State of California
AIR RESOURCES BOARD
217 W. 1st Street
Old State Bldg.
Los Angeles, CA
July 15, 1970
9:30 a.m.
AGENDA
1. Opening Remarks . . . . . .A.J. Haagen-Smit, Ph.D., Chairman
2. Minutes of Meeting of May 15, 1970.
3. Report of Technical Advisory Committee.
4. Report on Proposed Assembly-line Test Procedures.
5. Local Air Pollution Problems (Section 39054 - Health and
Safety Code).
6. Approval of Control Systems.
7. Other Items.
8. Committee Reports.
9. Remarks from the Audience.
a. Coalition for Clean Air.
b. Others.
ITEM
Assembly-Line Motor Vehicle Emission Testing.
STATUS REPORT
Assembly-line or pre-delivery testing of new motor vehicles is
required by legislation of the past three years. In response to
the first legislation, the Board adopted, in March 1969, a
procedure based on a quality audit test of a small percentage of
production according to the official cold start test procedure.
The first data submitted under this requirement will be for the
calendar quarter just completed. Before the quality audit
procedure was fully developed, new legislation was enacted which
imposed a $50 fine for selling any vehicle that failed to pass an
assembly-line test. Governor Reagan in his environmental message
this year also called for the testing of each vehicle. Just
recently, another requirement was added by the passage of AB 76
which requires posting of the results of an emissions test on
each vehicle sold. The latter two requirements cannot be
accommodated by a quality audit test only.
Several meetings have been held with technical representatives of
the automobile industry and other organizations to explore the
possibilities for a simple, inexpensive assembly-line test. Test
cycles which have been considered include an idle only test, a
constant-speed EXIT test developed by General Motors, the key-mode
test advocated by Clayton Manufacturing Company, and a "hot
start' version of the official 7-mode test. The problem was
complicated also by the announced Federal intention to adopt a
new continuous test cycle which does not contain repetitive units
as the current cycle.
Of the alternatives considered, the staff recommends the hot 7-mode
test as the most appropriate at this time for testing every
vehicle for the purpose of imposing fines and posting test
results on individual vehicles. It is also recommended that a
quality audit test of a small fraction of production vehicles be
continued to provide correlation data for the hot start test and
to provide a comparison between approval test vehicles and
production vehicles.
Other issues which the board must resolve include the adoption of
standards appropriate to the assembly-line test. The present
approval standards are not directly translatable to results
obtained by assembly-line testing because of the difference in
test procedures and the fact that the approval tests are made
after 4000 miles of use with deposit stabilization. Decision is
also required as to whether to require all testing to be done
within the State or whether inspectors should be sent to other
states and countries to observe tests performed at time of
assembly. In the latter case, the compensation of inspectors
must be considered; a fee might be required of manufacturers to
compensate State inspectors.
ITEM
Staff Report on Implementation of Section 39054 Health and Safety
Code.
INTRODUCTION
During recent months, the Air Resources Board has received a
number of complaints from citizens, individually and in groups,
concerning air pollution caused by emissions from stationary
sources. Many of those complaints concern installations in
counties without air pollution control districts. As the primary
responsibility in controlling such sources of pollution has been
delegated by the Legislature to local control agencies, these
complaints are initially referred to the appropriate local
authorities for action.
ITEM
Rating Gasolines for Smog Potential.
The Board has received the accompanying letter from the Los
Angeles County Board of Supervisors requesting the Air Resources
Board to test and rank gasolines sold in Los Angeles on the basis
of their effect on emissions.
The implementation of such programs by testing exhaust emissions
could involve sizable staff and laboratory commitments. The
staff has considered the possibility of undertaking fleet tests
of the various fuels and directly measuring the effects on
emissions. The variability of both vehicles and the emissions
tests, however, makes it very difficult and expensive to discern
small differences. Such test would also fail to give credit for
factors such as the reactivity of exhaust hydrocarbons, the
effect of volatility on evaporative losses, and the direct effect
of lead as an air pollutant.
As an alternative, the staff suggests that it work with Los
Angeles County to develop a rating system based on measurable
characteristics of the gasoline. Such a scheme could include
factors such as olefin and aromatic content, volatility, Reid
vapor pressure, detergent characteristics, and lead content.
If the Board concurs, the staff proposes to work with Los Angeles
County and the Technical Advisory Committee towards the
development of such a fuel rating plan.
AB 2256 (copy attached) is now being considered by the
legislature. This bill gives the ARB authority to regulate
gasoline composition factors pertinent to air pollution,
initially on the basis of information supplied by fuel
manufacturers. The aims of this bill seems to be similar to
those of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.
Senate Resolution 146, adopted on June 5, 1970, deals in part
with this subject. A copy of this resolution is also attached.