The Environmental Protection Agency is proposing a waiver for required redundant systems used at gas station pumps to capture potentially harmful gasoline vapors when refueling vehicles and duplicated now with onboard systems, the EPA said in a July 11 news release.

The proposal, under the Clean Air Act, is part of the Obama Administration’s initiative to review outdated and redundant rules and ensure that regulations are beneficial “without being unnecessarily burdensome to American businesses,” the release said.

EPA proposes that by June 30, 2012, more than 70% of vehicles on the road will onboard systems to capture the vapors. This waiver could save individual fueling stations more than $3,000 per year.

Since 1994, gas stations in certain areas have been required to use the systems which capture fumes that escape from gasoline tanks during refueling. However, automobile manufacturers began installing onboard refueling vapor recovery technologies in 1998, making gas stations’ systems redundant, the EPA said. Since 2006, all new automobiles and light trucks are equipped with ORVR.

Fumes from refueling, if allowed to escape, can contribute to ground-level ozone, or smog, as well as other types of harmful air pollution.

“Ground-level ozone can cause acute respiratory problems, aggravated asthma, temporary decreases in lung capacity in healthy adults, and inflammation of lung tissue,” the EPA said.