ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
October 27,
1993
MOBIL OIL CORPORATION,
)
Petitioner,
v.
)
PCB 93—199
)
(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)), Mobil Oil Corporation has requested
that the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (Agency)
reconutiend that the Board grant a provisional variance to allow
several of Mobil Oil Corporation’s gasoline dispensing operations
(service stations)
to continue operating even though they will
not have installed 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, October 26,
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 Mobil Oil
Corporation a 45-day provisional variance for forty—five
(45)
of
its facilities located in Cook, DuPage, Kendall, and Lake
Counties 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 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
Mobil Oil Corporation 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
23
DuPage
15
Lake
6
Kendall
1
The addresses of those stations are listed as follows:
County
City or Vil1ac~e
Street Address
2
Cook
Alsip
4000 W.
127th Street
Cook
Arlington Heights
3005 E. Rand Road
Cook
Buffalo Grove
1200 W. Dundee Road
Cook
Buffalo Grove
10
W. Dundee Road
Cook
Chicago
4001 W.
Irving Park Road
Cook
Des Plaines
800 W. Oakton Street
Cook
Des Plaines
701 Milwaukee Avenue
Cook
Elk Grove Village
1600 Nerge Road
Cook
Hoffman Estates
1700 W. Algonquin Road
Cook
Hoffman Estates
615 W. Higgins Road
Cook
Hoffman Estates
2595 W. Golf Road
Cook
Hoffman Estates
One W. Golf Road
Cook
Lincoinwood
6777 Lincoln Avenue
Cook
Matteson
4801 W.
211th Street
Cook
Orland Park
14300 96th Avenue
Cook
Palatine
1490 N.
Quentiri Road
Cook
Rosemont
9401 W. Higgins Road
Cook
Schamburg
1180 S. Roselle Road
Cook
Schaumburg
780 E. Schaumburg Road
Cook
Schaumburg
1601 E. Algonquin Road
Cook
Skokie
4002 Dempster Street
Cook
Streamwood
2
S.
Sutton Road
Cook
Western Springs
5500 S. Wolf Road
DuPage
Bloomingdale
102
E. Lake Street
DuPage
Carol Stream
870 W. Army Trail Road
DuPage
Downers Grove
2181 63rd Street
DuPage
Glendale Heights
234 Army Trail Road
DuPage
Itasca
1400 Arlington Heights Road
DuPage
Itasca
1150 W. Irving Park Road
DuPage
Lombard
435 W. Roosevelt Road
DuPage
Naperville
1420 E. Ogden Avenue
DuPage
Naperville
1598 W. Ogden Avenue
DuPage
Naperville
988 South Route 59
DuPage
Naperville
1280 W. Ogden Avenue
DuPage
Naperville
8S080 Route 59
DuPage
Willowbrook
7675 Kingery Highway
DuPage
Wood Dale
100 N. Wood Dale Road
DuPage
Woodridge
1940 75th Street
Kendall
Montgomery
1987 Douglas Avenue
Lake
Buffalo Grove
1248 N. McHenry Road
Lake
Gurnee
6155 W. Grand Avenue
Lake
Lake Bluff
2 Waukegan Road
Lake
Lake Zurich
650 5. Rand Road
Lake
Libertyville
1790 N. Milwaukee Avenue
Lake
Riverwoods
2201 Deerfield Road
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 the Tokheim and Dresser Wayne
equipment chosen by Mobil Oil Corporation for installation at its
3
facilities
is in the final stages of obtaining but has not yet
received California Air Resources Board
(CARB)
approval.
The
recommendation states that the installation of CARB-approved
equipment of a different type on a temporary basis would cost
Mobil Oil Corporation about $9,000 per gasoline service station
location ($792,000 total).
The recommendation further states
that the equipment chosen by Mobil Oil Corp. will soon obtain
CARB approval and be available for installation, but that it is
impossible for Mobil Oil Corporation to meet the November
1,
1993
deadline for compliance due to the lack of the now-imminent
CARB
approval for the chosen equipment.’
The Agency’s recommendation specifically recommends that the
Board deny any provisional variance as to stations planning to
install vapor recovery systems for Bennett dispensers and
Gilbarco dispensers with Dresser Wayne controls.
The Agency’s
recommendation does not itself list which of the various stations
it recommends a grant and as to which it recommends a denial of
the provisional variance.
Rather, the recommendation directs the
Board’s attention to lengthy listings of stations for which Mobil
Oil Corporation has requested a provisional variance.
(Agency
Recommendation, Attachment 5.)
This has caused the Board to
exclude those listed stations indicated for Bennett dispensers
and Gilbarco dispensers with Dresser Wayne controls.
The
listings also included stations stating that they would be in
compliance by November
1,
1993.
The Board accordingly also
excluded those stations.
In sum, the Board included only forty-
five
(45)
of the total of ninety-eight
(98) stations in the
listings.
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.
(~g~
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,
The Agency’s recommendation also states
that
34
of
the
stations involved in this provisional variance are also involved in
a petition for a regular variance now pending before the Board as
PCB 93—166,
filed September 7,
1993.
4
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
3.
Operations using Dresser Wayne or Tokheim dispensers
must install vacuum assist Stage II vapor recovery equipment
as soon as it becomes available.
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
~27~
day of ___________________________,
1993,
by a vote of
~
)L~
Dorothy M. Øunn,
Clerk
Illinois P~thlutionControl Board