Enforcement Advisory: #185: Gasoline Vapor Recovery - ARB Vent Piping for Vapor Recovery Systems

This page last reviewed March 3, 2009

Health and Safety Code section 41954 (f) states that," 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."

All California Air Resources Board (CARB) certified vapor recovery systems have been evaluated and approved with vapor return and vent piping both constructed of rigid material. There are five test stations in Sacramento where flexible vapor recovery piping is being evaluated by CARB, in one case a blockage problem has been identified and is being evaluated.

It has been brought to our attention that flexible underground vapor recovery piping has been installed at various gasoline facilities. As stated above flexible piping is not currently certified by CARB and should not be installed at any gasoline station for the return of vapor from the dispenser to the storage tank. If it is determined that a station has already installed vapor recovery flexible piping, backpressure testing should be conducted and results reported to your local air district. In the case that the system does fail the backpressure test the blockage must be eliminated.

For more information, please visit our Enforcement Program Contacts web page.