ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
    January 20, 1994
    GRAHAM
    OIL COMPANY,
    )
    )
    Petitioner,
    )
    V.
    )
    PCB 94-33
    )
    (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)), Graham Oil Company has requested
    that the Illinois Enviromnental Protection Agency (Agency)
    recommend that the Board grant a provisional variance to allow
    Graham 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,
    January 18, 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 Graham Oil
    Company a forty-five (45)-day provisional
    variance for its
    facilities located in Lake 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 6, 1994,
    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
    Graham Oil Company has requested a provisional
    variance on behalf
    of its service station in the Chicago
    area, located as follows:
    County
    City or Village
    Street Address
    Lake
    Libertyville
    109 South Milwaukee Avenue
    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 Graham Oil Company facilities is not
    possible by the November 1, 1993 deadline for compliance because
    Dresser Wayne first received CARB approval for its vacuum assist
    vapor recovery equipment on November 12, 1993, and Graham Oil
    2
    Company has contracted for the purchase and installation of this
    equipment, but 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.
    (~
    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
    January 6, 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 N. Gunn, Clerk of the Illinois Pollution Control
    Boards. do hereby cer,-t±-~ythat the above order was adopted on the
    ~‘f
    ~4—
    day of ______________________________, 1994, by a vote of
    /‘/
    /
    1’
    /
    /‘
    ‘~~‘
    ~
    Dorothy M.
    Gufln,
    Clerk
    Illinois Pollution Control Board

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