ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
    January
    20,
    1994
    MOBIL OIL CORPORATION,
    )
    Petitioner,
    )
    V.
    )
    PCB 94—36
    )
    (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)
    recommend that the Board grant a provisional variance to allow
    Mobil Oil Corporation’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 Mobil Oil
    Corporation a forty—five (45)-day provisional variance for its
    facilities located
    in Cook 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 11,
    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
    Mobil Oil Corporation has requested a provisional variance on
    behalf of its service station in the Chicago area,
    located as
    follows:
    County
    City
    or
    Village
    Street Address
    Cook
    Rolling Meadows
    2101 Hicks 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 installation of Stage
    II
    vapor
    recovery equipment at the Mobil Oil Corporation facilities is not
    possible by the November
    1,
    1993 deadline for compliance because
    CARB approval is still pending for vacuum assist vapor recovery

    2
    equipment for Gilbarco gasoline dispensers having Dresser Wayne
    controls, 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 11,
    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
    Board,
    do hereby cer~t4~fy
    that the above order was adopted on the
    _~‘/~i
    day of _________________________,
    1994,
    by a vote of
    I,
    L
    .
    //
    2-
    /~~
    ~
    •~
    ~
    Dorothy N.
    91&nn, Clerk
    Illinois Pollution Control Board

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