State overlay · 17 CCR 95380 to 95398
California on top of the 15-pound rule
Sections read · 2026-09-11The federal rule is the floor everywhere. California runs its own programme, the Refrigerant Management Program, and it reaches lower, sooner or harder in the places below. Stationary non-residential refrigeration systems holding more than 50 pounds of a refrigerant with a GWP of 150 or more. Every line names the section it was read from and the date; nothing here is advice, and nothing here says whether any system is in compliance.
What the state adds, beside the federal floor
15 pounds or more of an HFC or a substitute with a GWP above 53; residential and light commercial air conditioning excluded.
More than 50 pounds of a refrigerant with a GWP of 150 or more, stationary and non-residential; air-conditioning appliances are outside the definition (17 CCR 95382).
Calculated on every addition; 20 percent commercial refrigeration, 30 industrial process, 10 comfort cooling and other, annualized.
No leak-rate threshold: every detected leak is repaired on the 14-day clock (17 CCR 95386).
30 days from the addition that exceeded the rate (120 with an industrial process shutdown), then two verification tests.
14 days from detection; 45 or 120 in the named cases; two verification tests; a plan within 60 days if the leak continues (17 CCR 95386).
After an exceedance: yearly under 500 pounds, quarterly at 500 pounds and above in refrigeration, until the rate is back under the limit.
On a schedule regardless of any exceedance: monthly at 2,000 pounds and above, quarterly at 200 to 1,999, annually at 50 to 199 (17 CCR 95385).
Only the chronic-leak report: 125 percent of full charge in a calendar year, to the EPA by March 1.
Registration for every covered facility and an annual report by March 1 at 200 pounds and above, with implementation fees (17 CCR 95383, 95384, 95388).
Three years, paper or electronic; the appliance record until three years after retirement.
Five years, at the facility, available on request (17 CCR 95389).
The California entries, in the rule's words
The purpose of the subarticle is to reduce emissions of high global warming potential refrigerants from stationary, non-residential refrigeration equipment and from the installation and servicing of stationary refrigeration and air-conditioning appliances using high-GWP refrigerants.
The programme reaches stationary, non-residential refrigeration systems that require more than 50 pounds of any combination of high-GWP refrigerant, high-GWP meaning a global warming potential of 150 or more. Air-conditioning appliances are outside the definition of refrigeration system, and residential dwellings of four or fewer units are excluded.
The owner or operator registers each covered facility with the Executive Officer. Systems of 2,000 pounds or more operating before 2012 by March 1, 2012; 200 to 1,999 pounds before 2014 by March 1, 2014; more than 50 and under 200 pounds before 2016 by March 1, 2016; a new system by March 1 of the calendar year after it begins operating; a new owner by March 1 of the year after the change.
A facility with a system of 200 pounds or more pays an implementation fee: $370 for a system of 2,000 pounds or more, $170 for 200 to 1,999 pounds, due with registration and then by March 1 of each calendar year.
Systems of 2,000 pounds or more are inspected monthly with a leak detection device, a bubble test or observation of oil residue, unless an automatic leak detection system covers them; 200 to 1,999 pounds once every three months; 50 to 199 pounds annually.
An automatic leak detection system must accurately detect 10 parts per million and alert the operator at 100 parts per million, or alert the operator at a loss of 50 pounds or 10 percent of the full charge, whichever is less.
A refrigerant leak must be repaired by a certified technician within 14 days of its detection. Forty-five days where a certified technician or the parts are unavailable with documentation, or an industrial process shutdown is required; 120 days for industrial process refrigeration at a facility under mandatory emissions reporting when the repair requires a shutdown.
An initial verification test on completion of the repair, and a follow-up verification test on the complete system at normal operating conditions. If the tests show the leak continues, the repair is attempted again within 45 days or a retrofit or retirement plan is prepared within 60 days; after a 45-day repair, a plan within 60 days; after a 120-day repair, a plan within 135 days.
The owner or operator of a leaking system that is not repaired in time prepares a retrofit or retirement plan and keeps it at the site with the system's information.
A facility with a system of 200 pounds or more reports each year by March 1 for the previous calendar year: the system information, the service and leak repair information (dates detected and repaired, cause, verification tests, refrigerant charged, the technician), and refrigerant purchased, charged, recovered, stored and shipped for reclamation or destruction. A facility with only 50 to 199 pound systems reports within 60 days of a request.
Registration information, leak detection records, service and repair records with the documentation for any longer repair period, retrofit or retirement plans, reports, exemption records, refrigerant purchase invoices, reclamation and destruction shipment records, and the full-charge calculation are kept at least five years at the facility and made available on request.
Source read: www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/california/17-CCR-95380. The sources page lists every entry with its read date.
The free door
The federal arithmetic runs underneath every state programme. Leak rate calculator for the annualizing method on your numbers, and the four criteria for whether the federal rule reaches an appliance at all.
The other overlays
Three states run programmes of their own today. A state that starts one is added when its text is read.
Wuzler records and computes; it certifies nothing, and a state programme's registration, fees and reports are filed with the state, never here.