ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
    January
    6,
    1994
    SCOTT’S
    UNOCAL
    76,
    INC.,
    )
    )
    Petitioner,
    )
    v.
    )
    PCB 94—10
    )
    (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)), Scott’s TJnocal
    76,
    Inc. has
    requested that the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency
    (Agency) recommend that the Board grant a provisional variance to
    allow Scott’s Unocal 76, 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 by fax on
    Tuesday, January 4,
    1994,
    followed by a hard copy on Wednesday,
    January
    5,
    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 Scott’s
    Unocal
    76,
    Inc.
    a forty-five (45)-day provisional variance for
    its facility located in McHenry County in the Chicago
    metropolitan statistical area from the Stage II vapor recovery
    requirements,
    as set forth in 35
    Ill.
    Adlu.
    Code 218.586, for the
    period beginning December 16,
    1993,
    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 provisional variance that expired December 15,
    1993.
    The docket number of the previous provisional variance was
    PCB 93-240, granted on December 2,
    1993.
    The Agency’s provisional variance recommendation states that
    Scott’s Unocal 76,
    Inc.
    has requested a provisional variance on
    behalf of numerous of its service stations in the Chicago area,
    located as follows:
    County
    City or Village
    Street Address
    McHenry
    Algonquin
    2150 East Algonquin Road
    Upon receipt of the request, the Agency issued its
    recommendation,
    notifying the Board that the failure to grant the
    2
    requested forty—five
    (45)—day provisional variance would impose
    an arbitrary or unreasonable hardship on Petitioner.
    The Agency
    recommendation states that installation of Stage II vapor
    recovery equipment at the Scott’s Unocal 76,
    Inc. facilities is
    not possible by the November
    1,
    1993 deadline for compliance
    because Scott’s Unocal 76,
    Inc. has contracted for the purchase
    and installation of Hasstech vapor recovery equipment, but CARB—
    approved Hasstech vapor recovery equipment and the crews
    necessary to install it was not available before the compliance
    deadline.
    The recommendation further states that Scott’s Unocal
    76,
    Inc.
    is presently unable to pay for the equipment even if it
    were immediately available.
    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)
    &
    (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
    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
    December 16,
    1993,
    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 M. Gunn, Clerk of the Illinois Pollution Control
    Board, do hereby
    ci
    that the above order was adopted on the
    ~
    day of
    ,
    1994,
    by
    a vote of
    Dorothy M. 9i~n,Clerk
    Illinois Po~4utionControl Board

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