Tuesday, June 1, 2004 | 11:08 a.m.
As gasoline prices continue to set records, more Las Vegas Valley motorists are complaining that they don't think they are getting their money's worth at the pumps -- and there's as much as a one in 20 chance that they are right, a gasoline pump inspector for the state said Wednesday.
Edward Miller, an inspector for the state Division of Weights and Measures, says about 10 percent of the about 4,300 gasoline pumps that he has inspected in Las Vegas in the last year were either not accurately recording the amounts of gas they were dispensing or had other problems, including leaky nozzles or cracked hoses.
On Wednesday, for example, Miller discovered a miscalibrated pump at a Terrible Herbst gas station on Sahara Avenue at Jones Boulevard.
"For every 10 gallons that consumers were pumping at this particular pump, they were spending a quarter more of their hard earned money than they should have," Miller said.
That may not seem like much for one individual but it adds up to a large overall overcharge when it hits motorist after motorist after motorist.
In some cases, Miller said, he has seen overcharges as high as twice the amount that customers should have been paying.
Halting that kind of overcharging of consumers is one of the aims of the Division of Weights and Measures. Miller is one of the division's seven field inspectors based in Southern Nevada who are responsible for making sure that gallon counters on gasoline pumps are accurate. They're also charged with making sure the other parts of the pump are in proper working condition.
The division also employs two chemists in Southern Nevada who test gasoline to ensure it meets state standards and has the octane level advertised.
Miller and his fellow Weights and Measures field inspectors make unannounced visits once a year to all of their assigned gas stations, and there are more than 15,600 gasoline pumps in Southern Nevada, Kevin Coyne, Miller's supervisor, said.
On every pump, the state places a seal that breaks if anyone tampers with the calibration devices on the pumps.
"If the seals are broken, for some kind of repair work, for example, the gas stations are required to notify us within 24 hours," Coyne said. That kind of notification prompts a return visit by an inspector.
Statewide, there are more than 22,629 pumps, Steve Grabski, administrator of the Nevada Division of Weights and Measures. He said that in fiscal year 2003, which ended June 30, the seven field inspectors in the southern half of the state and their six colleagues in the north reported that about 5 percent of the pumps throughout the state were improperly calibrated.
That's not always bad news for consumers, though, because in many cases, the pump was providing more than the amount shown on its gallon display, Grabski said.
To ensure that consumers are receiving the amount of gas that they pay for, inspectors pump gas into one of three mini-tankers on the back of a truck that Coyne calls "the gas buggy."
The tanks, which precisely measure gas in cubic inches, allow inspectors to compare the amount of gas that should have been pumped, according to the gallon counter on the pump, with the amount that actually ends up in the tank.
If the amount pumped into the inspector's tank is off by 6 to 14 cubic inches, compared with what is shown on the pump's gallon display, a blue tag is placed on the pump and the station is ordered to repair the pump, Coyne said. A "blue-tagged" pump can continue to be used until it is repaired, he said.
But if the gallon counter is off by more than 14 cubic inches, the pump is usually "red-tagged," meaning it must be immediately shut off and can't be used again until the repairs are verified by a state inspector, he said.
J.W. Martin, a valley pastor, was glad to see Miller out making his rounds Wednesday.
"I feel safer knowing that someone's measuring," Martin said. "I think a lot of them (gas stations) are ripping us off, because a lot of the times, you can feel the (hose on the) pump and there's nothing going through it."
But Coyne and Grabski said their division's tests have shown that most gas pumps in Nevada are in good shape, and the accuracy of the gallon counts have improved in the past few years, Coyne and Grabski said.
The reported national average for problems found at pumps is 8.5 percent. As recently as three or four years ago the violation rate in Nevada was 13 percent, Grabski said.
"And we had a high of about 17 percent in the mid-1990s," Coyne said.
Coyne explained that one of the main reasons that the current percentage is so low is that upgrades have been forced upon gas station owners by environmental regulations. On top of that, many gas station pumps in Southern Nevada are using the latest technology.
"You just don't see hardly any of the old mechanical pumps any more," Grabski agreed.
Grabski also credited the state's "vigorous enforcement program."
Don Henderson, director of the state Department of Agriculture that oversees the weights and measurement division, said the enforcement program has been built up over the last 10 years.
"Initially, it was a hit-and-miss program," he said, and now it "is one of our shining stars," to protect the consumer.
Though the violation rate has fallen, consumer complaints in Las Vegas have risen slightly, along with gas prices, Coyne said.
The Las Vegas office received about 150 complaints last year, officials said. "I'd say on average these days we're probably getting an average of about one complaint every other day, though on Monday I did get three," he said.
He and inspectors can't do anything about the price of gasoline, but they can follow-up on complaints about gas quality or the equipment.
"We are getting fewer complaints about the actual price of gas," Coyne said. "Maybe consumers are getting used to the idea that gas is costing more; it's also more of a national thing this time."
The complaint that is becoming more common is about what is known as "pump creep," which is when a couple of cents rack up on the pump even though no gasoline is being dispensed at that time, Coyne said. Often, it involves number movement prior to the pumping.
Motorists also often complain that something must be wrong with a pump because they were able to pump more gasoline into their cars than the capacity of their gas tanks.
But there are lots of reasons other than a problem with the pump to explain such a phenomenon, Grabski and Coyne said.
"For one thing, a lot of these newer vehicles are made with tanks that can expand. Also, the motorist may be actually filling the tank beyond the capacity measurement line, or the vehicle may be on an incline when it's being filled," Coyne said.
Although gasoline inspections may be the most popular duty of the Division of Weights and Measures field inspectors, it is not their only responsibility. They also are charged with making sure electronic scanners in supermarkets are working properly, that truck scales are accurate and that store-prepared packages of meat truly contain the weight that is advertised on the package.
"With the increased accuracy we're seeing at gasoline pumps, thanks to better technology as well as newer and better maintained equipment, we hope to be able to spend more time checking those supermarket scanners and packages of hamburger," Coyne said.
But it's difficult for the division to check as many items as it would like to because the number of gas stations, supermarkets, truck scales and everything else is growing so rapidly in Southern Nevada, officials said.
"When I started in 1979 there were only three of us doing this" in Southern Nevada, Coyne said. "But we've grown to seven field inspectors plus me and the two chemists. In the last five years, we've gotten two additional people, but as we all know the state budget has been pretty tight recently."
The division is financed through fees on the gasoline stations and from the state general fund.
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