California Air Resources Board

SACRAMENTO – Officials of the California Air Resources Board (ARB) and Amoco Oil Company will unveil the latest generation gas pump nozzle designed to capture smog-forming vapors in service stations -- and the first to be approved without the bulky, accordion-like seals that some motorists contend make the nozzles more difficult to use.

The nozzle will be demonstrated during a press conference held at the Air Resources Board's testing site, the Beacon gas station at the intersection of El Camino and Walnut Aves., in Sacramento's North Area, at 10:00 a.m., Thursday, June 20.

Officials from the Air Resources Board, the state's anti-smog agency, and Amoco Oil Company, Chicago, which designed the nozzle, will be available to compare the new nozzle to older models and to explain its operation.

It is the first vapor recovery nozzle to look like the gas pump nozzle of old -- that were widely used before 1977, when the smog-forming vapor collection program began. The new nozzle is expected to be installed in at least 6,000 service stations in metropolitan areas to replace worn out vapor recovery systems or as new stations are constructed. In addition, the nozzle could be installed on more than 1,000 service stations in rural areas, which are just now requiring the use of vapor recovery systems.

The nozzle controls as much pollution during fill-ups as current models, but uses a powerful vacuum system to draw smog-forming vapors into a collection tank, eliminating the need for the accordion-like bellows.

Eliminating that bellows seal also reduces emissions that are vented to the air when it is torn or otherwise defective. In Southern California, that feature alone will reduce smog-forming hydrocarbon by 2.5 tons per day.