State of California
AIR RESOURCES BOARD

State Office Building
455 Golden Gate Avenue, Room 1194
San Francisco, CA

May 8, 1974
9:00 a.m.

AGENDA

Page

74-9-1 Approval of Minutes of April 10, 1974 Meeting.

74-19-2 Consideration of Mr. Robert McJones' Application 1
for Exemption of 1955-65 and 1966-70 Model-Year
Vehicles from Retrofit Device Installation
Requirements.

74-9-3 Consideration of Universal Oil Products' Appli- 56
cation for Accreditation of its Mini-Verter as a
Non-Mandatory Retrofit Device.

74-9-4 Report to Staff Enforcement and Surveillance Test 83
Results on New Vehicles.

74-9-5 Report of the Exemptions Granted From the 94
Prohibitions of Vehicle Code Section 27156.

74-9-6 Status of Control of Emissions From Motorcycles. 120

74-9-7 Feasibility of Controlling Emissions From Used 148
Heavy-Duty Vehicles.

74-9-8 Other Business -
a. Executive Session - Personnel and Litigation
b. Board Committee Reports and Assignments
c. Research Proposals

74-9-9 Remarks from Audience - End of Morning and Afternoon
Sessions.

ITEM NO.: 74-9-2

Consideration of Mr. Robert McJones' Application for Exemption of
1955-65 and 1966-70 Model-Year Vehicles from Retrofit Device
Installation Requirements.

RECOMMENDATION

Defer decision until the June 12, 1974 ARB meeting to permit a
response from the device manufacturers.

SUMMARY

Mr. Robert W. McJones, a consulting engineer, has submitted a
proposal that vehicles equipped with vacuum spark advance
disconnect and certain engine adjustments (VSAD+) be exempted
from the requirements of the two retrofit device programs. The
Board is authorized by Section 39177 of the Health and Safety
Code to exempt classes of vehicles that meet State Standards
without additional equipment. The proposal offered by Mr.
McJones for 1955-65 model vehicles in essence accomplishes the
same emission reduction as the General Motors and Air Quality
Products devices, and thus meets the emission requirements for
this category. The proposal for 1966-70 model vehicles is in
accordance with a criterion used by the staff in a July 18, 1973
staff report. In this report it was demonstrated that 42% NOx
reduction could be achieved by VSAD and engine adjustments.
Therefore the staff believes that Mr. McJones' proposal will
satisfy the technical requirements of Section 39177. However,
legal and policy questions remain, and are discussed in the
report.

ITEM NO.: 74-9-3

Consideration of Universal Oil Products' Application for
Accreditation of its Mini-Verter as a Non-Mandatory Retrofit
Device.

RECOMMENDATION

Adopt Resolution 74-31.

SUMMARY

Section 39107.3 of the health and Safety Code authorizes the Air
Resources Board to set standards substantially below present
standards, and to accredit devices that meet these standards. In
previous actions the Board has set these standards at a 20%
reduction in each of two of the three pollutants. Universal Oil
Products has submitted an application for accreditation under the
provisions of this section. Data have been submitted which
indicate initial reductions of 65-70% in both hydrocarbons and
carbon monoxide (with no increase in oxides of nitrogen) due to
the UOP device. Interpolated data and an engineering evaluation
indicate that device effectiveness for 30,000 miles of service
will be acceptable. The staff is satisfied that the application
meets the specified requirements and therefore recommends
accreditation of the Mini-Verter as a non-mandatory device.

Appendix I is a letter submitted by UOP on April 23, 1974. This
letter informs the Board that the Mini-Verter will be referred to
as Purzaust in the future. This staff report refers to the Mini-Verter, but Resolution 74-31 has been written to accredit the
Purzaust device.

ITEM NO.: 74-9-4

Summary Report of Staff Enforcement and Surveillance Test Results
on New Vehicles.

RECOMMENDATION

None. This is an informational item.

SUMMARY

ARB staff enforcement and surveillance activities have
accelerated during the period of May 1973 through April 1974. A
total of 41 vehicle assembly plants, 18 engine plants, and 2
centralized quality-audit test facilities have been inspected by
ARB staff members. The production facilities of 16 different
vehicle manufacturers have been visited. Six hundred and ninety
five new vehicles were inspected at 51 dealerships during the
period January 1974 through March 1974. A detailed report
concerning the results of the dealer inspections will be
presented at a subsequent Board meeting.

Enforcement and surveillance testing in accordance with the
provisions of Title 13, California Administrative Code, and the
official approval test procedure (CVS) was performed on 39
randomly selected 1973 model year vehicles, representing 13
engine families, and on 66 randomly selected 1974 model-year
vehicles, representing 22 engine families. The results of these
tests are summarized respectively in Tables I and II. All 35
engine families passed Title 13 testing.

ITEM NO.: 74-9-5

Summary Report of the Exemptions Granted from the prohibitions of
Vehicle Code Section 27156.

RECOMMENDATION

None. For Information Only.

SUMMARY

By authority of legislation enacted in 1966, Section 27156 was
incorporated into the Vehicle Code prohibiting the operation of
motor vehicles unless required emission control systems are in
proper operating condition. As originally adopted, Section 27156
did not allow any alterations or modifications of these control
systems.

Section 27156 was subsequently amended in 1970 to allow
alterations or modifications that have been found by the Air
Resources Board not to reduce the effectiveness of the emission
control system. Resolution 71-2 which established criteria to
evaluate alterations or modifications was adopted by the Air
Resources Board. This report summarizes the Staff activities
associated with Section 27156 exemption applications since the
adoption of Resolution 71-2.

ITEM NO.: 74-9-6

Status of Control of Emissions from Motorcycles.

RECOMMENDATION

None. This is an informational item.

SUMMARY

Section 39083.5 of the California Health and Safety code
specifically exempts motorcycles from emission control. Section
202(a) of the Federal Clean air Act, however, authorizes the EPA
to control emissions of any class of new motor vehicles,
including motorcycles.

Data from projects initiated by the EPA and the ARB to measure
the emissions from motorcycles show that the emissions are
significant. If left uncontrolled, the relative motorcycle
contribution will amount, in 1980, to 21% of the total emissions
from mobile sources.

The EPA has published proposed standards in the January 17, 1974,
Federal Register for on-road new motorcycles. They are:

Max. Allowable Exhaust Emissions (grams/mile)
Year HC CO NOx
1976-1978 8.0 28.0 2.0
1979 0.41 3.4 0.40

Responses to this proposed control were received from major
motorcycle manufacturers, and it was a general feeling that they
could not comply with the emission standards by 1976 due to the
short lead time. They also were of the opinion that the 1979
emission standards are impossible to meet and that the
technological feasibility is not available to meet the 1976-1978
standards for 2-stroke engines.

ITEM NO.: 74-9-7

Feasibility of Controlling Emissions from Used Heavy-Duty
Vehicles.

RECOMMENDATION

None. Informational item.

SUMMARY

On September 11, 1973, the State Senate adopted Resolution 69
directing the Air Resources Board (ARB) to study the
possibilities of establishing a program to substantially reduce
the hydrocarbons (HC), carbon monoxide (CO) and oxides of
nitrogen (NOx) emissions from used motor vehicles having a gross
vehicle weight of 6,001 to 20,000 pounds.

A review of test data from in-use heavy-duty gasoline-fueled
vehicles shows that if left uncontrolled, their contribution
relative to other mobile source emissions would rise from
approximately 20% in 1975 to 30% in 1980.

The staff has reviewed the City of New York evaluation program
for retrofitting in-use heavy-duty gasoline-fueled vehicles. Its
data show an approximate 40-45% NOx reduction using devices
similar to those employed in the California 1966-70 model-year
NOx retrofit program. Its catalytic converter investigations
(for HC and CO), though of low mileage accumulation, indicate a
50% reduction in HC and CO could be expected for these vehicles,
assuming the same emission degradation as experienced in ARB
catalytic studies.

Cost/effective studies, using typical emission data from the
1966-1970 model-year passenger cards and for the 1969-1972
model-year heavy-duty gasoline trucks, show that it costs less to
control the same amount of contaminant by retrofitting
gasoline-powered trucks than passenger cars. Problems such as increased
emissions of sulfates and noble metal compounds associated with
catalytic converters must be more fully evaluated before
proceeding with a retrofit program.