ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD

January 20, 1994

SUPERAMERICA GROUP, INC.,

)

Petitioner,

)

PCB 94—37

(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)), SuperAmerica Group, Inc. has

requested that the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency

(Agency) recommend that the Board grant a provisional variance to

allow several of SuperAmerica Group, Inc.’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, 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

SuperAmerica Group, Inc. a forty—five (45)—day provisional

variance for seven (7) of its facilities located in three (3)

Counties in the Chicago metropolitan statistical area from the

Stage II vapor recovery requirements, as set forth in 35 Iii.

Adm. Code 218.586, for the period beginning January 5, 1994, and

continuing for forty-five (45) days or until the required vapor

recovery equipment is installed, whichever comes first.

This recommendation is essentially that the Board extend a

previously—granted provisional variance that expired November 16,

1993. The docket number of the previous provisional variance was

PCB 93-223, granted on November 18, 1993.

The Agency’s provisional variance recommendation states that

SuperAmerica Group, Inc. 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                 

5

DuPage                 

1

Lake                  

1

2

The addresses of those stations are listed as follows:

County   

City or Village Street Address

Cook    

Arlington Heights 1021 North Rand Road

Cook    

Des Plaines   

855 East Toughy Avenue

Cook    

Hickory Hills   

8000 West 95th Street

Cook    

Lyons       

8716 Ogden Avenue

Cook    

Orland Park   

15301 South Harlem Avenue

DuPage   

Glen Ellyn    

22W275 N Avenue

Lake    

Deerfield    

1010 North 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 SuperAmerica Group, Inc. facilities is

not possible by the November 1, 1993 deadline for compliance

because Tokheim is in the last stages of CARB approval for vacuum

assist vapor recovery equipment for its gasoline dispensers, so

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 5, 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

3

Illinois Environmental Protection Agency

Division of Air Pollution Control

P.O. Box 19276

Springfield, Illinois 62794—9276

IT IS SO ORDERED.

I, Dorothy H. Gunn, Clerk of the Illinois Pollution Control

Board~do hereby certif~ that the above order was adopted on the

day of __________________________, 1994, by a vote of

Dorothy M.

Illinois

Clerk

ution Control Board