AQMD Finds Gas Station Violations

An audit of smog control equipment at Southern California’s gas stations has found that nearly 40% of stations are violating air quality regulations that require them to prevent smog-forming fumes from escaping from gas pumps into the air.

Officials of the South Coast Air Quality Management District, who conducted the audit, say the violations have led to excessive emissions of smog components as well as exposing people pumping gas to toxic fumes.

The violations are believed to have occurred after the AQMD reduced gas station inspections in 1995 and instituted an honor system that relies on oil companies and station owners to police their pollution control equipment, known as vapor recovery devices, and fix any malfunctions.

“Clearly, the honor system didn’t work as well as we had hoped,” said AQMD spokesman Bill Kelly.

“We believe the audit shows there is a significant noncompliance in this industry, and we will be in the process of working with the industry over the next several weeks to bring this problem under control,” said Jack Broadbent, the AQMD’s assistant deputy executive officer.

“The vapor recovery program is one of the most critical programs we rely on here,” he said.

A spokeswoman for the Western States Petroleum Assn. said that while “we are really disappointed with the level of the problems,” many of the violations are of a technical nature and do not affect emissions.

“It’s things like not having the right telephone number for the AQMD on a gas pump or a failure to keep adequate records,” said Courtney Perry, an external affairs representative of the association.

“We think the self-inspection program still has merit, and we want to work with the district to tighten up compliance and work out the kinks,” Perry said.

However, the AQMD’s Kelly said the audit found “major defects that resulted in excessive emissions.” And he said the agency’s staff would recommend to the board a return to the original inspection system.

The disclosure of the audit findings Thursday coincided with the filing of a long-threatened lawsuit by three environmental organizations accusing the AQMD of retreating from its legal obligation to eliminate unhealthful levels of smog by 2010.

The suit, brought by the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Coalition for Clean Air and Communities for a Better Environment, charges the AQMD and the California Air Resources Board with reneging on more than 30 anti-smog measures that were adopted by the agency to comply with the national Clean Air Act.

The suit does not cite the gas station violations, but NRDC lawyer Gail Ruderman Feurer said that the issue is part of the overall set of circumstances that prompted environmentalists to go to court.

“This is an agency in retreat, and their rollback on gasoline fume protection is just part of a greater problem of rolling back a lot of rules that clean up our air.”

The pollution-trapping vapor recovery systems were first required in California in 1976 and are regarded as among the most effective air pollution control measures ever adopted by the air district.

In 1995, after a downsizing that trimmed the AQMD staff by nearly 30%, agency officials scaled back inspections and put in place the current system of voluntary compliance in the region’s 4,200 gas stations.

The audit, which surveyed 400 stations, found fault with the operations of recovery systems at 37% of the locations.

“We have not seen that level of noncompliance in the past,” said Broadbent in reference to the period when the AQMD was relying solely on its own inspectors.

When it is working right, the AQMD’s regionwide vapor recovery program is designed to capture about 95% of the smog-forming chemicals known as volatile organic compounds produced at the gas pump.

Gas stations account for about one-fifth of all such compounds produced in the region, according to the AQMD. In other words, without controls at the pump, gas stations would be releasing about 200 tons a day of the compounds. When the system is working properly, all but 15 tons a day are trapped by a collar that fits around the nozzle and captures evaporating fumes before they can get into the air.

Agency officials said Thursday that the defects varied from station to station, as did the level of escaping pollution. “We think that the total emissions resulting from the problems will be closer to 15 tons a day than to 200,” said Kelly

And despite the audit’s findings, AQMD officials point out that the region is experiencing its most smog-free year in four decades.

The environmentalists who sued the agency Thursday counter that Southern California remains the smoggiest region in the country and argue that the current leadership is backing away from the AQMD’s historic commitment to clean air.

“Our concern is that the board has decided that we’ve made enough progress even though our air is still the dirtiest in the country,” said the the Natural Resources Defense Council’s Ruderman Feurer.