Glossary
R
A hold placed on a motor vehicle or motor vehicle engine to prevent registration or title being issued. Registration stops may be placed by DMV, ARB or CHP staff. Stops are placed because of illegal registration attempts, illegal sales, or placed on heavy-duty vehicles that have been retired by their previous owners. Registration stops do not expire; however, a vehicle with a stop may be dropped from the DMV computer record after 7-10 years.
Refers to the vapor pressure of the fuel expressed in the nearest hundredth of a pound per square inch (psi) with a higher number reflecting more gasoline evaporation. (See also Gasoline Volatility.)
A federal program to increase the volume of renewable fuels used in transportation fuels. Created under the Energy Policy Act of 2005, and revised by the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, the RFS program requires increasing annual volumes of renewable fuel, starting from 9 billion gallons in 2008 to 36 billion gallons by 2022. Within those total volumes, the RFS also requires certain volumes of specific fuels, such as cellulosic and advanced biofuels.
The Board's legislatively mandated committee consists of scientists, engineers and others knowledgeable, technically qualified and experienced in air pollution problems. The committee meets approximately four times a year to review proposed and completed research projects.
The quantity of health risk remaining after application of emission control.
A series of charts, numbered 0 to 5, that simulate various smoke densities by presenting different percentages of black. A Ringelmann No. 1 is equivalent to 20 percent black; a Ringelmann No. 5 is 100 percent black. They are used for measuring the opacity or equivalent obscuration of smoke arising from stacks and other sources by matching the actual effluent with the various numbers, or densities, indicated by the charts.
An evaluation of risk which estimates the relationship between exposure to a harmful substance and the likelihood that harm will result from that exposure.
An evaluation of the need for and feasibility of reducing risk. It includes consideration of magnitude of risk, available control technologies and economic feasibility.
S
Actions taken against a state or local government by the federal government for failure to plan or to implement a State Implementation Plan (SIP). Examples include withholding of highway funds and a ban on construction of new sources of potential pollution.
Changes to state law (Senate Bill 25, Escutia, 1999) established requirements for the ARB and the OEHHA to examine the impacts of air pollution on children's health. Specifically, the act required the state to evaluate all ambient air quality standards to determine whether these standards adequately protect human health, particularly that of infants and children; and, to identify toxic air contaminants that disproportionately impact children.
Mandated by AB 1807, this nine-member panel advises the ARB, OEHHA and the California Department of Pesticide Regulation on the scientific adequacy of the risk assessment portion of reports issued by those three agencies in the process of identifying substances as toxic air contaminants. For more information, visit our SRP website.
AB 32 directed ARB to prepare a scoping plan for achieving the maximum technologically feasible and cost-effective reductions in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. The scoping plan provides the outline for actions to reduce greenhouse gases in California. The approved scoping plan indicates how these emission reductions will be achieved from significant greenhouse gas sources via regulations, market mechanisms and other actions.
An air pollution control device that uses a high energy liquid spray to remove aerosol and gaseous pollutants from an air stream. The gases are removed either by absorption or chemical reaction.
Particles that are formed in the atmosphere. Secondary particles are products of the chemical reactions between gases, such as nitrates, sulfur oxides, ammonia and organic products.