ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
March 31,
1994
STATE OIL COMPANY,
)
)
Petitioner,
)
v.
)
PCB 94—100
)
(Provisional Variance)
ILLINOIS ENVIRONMENTAL
)
PROTECTION AGENCY,
)
)
Respondent.
ORDER OF THE BOARD
(by J. Theodore Meyer):
Pursuant to Section 35(b)
of the Environmental Protection
Act
(Act)
(415 ILCS 5/35(b)), State Oil Company has requested
that the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (Agency)
recommend that the Board grant a provisional variance to allow
State Oil Company’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,
March 29,
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 State Oil
Company a sixteen (16)—day provisional variance for one
(1)
of
its facilities located in Cook County at 9340 Irving Park Road,
Schiller Park,
Illinois 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 March 16,
1994, and continuing for sixteen (16)—days or until the required
vapor recovery equipment
is installed, whichever comes first.1
This recommendation is essentially that the Board extend a
previously-granted forty-five
(45)—day provisional variance that
expired March 15,
1994.
The docket number of the previous
provisional variance was PCB 94—66, granted on February 17,
1994.
That prior provisional variance was itself an extension of the
forty-five
(45)-day provisional variance granted on January
6,
1994
in PCB 94-6.
That prior provisional variance was itself an
‘Petitioner originally
requested
provisional
variances
for
thirteen (13) of its facilities, but the Agency without explanation
recomended
that
the
Board
grant
Petitioner’s
request
for
a
provisional variance only for its facility located in Cook County
at 9340 Irving Park Road,
Schiller Park,
Illinois 60176.
(Agency
Recomendation at 4.)
2
extension of the forty-five (45)-day granted on October 27,
in
PCB
93_198.2
The Agency’s provisional variance recommendation states that
State Oil Company has requested a provisional variance on behalf
of one of its service stations in the Chicago area,
located as
follows:
County
City or Village
Street Address
Cook
Schiller Park
9340 Irving Park Road
Upon receipt of the request, the Agency issued its
recommendation, notifying the Board that the failure to grant the
requested sixteen (16)—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 State Oil Company facilities is not
possible by the November 1, 1993 deadline for compliance because
severe weather conditions have made it impossible to complete the
outdoor activities necessary for the installation of vapor
recovery equipment for its gasoline dispensers,
and 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
2
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
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 variances granted in PCB 94-6 expired January 29,
1994
and PCB 94-66 expired March 15,
1994, and fewer than ninety
(90)
days elapsed in this calendar year,
the Board interprets Section
36(c)
as allowing State Oil Company the Agency—recommended
sixteen
(16)—day extension.
3
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 March 16,
1994, and it shall
expire on the date the petitioner completes
the required installation of vacuum assist
Stage II vapor recovery equipment,
or after
sixteen
(16) 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
Board, do hereby certify that the above order was adopted on the
______
day of ___________________________,
1994, by a vote of
/77
Dorothy M.
n, Clerk
Illinois P
1 ution Control Board