(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.

(Amended by Stats. 2000, Ch. 729, Sec. 14. Effective January 1, 2001.)