California Air Resources Board

Tosco Corporation RVP Violation Case Settled for $25,000

During a routine inspection at Tosco's Richmond terminal on May 2, 2000, the Air Resources Board found that the premium gasoline being sold from one of their tanks exceeded the summertime RVP standard of 7.0 pounds per square inch (psi). This violation of the RVP regulation was caused by stratification in a tank manifolded together with two others. Terminal policy required that all three tanks receive and dispense product simultaneously to insure proper mixing, but operators had been receiving and dispensing through the two outer tanks only, allowing the gasoline in the middle tank to stratify with high-end gasoline riding at the top. The middle tank had been damaged during the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. When the tank was repaired, the roof-sampling hatch was blocked, quality control samples were thereafter taken from an unslotted sampling tube or from a valve used to draw off water from the tank. These samples were therefore not representative of the product in the tank, so operators were not aware of the stratification that had occurred. In addition to paying a monetary penalty of $25,000, Tosco also implemented improved quality control procedures and reopened the roof-sampling hatch.

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