Smog Check Overhaul Weighed : Environment: Proposed legislation would disband network of 9,100 independent stations and create a centralized program with separate test and repair facilities.

After nearly nine years in operation, the much-maligned Smog Check program faced its most extensive make-over Monday, a revamping that critics say could force many of the state’s small test-and-repair stations out of business and put greater financial strain on the poor.

State Sen. Robert Presley (D-Riverside) introduced legislation Monday that would throw out much of the current network of 9,100 independent Smog Check stations, creating instead a largely centralized program with separate test and repair facilities in the state’s most populated and polluted urban areas.

Presley’s plan also would severely limit the ability of those who drive older, more polluting cars--often the state’s poorest residents--to waive costly repairs that would bring their vehicles in line with strict air-quality standards.

The overhaul, which has been in the works for more than a year, is designed to force California to meet tougher federal smog standards and help the state avoid sanctions, such as stricter pollution control measures for new factories--which many fear would impede economic development. It is unclear whether the new program will be tough enough to meet federal requirements.

“Although having a lot of attention and being analyzed and revised twice to improve it, the current program is not providing the emission reductions it is capable of,” said R.J. Sommerville, chairman of the committee that evaluated Smog Check and made the recommendations for change.

Sommerville contends that technicians improperly test vehicles and make their money by giving polluting autos a clean bill of health rather than repairing them.

“Most people, if they were working for a company and not doing their jobs, they’d get fired,” Sommerville said. “Smog Check is not a job-guarantee program.”

But Dennis DeCota, executive director of the California Service Station and Automotive Repair Assn., said that the controversial bill, which must be passed this year to comply with federal law, would “devastate” the auto-repair industry. “People have taken seconds on their homes, invested heavily in their equipment. It’s all down the tubes,” DeCota said.

The catalogue of concerns over the current program includes imprecise diagnostic equipment, low cost limits on repairs, the allowing of “pass or don’t pay” advertising and the ease with which drivers can tamper with their autos before a smog test so they pass--and then readjust them to emit too much pollution afterward.

In addition, the review committee concluded that there is only a 58% likelihood of a mechanic in the current program finding a single defect in a tested automobile. If there is more than one defect, the likelihood of all of them being diagnosed is only 24%.

“This is a very inefficient process,” Sommerville said. “Yeah, we’re getting benefits, but we’re running (cars) through a system that’s less than 60% efficient.”

The long-awaited remake is driven largely by 1990 amendments to the federal Clean Air Act which, for the first time, establishes federal pollution regulations stronger than California’s. But even the proposed legislation does not match the Clean Air Act mandates; state regulators are hoping for flexibility that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is loath to allow.

“The (inspection and maintenance) program is the Achilles’ heel of California’s smog program,” said Richard D. Wilson, director of the EPA’s mobile sources office.

Although consumers could see lower fees for testing, they probably would be required to make more extensive--and possibly more costly--repairs to their vehicles. The current repair cap, based on the age and model of the vehicle, would be increased, although not as much as the federal government wants.

Currently, cars requiring repairs costlier than the level set by the cap can get a waiver and forgo the fixes indefinitely. Under the new plan, such cars would receive only one waiver. After two years, drivers would have to either make the expensive repairs or junk the cars--or drive them unregistered.

Still, the major changes to the program would probably be felt more by those in the auto-repair industry than by drivers.

“As far as the motoring public is concerned, I think it’s a minor jolt,” Presley said Monday. “As far as the industry involved in the testing and repair, it’s a major jolt.”

The new program calls for a three-part system with different levels of emissions scrutiny based on an area’s population and pollution levels.

An “enhanced” program would be implemented in Bakersfield, Fresno, Los Angeles, Long Beach, Orange County, the Oxnard-Ventura area, the Riverside-San Bernardino area, Sacramento and San Diego. Owners of cars and light trucks in those regions would get their vehicles inspected every other year at a network of centralized test-only stations.

Cars that failed would have to get repairs and be retested. The autos could be fixed at any licensed garage and then taken back to the test center for certification. Or the cars could be taken to a “Gold Shield” garage for repair and a second test.

The enhanced program also would require more expensive equipment for testing vehicles, including, among other things, a dynamometer to test the car. The current equipment, a so-called Bar 90 machine, costs less than $20,000. With a dynamometer, the price rises another $25,000 or $30,000. The machine preferred by the EPA costs between $130,000 and $150,000.

Rural and desert areas--Imperial, Inyo, Mono, Humboldt and Siskiyou counties--would keep their current decentralized program, which calls for checking cars only upon resale. The equipment would not change.

A basic program similar to the system currently in use would cover the remainder of the state.

“I don’t think Smog Check has ever worked as well as it was intended,” said Mary Nichols, director of the Los Angeles office of the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental organization. “Some of the design decisions made it inevitable. Early on, they could see they were not getting the intended effect.”

Smog Control Reform

The package introduced Monday in the state Senate calls for an enhanced system of centralized test-only stations in the state’s most polluted areas: Bakersfield, Fresno, Los Angeles, Long Beach, Orange County, Oxnard-Ventura, Riverside-San Bernardino, Sacramento and San Diego. Some highlights:

Outside the cities: Rural and desert areas would keep the existing program, in which cars are checked only on resale. A basic program would mirror the decentralized system in use and cover the remainder of the state.

Increased cost: More expensive equipment would be required to test vehicles under the new program.

Failing the test: Vehicles that fail could go to a regular licensed mechanic and then back to the test-only facility. Or they could go to a Gold Shield garage for repair and the second testing.

Maximum repair costs: Repair caps for polluting vehicles would be raised to a range of $75 to $375 from the current range of $50 to $300. Vehicles that cannot be fixed at a cost within the cap can now get waivers indefinitely. Under the new system, a waiver would be given only once; after that, the owner would have to repair or junk the car.

Testing intervals: New cars would not require a smog check for three years. Now, they must be inspected beginning two years after purchase. But owners of new vehicles would still have to pay inspection fees--even when their cars were not tested.

Random checks: For the first time, a random, on-road audit of the state’s vehicles--most likely through the controversial “remote sensing” process--has been added for one or more regions. The purpose is to detect gross polluters and vehicles that have been tampered with. With remote sensing, an infrared beam is directed across a thoroughfare to test levels of certain pollutants. At the same time, license plates are photographed. Vehicles targeted by remote sensing could be ordered to be tested and repaired--even if two years have not passed since their last inspection.