Defective Nozzles on Gas Pumps Result in Jail Term

In what was described as the first jail term ever meted out for violating Southern California air quality rules, a Long Beach gasoline station owner has been sentenced to two weekends in jail after pleading no-contest to using defective vapor recovery nozzles on his gasoline pumps.

The nozzles are supposed to reduce emissions of smog-producing gasoline vapors by returning them to the service station’s underground fuel tanks when customers are filling their vehicles.

The South Coast Air Quality Management District, which has taken an increasingly tough stance against air pollution, said the sentence, imposed by a Long Beach Municipal Court judge, did not represent a new crackdown on service stations.

Nonetheless, AQMD Executive Officer James M. Lents said Tuesday, “Other polluters now should be on notice that they too could be jailed for repeated violations of air pollution rules.”

Ali Akbar Homayouni, owner of Naples Texaco, 5470 E. 2nd St., Long Beach, had been cited in 1985 and 1986 and was on probation when he was cited in April, 1987.

Deputy Long Beach City Atty. Richard A. Brizendine had asked the court to sentence Homayouni to 30 days in jail, but in a negotiated settlement the court dismissed two of three counts. Homayouni pleaded no-contest to one count.

Homayouni must turn himself in at 5 a.m. on April 23 and spend two consecutive weekends in Long Beach City Jail, Eichhorn said. Homayouni was also placed on two years of probation. He was sentenced April 1 by Long Beach Municipal Judge Gibson Lee.

Homayouni said in an interview that it is difficult to tell when the rubber seals on the nozzles are cut, worn out or otherwise damaged.

“This is such an unfair injustice I can’t even believe it,” he said.

AQMD spokesman Tom Eichhorn said the district was “ecstatic” about the sentence. “Apparently the judge felt it was a flagrant violation, especially in view of the fact we tried to work with the guy,” he said.

Last year the district issued more than 5,250 citations for similar violations. Virtually all of the violations are settled out of court with fines. But in this case, the district said, it asked the city attorney to prosecute because of the service station owner’s repeated violations.

The district has estimated that if vapor recovery systems were in proper working order at all 7,000 service stations in the four-county South Coast Air Basin, 140 tons of hydrocarbons a day would be prevented from entering the atmosphere. The recovery systems were first mandated in 1976.