41954
. (a) The state board shall adopt procedures for determining
the compliance of any system designed for the control of gasoline
vapor emissions during gasoline marketing operations, including
storage and transfer operations, with performance standards that are
reasonable and necessary to achieve or maintain any applicable
ambient air quality standard.
(b) The state board shall, after a public hearing, adopt
additional performance standards that are reasonable and necessary to
ensure that systems for the control of gasoline vapors resulting
from motor vehicle fueling operations do not cause excessive gasoline
liquid spillage and excessive evaporative emissions from liquid
retained in the dispensing nozzle or vapor return hose between
refueling events, when used in a proper manner. To the maximum extent
practicable, the additional performance standards shall allow
flexibility in the design of gasoline vapor recovery systems and
their components.
(c) (1) The state board shall certify, in cooperation with the
districts, only those gasoline vapor control systems that it
determines will meet the following requirements, if properly
installed and maintained:
(A) The systems will meet the requirements of subdivision (a).
(B) With respect to any system designed to control gasoline vapors
during vehicle refueling, that system, based on an engineering
evaluation of that system's component qualities, design, and test
performance, can be expected, with a high degree of certainty, to
comply with that system's certification conditions over the warranty
period specified by the board.
(C) With respect to any system designed to control gasoline vapors
during vehicle refueling, that system shall be compatible with
vehicles equipped with onboard refueling vapor recovery (ORVR)
systems.
(2) The state board shall enumerate the specifications used for
issuing the certification. After a system has been certified, if
circumstances beyond the control of the state board cause the system
to no longer meet the required specifications or standards, the state
board shall revoke or modify the certification.
(d) The state board shall test, or contract for testing, gasoline
vapor control systems for the purpose of determining whether those
systems may be certified.
(e) The state board shall charge a reasonable fee for
certification, not to exceed its actual costs therefor. Payment of
the fee shall be a condition of certification.
(f) No person shall offer for sale, sell, or install any new or
rebuilt gasoline vapor control system, or any component of the
system, unless the system or component has been certified by the
state board and is clearly identified by a permanent identification
of the certified manufacturer or rebuilder.
(g) (1) Except as authorized by other provisions of law and except
as provided in this subdivision, no district may adopt, after July
1, 1995, stricter procedures or performance standards than those
adopted by the state board pursuant to subdivision (a), and no
district may enforce any of those stricter procedures or performance
standards.
(2) Any stricter procedures or performance standards shall not
require the retrofitting, removal, or replacement of any existing
system, which is installed and operating in compliance with
applicable requirements, within four years from the effective date of
those procedures or performance standards, except that existing
requirements for retrofitting, removal, or replacement of nozzles
with nozzles containing vapor-check valves may be enforced commencing
July 1, 1998.
(3) Any stricter procedures or performance standards shall not be
implemented until at least two systems meeting the stricter
performance standards have been certified by the state board.
(4) If the certification of a gasoline vapor control system, or a
component thereof, is revoked or modified, no district shall require
a currently installed system, or component thereof, to be removed for
a period of four years from the date of revocation or modification.
(h) No district shall require the use of test procedures for
testing the performance of a gasoline vapor control system unless
those test procedures have been adopted by the state board or have
been determined by the state board to be equivalent to those adopted
by the state board, except that test procedures used by a district
prior to January 1, 1996, may continue to be used until January 1,
1998, without state board approval.
(i) With respect to those vapor control systems subject to
certification by the state board, there shall be no criminal or civil
proceedings commenced or maintained for failure to comply with any
statute, rule, or regulation requiring a specified vapor recovery
efficiency if the vapor control equipment which has been installed to
comply with applicable vapor recovery requirements meets both of the
following requirements:
(1) Has been certified by the state board at an efficiency or
emission factor required by applicable statutes, rules, or
regulations.
(2) Is installed, operated, and maintained in accordance with the
requirements set forth in the document certification and the
instructions of the equipment manufacturer.