Davis County plans pilot program to measure vehicle emissions

FARMINGTON — Davis County is planning a pilot program that would measure a vehicle's emissions as it drives throughout the county.

As the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency begins to implement stricter air-quality standards along the Wasatch Front, Davis County is among those trying to figure out how to meet new regulations.

For the next couple of years, Davis County plans to outfit about 100 county vehicles with matchbox-sized transmitters, which would be connected to the vehicles' onboard diagnostics, which is a chip in the vehicle's engine that constantly measures its emissions data.

Antennas strategically placed around the county would receive the transmitters' signals, and if a vehicle's emissions are out of compliance, the county could notify the driver to get the vehicle checked.

The thinking, said Davis County Health Department director Lewis Garrett, is that polluting vehicles can be stopped sooner, rather than waiting until their next mandated emissions test.

Cache, Weber, Davis, Salt Lake and Utah counties have made the EPA's non-attainment list for air pollution, and the state will need to come up with a plan for getting those five counties to reach the new designation for particulate matter 2.5 microns in size (or PM 2.5), which has been known to cause asthma flare-ups and respiratory distress in the youngest and oldest parts of the population.

The new standard for 2.5-micron particulate matter is 35 micrograms per cubic meter, a reduction from the old standard of 65 micrograms per cubic meter. When the standard is implemented next month, Utah will have three years to come up with a plan for reaching compliance.

Davis County would be the first county in Utah to pilot the vehicle-emissions technology, which has been tried out in other states, Garrett said. But the other non-attainment counties in Utah would be observing the pilot program, he said.

If the pilot program works, it's possible the program could be implemented on a voluntary basis for residents.

"This is probably the future of emissions testing," Garrett said.

In the long run, constant testing would be less expensive than an annual checkup, and it would require fewer employees, he said.

Eventually, that data, which is necessary to renew vehicle registrations, could be sent directly to the Utah Division of Motor Vehicles.

E-MAIL: jdougherty@desnews.com