ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD

December 2, 1993

GAS MART,

Petitioner,

V.

)

PCB 93—243

)

(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)), Gas Mart has requested that the

Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (Agency) recommend that

the Board grant a provisional variance to allow Gas Mart’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, November 30, 1993.

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 Gas Mart 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 November

1, 1993, 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

Gas Mart 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

Posen

2700 West 147th Street

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 Petitioner. The Agency

recommendation states that installation of Stage II vapor

recovery equipment at the Gas Mart facilities is not possible by

the November 1, 1993 deadline for compliance because vapor

recovery equipment was not available before the compliance

deadline.

---

2

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

November 1, 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

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

~

day of _________________________, 1993, by a vote of

/

Dorothy N. Gunn, Clerk

Illinois Pollution Control Board