Get Answers: Why are emissions tests only required in Albuquerque?

Posted at: 11/20/2009 6:42 PM
By: Valerie Castro, Eyewitness News 4; Charlie Pabst, KOB.com

Emissions tests are only required for cars in one county in the state, which has a few viewers questioning its fairness.

One viewer writes:

Why is it ONLY Bernalillo residents who have to pay for 'vehicle emission testing' when Sandoval, Valencia and Santa Fe Counties send tens-of-thousands of cars into Bernalillo County every day?

An emissions test costs around $20, and every resident of Bernalillo County is required to pay up before registering most vehicles.

We set out to find out why cities like Rio Rancho with large populations aren't required to take the tests, even when a lot of their residents frequently drive in to Albuquerque.

The Albuquerque/Bernalillo County Air Quality Control Board says when federal air quality standards were put into place back in the 1980s, the city and county didn't make the grade.

That prompted a vehicle emission law, requiring the emissions tests. It's a move that's seemed to work.

"Yes we are well below those standards for carbon monoxide within Albuquerque and Bernalillo County," Israel Tavarez with the Albuquerque Environmental Health Department said.

Part of the law applies to drivers who live outside Bernalillo County. It states that drivers who come to Bernalillo County more than 60 days in a year must also have an emissions test.

Officials say that has been tough to enforce.

Tavarez said, "Short of putting a GPS tracker on each individual that's coming in, or tracking them through some electronic means, it's difficult to address that part of the rule." The board says tracking those cars coming into the county isn't a big worry, largely because cars and fuel are cleaner today than when the law first went into effect, and the air quality in the Albuquerque area now meets federal standards.

Meeting those standards doesn't mean the test requirements will go away for Bernalillo County and Albuquerque anytime soon. The law isn't set to end until 2016, when the federal government will re-evaluate it.

The state environment department regulates all other counties in the state, and says places like Sandoval County have never violated federal air quality standards.

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