EPA to take comments on tailpipe tests

A hearing will consider Florida's plan to end the auto tests on the East Coast.

By CRAIG PITTMAN

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 19, 2000

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is scheduled to hold a rare public hearing Thursday on whether it should approve Florida's plans to end auto emissions testing on the state's East Coast.

So far the federal agency has not scheduled a similar hearing for Pinellas and Hillsborough counties, where the state also ended the tests. EPA officials said this week that they are still waiting for the state to send them a formal request to change the air pollution plan there.

Emissions testing began nine years ago as a way for the state to deal with air pollution problems in six Florida counties that flunked federal ozone standards in the 1980s: Pinellas, Hillsborough, Duval, Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade.

As of last year the air had sufficiently cleared in Duval, Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties that state officials got tentative permission from the EPA to end the $10-a-year tests there. When the EPA sought public comment on ending the tests, however, the agency received more than 1,000 letters on the subject, most of them opposed to the move. A request from opponents of ending the testing prompted the EPA to schedule a public hearing on the state's application.

In the meantime, though, the state Legislature voted to end testing not only in the four counties with better air but also in the Tampa Bay area, where ozone continues to be a problem. Gov. Jeb Bush signed the measure, which became law July 1.

Although the program was credited with removing more than 60,000 tons of pollutants from the Tampa Bay area's air last year, Bush called it "an unnecessary burden to motorists."

The hearing is slated to begin at 6 p.m. at the South Florida Water Management District office's auditorium, 3301 Gun Club Road West in West Palm Beach. The district phone number is 561-686-8800.

Anyone who wants to give testimony at the hearing should contact Joey Levasseur at the EPA Region 4, Air Planning Branch, 61 Forsyth St., SW, Atlanta, Ga., 30303, no later than noon today. He may also be reached via e-mail at levasseur.joey@epa.gov or by telephone at (404) 562-9035.

The EPA will accept written comments until Aug. 4. They may be sent to Levasseur at the Atlanta office.

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