Drivers in Weber County will be joining others along the Wasatch Front who are required to have yearly emissions tests on vehicles, says the director of the Weber-Morgan Health District.
"There's no longer any doubt about our having to start an emissions testing program," says Mark Nichols, noting that an Ogden air monitoring station recorded three carbon monoxide violations in January and one in December.The EPA standard is 9 parts per million, says state Bureau of Air Quality Director Burnell Cordner. But Ogden's Washington Boulevard monitoring station registered 10 ppm on Dec. 8 and Jan. 12; 14 ppm on Jan. 10; and 12 ppm on Jan. 11.
EPA allows the level to be exceeded once a year. Any others are considered violations, said Nichols.
Last April, the local health district, after the county had recorded no violations of carbon-monoxide standards in 1987 and 1988, requested that EPA reclassify the county from a non-attainment area to an attainment area.
That request, supported by Ogden City and the Weber County Commission, was aimed at avoiding the forced auto emission testing now required in Davis, Salt Lake and Utah counties.
But in light of the recent high carbon-monoxide readings, Nichols said, the request is moot.
"We always said that if we had a problem, we wouldn't fight the testing," said Nichols.
Nichols said increased downtown traffic, caused by growth and construction, is probably the cause of the increased emissions.
Nichols said it would take a year or two to gear up for the testing program, but "at least we can learn from our neighbors to the south who have already begun emissions testing."