Utah County appears poised to challenge federal clean-air mandates it finds unreasonable and costly.
"We find ourselves in a situation where we're damned if we do and damned if we don't," said County Commissioner Gary Herbert.The Environmental Protection Agency says the county's current programs to reduce carbon monoxide pollution aren't working. EPA has required Utah to submit a "state implementation plan" by July showing how it will comply with the Clean Air Act. Provo/
Orem is a non-attainment area for carbon monoxide.
The state Division of Air Quality formed a draft plan that calls for an "enhanced" automobile emissions inspection and maintenance (I/M) program; continued use of oxygenated gasoline in winter and further restrictions on wood-burning stoves. Whatever I/M program is approved in Utah County will be imposed in Salt Lake, Davis and Weber counties as well.
But commissioners, residents and several air pollution researchers question the need for the plan and whether it will reduce carbon monoxide in Utah Valley.
The county commission proposed its own nine-point plan Thursday night at a public hearing for the Utah Air Quality Board. The board has the final decision on what plan to send EPA.
"How this factors into the state implementation plan, we don't know," said Russell Roberts, state air quality division director. EPA officials in Washington, D.C., rejected it Wednesday in a meeting with Gov. Mike Leavitt, Utah County commissioners and air quality officials.
Marius Gedgaudas, a regional EPA administrator in Denver, encouraged the state to submit its proposed plan because it has the best chance of meeting clean-air guidelines. Should Utah turn in an unacceptable plan, the EPA will withhold highway and sewer treatment funds from the state and impose its own pollution-control program.
The county brought in three scientists to back up their plan and refute EPA research.
"If you in Utah want to draw a line in the sand with EPA, I think you can. I think you'll win," said Douglas R. Lawson, of the Desert Research Institute in Reno, Nev.
Lawson said centralized testing of vehicle emissions using a high-tech analyzer as touted in EPA's "enhanced" program isn't any better than tests at local auto repair shops conducted on the Wasatch Front using current technology. The best program, he said, identifies, diagnoses and repairs grossly polluting cars.
County officials want to use a sort of air-pollution PhotoCop to do just that. The roadside device gauges tailpipe emissions as cars pass through an infrared beam. A camera photographs vehicles' license plates so they can be targeted for repairs.
"It's only the repairs that permanently reduce pollution," said Donald Stedman, who developed the remote sensing system at the University of Denver. Stedman said the county would be wasting money on oxygenated fuels and enhanced inspection and maintenance programs. Oxyfuel causes cars to trick emissions tests, he said.
The county's plan would eliminate oxygenated gasoline and tighten the current emissions monitoring program to ensure proper and accurate tests. The EPA believes cheating on tests is rampant.
John A. Cooper, vice president and principal consulting scientist for TRC Environmental Corp., of Portland, Ore., said his company's investigations have found that oxygenated gasoline isn't effective in controlling carbon monoxide emissions in Utah County. Furthermore, he said it causes an increase in PM10, a more harmful pollutant. Geneva Steel brought Cooper in for the meeting.
"That is the real health hazard, not carbon monoxide," said Cal Bartholomew, a Brigham Young University chemical engineer.
Utah's five-member congressional delegation appealed for flexibility to allow the state to compose its own program in an April 29 letter to EPA administrator Carol Browner. After his meeting Wednesday, Leavitt said the EPA appears unbending.
Residents at Thursday's hearing described the EPA as "tyrannous."
One resident said CO SIP - the acronym for state implementation plan for carbon monoxide - stands for "control over small insignificant people."
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Additional Information
Utah County's plan to reduce pollution
Utah County's proposed nine-point plan to reduce carbon monoxide pollution: - Eliminate the use of oxygenated gasoline.
- Tighten enforcement and surveillance of the current automobile emissions inspection and maintenance program.
- Conduct a roadside remote sensing device program for automobile emissions. - Build a high-tech emissions test center to validate remote sensing data and serve as a training center for technicians.
- Create a program to upgrade local mechanics skills.
- Have EPA evaluate the program annually.
- Create a vehicle repair fund to assist in fixing high-polluting cars.
- Tighten wood-burning stove restrictions.
- Implement traffic-control measures, such as one-way streets and traffic signal removal, in downtown Provo.
The county intends to fund the programs by increasing the current $14 cost for an emissions test.