Heat is on for high-polluting cars
By Todd Hartman, Rocky Mountain News
Published January 10, 2008 at 11:55 a.m.
Updated January 10, 2008 at 5:20 p.m.
Photo by Ken Papaleo © The Rocky
A car goes through a RapidScreen testing area at the Westbound on ramp to I-76. Colorado's air-pollution police Thursday sent out of the first batch of notices to motorists with high-polluting vehicles, marking a major shift in how regulators cut emissions.
Hey you, belching all that garbage from your tailpipe — watch out!
Colorado's air-pollution police Thursday sent out of the first batch of notices to motorists with high-polluting vehicles, marking a major shift in how regulators cut emissions.
The notices are part of a new, get-tough approach in the metro area designed to seek out and fix the dirtiest cars, which regulators believe are small in number but responsible for a large share of emissions.
The hard-line tactic began with the new year. In the program's opening days, regulators flagged 26 cars, caught when they drove past a roadside remote sensing device that uses a laser to measure emissions.
Brace for more. Regulators said they expect to catch 25 to 35 high-emitters per week in the program's initial stages.
Owners will be notified by mail and told how to schedule a follow-up inspection. Should the car fail that one, drivers will need to make repairs quickly, or face a $100 fine and suspension of the vehicle's registration. Drivers who ignore the notice face the same penalty.
"This is no longer a voluntary process, as it was before," said Rick Kiger, operations director for the Colorado Department of Revenue.
The hunt for dirty cars doesn't replace standard emission testing. Cars older than four years must still have their emissions checked every other year, at a centralized station or by a drive-by roadside sensor — the same ones catching the dirty cars.
The stricter approach is a shift from recent years, where drivers were notified of a high-emitting car and given the option to bring the vehicle in for free or subsidized repairs.
"We're moving in the right direction here; we need to clean up our cars," said Jeremy Nichols of Rocky Mountain Clean Air Action, an activist group.
Regulators have talked for years of pursuing the dirtiest cars, but technical and political challenges have slowed the effort.
"How long has it been? But now we're doing it," said Don Stedman, a Denver University chemistry professor who pioneered remote sensing techniques used in the drive-by testing.
Stedman believes the program could make a difference, citing recent data showing one percent of cars account for 30 percent of vehicle emissions.
But, he cautions, strong enforcement is needed. Regulators have to go hard after scofflaws and head-off various schemes drivers use to avoid dealing with dirty cars, such as registering a car outside the metro area or putting "collector" license plates on a non-collector car.
"Laws have everything to do with enforcement and very little to do with how the law was written," he said.
Stedman said it's likely that as many as 50 percent of the cars flagged as high-emitters will pass the standard four-minute treadmill follow-up test and be excused from repairs.
But that's not because the remote-sensing test was wrong. Instead, loose connections in a car's oxygen sensors, or in other areas, will often mean a car passes its test one day, but can fail it the next, he said.
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January 10, 2008
12:11 p.m.
Suggest removal
TheVentilator writes:
If you have ever driven behind one of these Junk-piles you will know this is a good thing.
January 10, 2008
12:21 p.m.
Suggest removal
Ted75zcar writes:
You have to be kidding me RickyLee
I suspect YOU are expecting a letter in the mail
January 10, 2008
12:27 p.m.
Suggest removal
Ted75zcar writes:
I don't think that ACC has anything to do with the police.
And you are right, they are not exempt
January 10, 2008
12:55 p.m.
Suggest removal
SL10 writes:
Quote from theQ:
"The police need to look at their own bus that transports inmates.. i was behind one today with my windows closed and it had the nastiest smell you could imagine."
That smell could have been from the inmates themselves.. LOL!!!
January 10, 2008
1:27 p.m.
Suggest removal
reddog writes:
I got an idea, get rid of all the diesel smog pumping pickups. They stink,are noisy and are always followed by a black cloud, if you can afford them you can afford to burn cleaner running fuels. Maybe you won't think your as cool but better for everyone.
January 10, 2008
3:06 p.m.
Suggest removal
Retread writes:
Yea reddoggy, we need more crap cars that get 2 mpg and won't run over a hundred thousand miles without a overhaul. It is clear you have NO idea what your talking about. EVERYONE burning diesel is now running Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel. Myself I like the smell of burning diesel better than the rotten egg smell you get from gassers. Whatsamatter somebody smoke you?
January 10, 2008
3:08 p.m.
Suggest removal
Retread writes:
The emission laws in Colorado do not have anything to do with raising air quality. They have everything to do with selling NEW cars. Check em out.
January 10, 2008
3:54 p.m.
Suggest removal
bthye writes:
I'm glad to hear they're trying to do something to get the worst polluters fixed. The brown haze over Denver gets thicker every year.
And the emissions laws are all about selling new cars? I doubt it. My Subaru that's nearing 200k miles has passed the test every time. If they want to sell new cars, they'd better tighten their standards more!
January 10, 2008
4 p.m.
Suggest removal
Diff writes:
I happen to have an old car,(1954, it's not a beater and I do not drive it daily ... ) exempt from the emmisions program some newer old cars have to pass limited standard every 5 years. BUT the "DO GOODER SQUAD" is after old cars as well trying take them fully off the road,
collectors old car lovers: - BEWARE and watch the legislature, or we may soon have to keep our beloved collector cars undercover and never get to drive them.
While they go on destrying older cars that could be restored or used for parts -
I sure wish the government would get off our backs!