ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
    December 16, 1993
    GRAHAM
    OIL COMPANY,
    )
    Petitioner,
    )
    v.
    )
    PCB 93—253
    )
    (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 Environmental Protection Agency (Agency)
    recommend that the Board grant a provisional variance to allow
    several of Graham Oil Company’s gasoline dispensing operations
    (service stations) to continue operating even though they 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,
    December 14, 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 Graham Oil
    Company a forty-five (45)-day provisional variance for four (4)
    of its facilities located in two (2) Counties 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 29, 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
    Graham Oil Company 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
    2
    Lake
    2
    The addresses of those stations are listed as follows:
    County
    City or Village Street Address
    Cook
    Glenview
    750 Waukegan Road
    Cook
    Skokie
    5343 Touhy Avenue
    Lake
    Mundelein
    209 North Lake Street
    2
    Lake
    Waukegan
    2400 Grand 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
    vapor recovery equipment for its gasoline dispensers 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
    November 29, 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 certi )Y that the above order was adopted on the
    /~“~
    day of
    ,
    1993, by a vote of
    Dorothy N.
    Illinois P’
    Control Board

    Back to top