State Fuel Facility Compliance Seminar and Notice Pump Breakaways:
Last week NJGCA attended a compliance seminar on fuel facility compliance. The event was hosted by NJDEP, Weights & Measures, and the state fire code officials.
The event was incredibly informative, and very well attended. There were industry contractors, compliance professionals, LSRPs, station owners, distributors, and others in attendance. This is a yearly event. If you were unable to attend this year, we strongly suggest that station operators attend next year to hear directly from state authorities on a range of issues.
We took a lot of notes during the various presentations. As much as we'd like to, we cannot concisely convey it all in a single message. That said, we did want to touch on one "new" issue that station owners need to be aware of.
We have recently heard from a few members who received violations for "old" pump breakaways. These products are made by companies like OPW, Fill-Rite, Franklin, Catlow, Husky, Emco, and others.
Fire officials are interpreting the state's Fire Code to implicate the "date of manufacture" when issuing citations. That is to say, if the "date of manufacture" appears on the breakaway, and that date is five years old or older, the Fire Code official may write the station operator a fine for "violating" the code. This is obviously troubling, especially since common sense would indicate that even if the breakaway was produced years ago, that part may have been placed in inventory storage for years before being unboxed and attached to a pump hose. It is not a perishable item. What's more, unless a station is pushing very high volume, breakaways can last for a very long time if properly maintained.
We brought our concerns to the state Fire Code official at the seminar. Logically they agreed with our concerns but said they would adhere to the code as written and gives deference to the manufacturers' written specs. We're currently attempting to find a "work around" for this obstacle, but one obvious solution (that the state's representative begrudgingly agreed with), was to purchase breakaways that do not have a date of manufacture stamped on the product. That might seem silly and nonsensical; but as the Fire Code looks to the manufacturers' specs, if no date is stamped on the specs or product, there is no violation that can be issued.
We will continue to work on this matter. If you have been cited or have any questions on the above, please feel free to contact Nick at nick@njgca.org.