of
    Control Board

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