The fuel supply in New York is generally very high quality and may come from all over the US and from foreign refiners. The bulk of the fuel enters the State on ships or via pipelines and is stored in distribution terminals in the major cities. Fuels are shipped from these terminals by tanker trucks to smaller distribution terminals or directly to the retail stations. Imports via tanker trucks from Canada and other neighboring states make up the remainder of our supply. Compliance at the terminals is usually very high as the petroleum industry takes great pains to see that the supply meets the ASTM standards.
Municipal inspectors sample gasoline and diesel fuels at the retail stations on a random basis.
In addition to taking the samples, municipal inspectors look for other problems like water contamination. Municipalities are reimbursed by the State for their work under this program. The terminal and retail samples are shipped to a contract laboratory where they are tested for conformance with the standards. We find only a small fraction of samples that fail to comply with the standards each year. Gasoline is a mixture of hydrocarbons and other chemicals that is formulated for use in spark ignition engines.