Auto Emissions Tests More Stringent
May 5, 2008 - DENVER - Beginning today, cars and
light-duty trucks in the seven-county Denver-metropolitan
area will have a harder time passing enhanced emissions
tests at Air Care Colorado testing facilities, operated by
Envirotest, according to the Colorado Department of Public
Health and Environment.
The pass/fail standards for vehicles due for their biennial
inspections have been revised as part of efforts to curb
ground-level ozone pollution along Colorado’s Front Range.
The changes were proposed by the department’s Air Pollution
Control Division earlier this year and approved by the
Colorado Air Quality Control Commission in March.
“These changes are in response to Gov. Ritter’s directive
last summer to the Regional Air Quality Council that
measures be implemented to further reduce ozone
concentrations in the 2008 summer ozone season,” said Paul
Tourangeau, director of the Air Pollution Control Division.
“Vehicles that fail their emissions test at one of the
stations truly are broken and need to be fixed. The
subsequent repairs not only help air quality, but usually
result in savings to the motorist through improved fuel
economy.”
The acceptable levels of carbon monoxide, hydrocarbon and
nitrogen oxide emissions from vehicles are reviewed
periodically and revised as needed. The new standards,
although more stringent, are designed to be achievable for
all vehicles that are in reasonable condition. Other
elements of the emissions inspection, including visual
inspections and equipment requirements, remain unchanged.
Additionally, the roadside emissions testing that uses
remote sensing technology to identify both exceptionally
clean and high-polluting vehicles remains unchanged.
The Air Pollution Control Division anticipates that the
overall emissions failure rate for 1982-and-newer vehicles
tested at centralized testing facilities will rise from
approximately 3 percent of vehicles tested to about 7
percent. This equates to approximately 31,000 additional
vehicles failed per year. The accompanying table provides
the specific standards by pollutant, vehicle type and model
year.
Currently, the seven-county Denver-metropolitan area, along
with portions of Larimer and Weld Counties in the North
Front Range, are out of compliance with the National Ambient
Air Quality Standard for ground-level ozone. In March, the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced a new,
stricter ozone standard that will take effect on May 15.
For more information on the auto emissions program, Internet
users can visit
http://www.aircarecolorado.com.
For more information on air quality, real-time air quality
data and efforts to curb air pollution in the metropolitan
area and throughout Colorado, go to
http://coloradoairquality.info.
For more information about ground-level ozone, go to
http://www.ozoneaware.org.
See the attached table for the new emission limits.
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New Emission Limits (PDF 34KB) |
