Thursday, September 02, 1999

Emissions tests start after 5-year delay

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BY CINDY SCHROEDER
The Cincinnati Enquirer

        After a five-year delay, Northern Kentucky started federally-mandated auto emissions testing Wednesday, with more media and air-quality officials on hand than actual customers.

        “We would welcome more volume, but we're not surprised,” said Chuck Murray, program manager for Envirotest Systems Corp., the company doing the test. “I think awareness will increase over time.”

TEST FACTS

• When required: Boone, Kenton and Campbell County drivers have 90 days to complete testing — the month registration is due (usually the driver's birth month) and the two months prior.   Even-numbered model years will be tested in even-numbered years and odd-numbered model years will be tested in odd-numbered years.   • Cost: $20.   • Vehicles that fail: More than 80 percent of cars are expected to pass. A second test is free, after repairs have been made. A vehicle that continues to fail the test after multiple repairs and tests may be eligible for a waiver.   • Test stations: Florence: 5760 Constitution Drive, off Burlington Pike.   Wilder: 1426 Gloria Terrell Drive, off Ky. 9.   Covington: 2029 Rolling Hills Drive, off Ky. 17.   Drivers can bring their vehicles to any of the stations, open from 8 a.m.-7 p.m. Mondays and Wednesdays; 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays; and 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturdays.   For information, call Envirotest at (877) 291-8787.

        To fill the lulls between customers Wednesday, some of the 25 inspectors at Northern Kentucky's three emissions check stations inspected test cars.

        By the end of the first day, 38 vehicles were tested at the three sites, a process that took each car about 15 to 20 minutes.

        “People will be surprised by how fast and painless this test is,” Mr. Murray said.

        However, Campbell County Clerk Jack Snodgrass predicted the new test will be “a customer relations nightmare.”

        “Our biggest problem is that, no matter how much information the emissions people are trying to get out to people, there are going to be literally hundreds who did not see that information, and they are going to come into the county clerk's office and be extremely upset when we turn them away, and tell them they have to get their vehicles inspected before they can get them registered,” Mr. Snodgrass said.

        Besides notices sent to individual motorists, Lillie Cox of the Kentucky Division for Air Quality said the state will try to inform the public about the new test through an ad vertising blitz, starting in mid-September.

        “Our main overriding theme is that it all adds up to cleaner air,” Ms. Cox said.

        The emissions tests are required to help the area meet federal Clean Air Act standards for ozone, a primary ingredient of smog, which can aggravate health problems such as asthma, chronic heart and lung diseases, and allergies. Counties that don't comply with the federal Clean Air Act risk losing millions of dollars in federal transporta tion money.

        The $20 emissions test, which will be required every two years, has been standard in Ohio's Hamilton, Warren, Butler and Clermont counties for three years.

        At the Covington emissions check station, two employees of the contractor who built the testing stations were among the first customers to have their vehicles tested Wednesday.

        Others, such as Gerald Case, were repeat customers.

        For the 67-year-old Silver Grove man, the test yielded mixed results on his two vehicles. While his 1997 Chrysler passed, his 1983 Cadillac failed because of high hydrocarbons.

        “I think with a new car, (the test) is useless,” said Mr. Case, who visited the Wilder testing center. “Models that are '95 or newer ought to be exempt.”

        Other critics of a Northern Kentucky testing program have agreed, saying studies on tailpipe testing in other states have shown cars that are 1993 and newer have caused minimal pollution to the environment.

        For five years, Northern Kentucky and state officials have waged an unsuccessful battle to stop the tests, or at least delay them until next summer, when a national study is to be released on whether the tests actually result in cleaner air.

        While critics have said Ohio E-check tests — the focus of a two-year court battle — were done improperly, testing officials in Northern Kentucky said Wednesday that they have learned from other areas' mistakes.

        Parker Moore, manager of the Division of Air Quality's special programs branch, said Northern Kentucky testing stations have “state of the art technology,” as well as Envirotest veterans from other states to oversee everything from computer programs to management of emissions check stations.

        “Nothing's fail-safe, but we can't think of anything else at this point that we can do to prevent problems,” Mr. Moore said.

       

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