ARCADIA - Dozens of gas stations around California are choosing to shut down rather than comply with a state mandate that would require owners to purchase new equipment to reduce vapor emissions at the pump.
The requirement, known as Phase II in the state's Enhanced Vapor Recovery Program, is set to go into effect in April. It requires gas station owners to individually purchase tens of thousands of dollars of equipment designed to prevent harmful vapors from escaping into the air when gasoline is pumped.
But smaller retailers say that the requirement puts an unfair burden on businesses that don't sell enough gasoline to offset the extra cost - and that don't contribute much to the problem in the first place.
Among them is George Fasching, who after 31 years of selling gasoline at Fasching's Car Wash in Arcadia, stopped in December.
"I came to the decision that I was too small a volume operator to continue on with the expenses imposed by the bureaucracy of the state," Fasching said.
April's requirements would have cost him $35,000, he said. Fasching used to sell the gasoline as a convenience for his car wash customers, and blames the new regulations for forcing him to stop.
"It will have some effect on my business, but at least I have the relief that I don't have to deal with these people anymore," he said.
As of the end of December 2008, the South Coast Air Quality Management District had heard back from 3,109 of its 4,500 sites about EVR Phase II.
Seventy-six - or 2.4 percent - indicated they will be shutting down on April 1, 2009 rather than upgrade their sites, said Dimitri Stanich, public information officer for the California Air Resources Board.
Some 1,400 of the SCAQMD's sites have not yet responded. About 12,000 dispensing facilities will be affected statewide.
Many of those shutting down their pumps are in fact city facilities and businesses with their own dispensers, such as fire stations and construction companies.
"What you're going to find is that some of these are not retail gasoline facilities, but a business that has had their own private gas pump for some time," SCAQMD spokesman Sam Atwood said. "They're deciding for their own business reasons at this time that they're not going to renew their permit."
April's regulations promise to cut what are known as reactive organic gas emissions by 7 tons per day statewide, but opponents point to the fact that California produces 2,322 tons of such gases per day.
CARB officials believe the requirement is a manageable and necessary cost to curb air pollution and smog and to protect public health.
"We do calculate the cost of compliance with the regulation as related to emissions," Stanich said. "These costs could be recovered by raising gasoline prices by an average 0.68 cents per gallon."
Cost-effectiveness for the whole EVR program was estimated at $5.24 per pound of emissions, he said.
Anything under $10 per pound is generally considered cost-efficient.
Lower-volume sellers would have to raise prices more to offset costs, he added.
Vapor emissions contain hydrocarbons that combine with other molecules in the air to form ground-level ozone, which is known to cause numerous adverse health effects, including reducing lung function in children.
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