Bulletin E-Edition:
Like your gas tank TOPPED OFF?
A new law makes it illegal, so ‘we’ve just gotta tell them no’
By Scott Hammers / The Bulletin
Published: July 02. 2009 4:00AM PST| order photo
College Way Chevron attendant Daniel Tovar, 48, finishes filling a customer’s tank in Bend on Wednesday. He’s not a fan of the new law against topping off gas tanks that took effect Wednesday.
Pete Erickson / The Bulletin
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A new law that went into effect Wednesday bars Oregon gas station attendants from topping off your tank, part of a new Department of Environmental Quality policy intended to reduce the health risk of gasoline vapors.
The rule is targeted toward reducing benzene, a carcinogenic chemical that occurs naturally in crude oil and is sometimes used as a gasoline additive. William Knight, a spokesman for DEQ, said refineries in the Northwest will begin removing benzene from gasoline in the coming years but that the new rule will help protect the health of both gas station attendants and customers.
“As the benzene gets taken out of the fuel, that’s going to lessen the impact of that particular pollutant, but we still have organic chlorides and volatile organic compounds, the VOCs, as we call them — just some really nasty stuff that comes from gasoline fumes,” he said.
Knight said many stations have been voluntarily moving away from topping off drivers’ tanks prior to the implementation date.
“It’s something we were pretty surprised and pleased to see as well. Stations were right on this,” he said. “Particularly the ones in larger metropolitan areas like Portland, Bend and Medford. A significant portion of them just went ahead and implemented it when they figured out we were working on this rule back in the fall.”
Beyond the hazard presented by vapors from spilled gasoline, overfilling can have other negative effects.
According to the DEQ, topping off can mean drivers are paying for gasoline that never ends up in their tank. Newer nozzles are built with backflow capture devices, Knight said, drawing the gasoline back in to the station’s storage tanks even while the customer’s bill continues to climb.
Knight said overfilling can also fill the vapor capture system between the tank and the filler neck with liquid gasoline, potentially leading to unsafe levels of pressure within the tank and harming the performance of the vehicle.
Most gas station attendants have been responsible in the past, Knight said, and he doesn’t expect the DEQ to actively go out looking for stations that may not be abiding with the new law. Attendants who get a “false click” from their nozzles shouldn’t hesitate to continue filling a tank, he said.
“The great thing in Oregon is we’ve got attendants who are pretty experienced, they know when a tank is full, so it really deals with overfilling, going beyond that click,” Knight said. “If you get up to say $4.96 and you’re trying to get that extra 4 cents in there and they guy’s kicking away like crazy just to get to $5, that’s really what we’re talking about.”
Attendants working at Bend stations said they aren’t convinced the change is necessary but don’t expect it to complicate their jobs.
Rick Bjurling from the Westside Texaco on Galveston Avenue said he’s not sure the vapors emitted while topping off a tank are any more intense than at any other time.
“You smell it all the time, but (topping off) doesn’t smell any different, you don’t see vapors,” he said. “At least I don’t, and I’ve been pumping gas off and on for 15 years.”
Bjurling said he’s never made a practice of topping off tanks and rarely has a customer ask him to top off. The one exception is drivers whose vehicles use diesel fuel, which Bjurling said tends to foam in the tank. By pausing after the nozzle first clicks off, the foam dissipates, and another 2 to 3 gallons can be added.
“I guess now when they ask us, we’ve just gotta tell them no,” he said.
Brandon Miller, an attendant at Towne Pump on Third Street, called the new rule “ridiculous.” Oregon attendants pump gas all day due to the state law against drivers pumping their own gas, Miller said, and learn what to look and listen for to avoid spilling or releasing excess vapors.
Miller said he’s puzzled by the DEQ claim that customers are paying for gasoline that returns to the station’s tank during a top off. Nozzles that recover the excess fuel are rare in the state, he said, again due to the ban on self-serve gasoline.
“It doesn’t affect me, I’m just here to work. But it does affect customers,” Miller said.
Both Miller and Bjurling said most customers pay with debit or credit cards, so they don’t expect to hear many complaints about not being able to top off their tanks to the nearest dollar.
Scott Hammers can be reached at 541-383-0387 or at shammers@bendbulletin.com.
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