New laws to reduce petrol funds announced

17/5/95

New laws to reduce the amount of nuisance petrol fumes in Perth's suburbs were announced today by Environment Minister Peter Foss.

Mr Foss said the Department of Environmental Protection had developed new regulations under the Environmental Protection Act to control the loss of vapours released when fuel storage tanks were filled.

The new regulations apply to petrol stations in the Perth metropolitan area and petrol tankers being filled at bulk fuel distribution centres.

For safety reasons, service stations store petrol underground in tanks which are open to the atmosphere via pipes from the top of the tanks.

When underground tanks are filled from the road tankers, the vapours in the tank are displaced by the incoming liquid and discharged into the air.

The regulations require petrol station operators to install connecting pipes to feed displaced vapours back to the delivery tanker.

"The regulation was developed to enhance the quality of life of people who live close to petrol stations and are often subject to nuisance odours from petrol fumes," Mr Foss said.

"This problem is especially bad when the underground storage tanks are being filled by petrol tankers because of the large volumes of vapours being displaced in a short period of time.

"In the long term, the regulations will also reduce fuel vapours which are contributing significantly to Perth's already growing photochemical smog problem."

Mr Foss said petrol station owners would have to start keeping records of all fuel received from July 1, 1995.

"All new petrol stations will have to immediately provide connecting pipes and hoses to make sure vapours are collected back in the delivery tanker and not released to the atmosphere. Existing stations will have until July 1, 1999 to comply," he said.

"Bulk fuel distribution terminals will need to install a vapour collection system and vapour disposal or recovery system within five years."

Mr Foss said the main objective of the regulation was to improve air quality for people living and working in the metropolitan area.

"Similar regulations have already been introduced in New South Wales, Victoria and many European countries," he said.

Mr Foss said the next stage would involve developing a national code of practice for controlling the release of vapours to the atmosphere from bulk fuel terminals as well as petrol stations.

Media contact:  Stacey Molloy 222 9595 or 321 2222