Gasoline-powered Auto Emissions Testing
Coming to an End in North Front Range, Colorado Springs
Denver - Motorists in parts of El Paso, Larimer and Weld
counties no longer will need to have their vehicles' emissions tested with
the retirement of the Automobile Inspection and Readjustment (A.I.R.)
Program in those areas at the end of the year.
A decision by the Colorado Air Quality Control
Commission in 2005 will result in the end of the auto emissions
inspection for gasoline-powered vehicles in the basic program areas of
greater Colorado Springs, Fort Collins and Greeley. However, the
emissions inspection for gasoline-powered vehicles in the
Denver-metropolitan enhanced program area remains and the diesel opacity
inspection program for diesel-powered vehicles will continue in all
program areas.
"The emissions testing program has done what it set out
to do in these areas and it is time for it to end," said Dennis E.
Ellis, executive director of the Colorado Department of Public Health
and Environment. "The program is no longer needed to maintain air
quality in these parts of the state."
Gasoline-powered vehicles have been tested either annual
or biennially (depending upon age) since 1982 in the basic program
areas. At that time, the North Front Range communities and much of El
Paso County were considered "nonattainment" for carbon monoxide
pollution by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Since then, pollution controls, improving automotive
technologies, cleaner fuels and greater awareness of air quality issues
all have contributed to a continual downward trend in air pollutants
from vehicles.
Monitors in Colorado Springs, Fort Collins and Greeley
have been recording carbon monoxide levels far under the federal
health-based standards for several years. Colorado Springs monitors last
recorded a carbon monoxide level above federal health-based standards in
1989. In the North Front Range, the last high reading was in 1991 in
Fort Collins.
As a result, Colorado Springs was redesignated as "in
attainment" for carbon monoxide in 1999. The North Front Range followed
suit in 2002.
The program really has done what it set out to do," said
Paul Tourangeau, director of the Colorado Department of Public Health
and Environment's Air Pollution Control Division. "In addition to
helping these areas comply with the health-based standard for carbon
monoxide, the program focused attention on proper and regular vehicle
maintenance. Motorists have seen that vehicle maintenance is an
important step toward passing the emissions test. Following the
manufacturers' recommended maintenance schedule greatly increases the
odds of having a successful inspection."
Tourangeau continued, "Even though the emissions testing
program is ending, we are going to continue to deliver that vehicle
maintenance message. It saves motorists money and protects air quality."
The A.I.R. program in the basic testing areas is
decentralized, with hundreds of service providers licensed to perform
the test. The basic testing areas utilize what is commonly referred to
as a two-speed idle test, which collects information while a vehicle is
at idle from a probe placed in the exhaust pipe. Vehicles manufactured
after 1981 are tested every other year, while older vehicles are tested
annually.
In the seven-county Denver-metropolitan area, an
"enhanced" test is administered to 1982-and-newer vehicles at one of 14
testing facilities operated by Envirotest Systems through a contract
with the state of Colorado. The enhanced test utilizes a treadmill-like
device called a dynamometer that subjects a vehicle to various loads
during a four-minute test cycle that simulates actual driving
conditions.
Most vehicles must be tested every other year. Most
older vehicles in the Denver-metropolitan area are tested annually using
the two-speed idle test at either an Envirotest-run station or at one of
several other testing facilities licensed by the state.
In recent years, Colorado has introduced a remote
testing element to the inspection in which emissions readings are
gathered from vehicles as they pass roadside monitoring equipment. That
component also will be retired in the basic program areas, but will
continue in the Denver-metropolitan area.
An emission inspection still is required for vehicles in
the basic program area with a December 2006 renewal date if the
registration renewal is submitted in December. Otherwise, an emissions
inspection is no longer needed.
For more information regarding auto emissions
inspections, contact one of the state-run Emissions Technical Centers at
either 970-221-5324 (North Front Range) or 719-633-2333 (Colorado
Springs).
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State of Colorado,
Department
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