Steve's Crest on Center Street has done carbon monoxide emissions testing on automobiles since the government required it seven or eight years ago.
"I probably do more emissions testing than anybody in the county," said owner Steve Levingston. "It's been a good business for me."But now the government wants to take it away.
The Utah County Clean Air Commission is thinking about moving away from basic inspection and monitoring to an enhanced program by 1996. Emissions tests would be conducted at a centralized station probably operated by a single company that contracts with Utah County.
The program separates the sites for emissions testing and repairs. Local automobile shops would be allowed only to fix cars that fail the test at a central location.
"The EPA is pushing centralized because they feel the integrity of the test is not what it should be. That's just unfounded. The results show that this program works in Utah County," Levingston said. "We work hard to try to do a decent job and correct emissions tests. I wouldn't even try to slide my own under the table."
Like many car shop owners, Levingston spent thousands of dollars for testing equipment he might no longer be able to use. He has five employees. "I don't know what's going to happen to them if they change the program," he said.
The price of the annual test would balloon from the current $14 to as much as $25 under the proposed plan. And testing at one location could mean long lines for motorists.
Whether the program works or not, it doesn't earn Provo enough credit to buy its way out of non-attainment status for carbon monoxide with the Environmental Protection Agency. The federal standard is 9 parts per million; Provo is currently at 14.1 parts per million.
Combined with the continued sale of oxygenated fuel and further restrictions on wood-burning stoves, an enhanced emission inspection program would bring Provo into compliance, officials said. Outside of those three measures, the county has little choice.
"It will give us the number we are required to have," said Dianne R. Nielson, director of the Department of Environmental Quality. It would also keep the air cleaner.
Nielson intends to ask the 1994 Utah Legislature to change the law to permit counties to implement the enhanced inspection program. She also suggested that Salt Lake, Davis and Weber counties join Utah County in starting the program at the same time.
The measures will likely be included in the State Implementation Plan for carbon monoxide, which Utah must complete by July 15 or face EPA sanctions. A draft of the plan might be ready in February, and public hearings are scheduled for April.
Utah County commissioners say it will be hard to sell the program to residents and to automobile repair-shop owners. "Why don't we just improve the cars we're selling instead of all this baloney?" said Commissioner Malcolm Beck.
Nielson said it would be just as difficult to tell the public the state has lost $160 million in federal highway funds and $130 million in water-treatment funds because it failed to submit a carbon monoxide reduction plan.
Another aspect of the plan residents might have trouble with is further restrictions on the use of wood-burning stoves. State environmental engineers say controlling wood burning would reduce carbon monoxide levels as it does fine particulates, or PM10.
No-burn days, in Provo and Orem only, would increase from 20 or 30 a year to 40 or 50, said Robert Dalley, of the Division of Air Quality monitoring center.